My hotel while I was staying in Venice Beach was just off the north end of the famous Venice Beach Boardwalk.
Officially it’s called Ocean Front Walk but to the world it is Venice Beach Boardwalk. Unlike other boardwalks that I have experienced on the east coast, this one is a concrete walkway that runs north from Marina del Ray to Santa Monica. (There’s also a parallel beach bike path running alongside it.)
The Venice Beach Boardwalk is the second largest tourist attraction in Southern California, attracting around ten million visitors a year. (Disneyland is the biggest- just in case you were wondering.)
There are several key attractions that make the boardwalk so famous. Windward Avenue with its iconic Venice sign strung across the street is the main centre of activity. Just to north of it is the open-air gym, Muscle Beach (although the original Muscle Beach is actually in Santa Monica.) Slightly further north and jutting out into the beach there’s Venice Beach Skatepark. All along its two-mile length there are street vendors, entertainers, fortune tellers, musicians plus bars/restaurants and the best people watching opportunities in the world!
Every walk along the boardwalk was different!
I tended to meander along it late afternoon or early evening, ensuring that I was at the skatepark in time for sunset. (Yes, I was chasing that elusive shot of a skateboarder in mid-air at sunset.)
The first evening I wandered along, still pretty jet lagged, there were two female street entertainers on stilts dressed as giraffes dancing. They were mesmerising to watch!
Along near the Sidewalk Café there was a musician sitting on the wall playing an acoustic guitar then later in the day (they may have done it throughout the day but I only saw them in the evenings) he would swap his spot with another musician who played the piano. The piano sat there wrapped in a tarp when not in use.
The vendors who stretched the length of the boardwalk were selling everything and anything from hand painted skateboard decks, signs, paintings, jewellery, crystals, dreamcatchers, beaded hummingbird ornaments, clothes…you name it, it was most likely for sale.
Jack Sparrow, sometimes accompanied by Bootstrap Bill (at least I think that’s who the guy was meant to be) was usually to be found beside a boom box playing the Pirates of the Caribbean music looking to earn a few bucks by posing for photos with tourists. I resisted temptation although he did comment one night in my direction “Yes! I made her smile!” Well, what girl could resist the charms of Captain Jack Sparrow! LOL
There were fortune tellers aplenty offering tarot or psychic readings.
I also saw one of the legends of Venice Beach Boardwalk- Diablo (real name apparently Amir Edward) suntanned and oiled in his leather speedos with horns glued to his forehead. I’m sure he’s a lovely guy but I opted to give him a wide berth. I was also a bit scared to sneak a photo of him. He was so intense looking!
There was also another local that I saw a few times who was entirely yellow/orange – hair, skin, clothes, shoes, the lot. Colourful but why?….
Along nearer Muscle Beach, the boardwalk was busier and a bit edgier feeling. Numerous “wannabe” reggae stars hung about there, offering their CDs to passersby. Usually a polite “No, thanks” was enough to ensure safe passage past them but on once occasion “No thanks,” wasn’t cutting it and it cost me $30 for two CDs which the two guys signed, before I was able to continue on my way. That rattled my confidence somewhat. After that encounter, I tended not to stray so far south, making the skatepark by unofficial boundary line.
From one end of the boardwalk to the other, you’ll always hear music whether its street performers or boomboxes on bikes, there’s no shortage of music in the air.
Perhaps it was because I was a woman on her own, but I felt that I needed to keep my wits about me at all times. There’s an edge to all that artistic eccentricity.
My favourite way to end each day was to hang out at the skatepark as the sun began to sink lower in the sky. There was always a crowd gathered round the fence watching the action.
The public skatepark first opened in 2009 and features steps, rails and two bowls, one of which looks like an empty swimming pool. It attracts skateboarders of all ages and abilities.
After a few nights spectating, I began to recognise the regulars- the shirtless blonde guy with the red baseball cap, the couple who skated round following each other at high speed, the young blonde girl who flowed round the bowl like water. As I watched I got a sense of the skatepark’s dynamics. There were a handful of younger teenagers who clearly idolised the older skateboarders. When one accidentally got in one guy’s way wrecking his run, it was almost heartwarming to see the older boy playfully chasing the youngster round trying to crack his twisted-up t-shirt off his butt like a whip. Everyone knew their place and respected the pecking order through some unwritten code.
Then there was the tall willowy girl in roller boots. Almost everyone stopped to watch her. So graceful. So fluid and boy, could she jump!
Each night as the sun sank below the horizon, I turned to head back to my hotel thinking “Maybe tomorrow night I’ll capture that elusive jump shot.”
Coral McCallum 