09 May, 2009
Beaches Packed in SoCal Today
Posted by: Beach Reporter In: beaches| california| travel
A drive along Pacific Coast Highway 1 in Southern California provides insight into the status of summer. Though not officially listed on any calendar as arriving just yet, trust your eyes to tell you it is has arrived!
From San Diego beaches…Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, and Pacific Beach, on up the coast in North C0unty, the parking lots were full. If you made it through the 40 mile coastal stretch of THE OC, you could say the same. Summer has arrived.
With a heat snap recently, beaches seem the obvious place to cool down, mellow out and relax. In Orange County, beaches from San Clemente to Newport were quite busy. Huntington still had parking along the state beaches but the parking lots were the fullest it’s been seen Labor Day weekend 2008! Folks were prepping their bonfires for the sundowner ritual.
Hitting LA beaches, Redondo, San Pedro, Santa Monica and Malibu all were incredibly active with free parking scarce and paid parking nearly full.
If it’s only early May and we’re already seeing this many crowds, Californiabeaches.com’s predictions will hold. We are betting on one of the busiest beach attendance summers in history.
Why? People are broke or don’t have the resources to travel as much this year. Some of the best beach attendance comes from zip codes that have been hit particularly hard by the economic meltdown. Those zips and folks will drive the beach traffic this summer as this free-to-affordable activity only costs $10-20 of gas for your car. You can pack the softdrinks, park in free spots, and have a getaway for next to nothing.
As we enter the summer season, it’s time to review the ocean rules with your family and remember to steer clear of deep waters, check for rip currents, and stay in groups where a lifeguard can see you.
Today as the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers held a fundraiser beach walk, they drove home one point that they’d like everyone to consider. Don’t drink and drive. We’ll add to that…don’t drink and swim in the ocean. There’s just too much power to those waves for the novice swimmer to handle.
