Touring * Beginner * Scene *

From Interstate 405 (the San Diego Freeway) in West Los Angeles, exit onto Interstate 10 (the Santa Monica Freeway) and head west. Follow the signs to the Highway 1 junction and turn right, heading toward Malibu and Oxnard. Turn left into the first beach parking lot just north of the pier (you can expect to pay $6, but the skating here is well worth it). Skate north on the sidewalk that runs along the sand at the west edge of the lot.

Map: Los Angeles County Bike Map, available for free by calling

(213) 244-6539.


Skate Great USA School of Skating (www.skategreat.com) 888-866-6121 or 310-821-5489; email: debbie@skategreat.com

Debbie Merrill, "instructor to the stars," gave us permission to use the above photo exemplifying the allure of skating in Southern California. She invites you to come take a lesson through her Skate Great USA School of Skating. And yes, that's Debbie!

Meet your friends at the Santa Monica Pier and spend the day exploring the Strand bikeway, participating in a Blade School clinic, testing your stair jumping abilities, or watching the hockey skaters. Santa Monica is a major element in Southern California's in-line culture and offers the chance to have a memorable skating experience that must not be missed.

If you get an early start, you can beat the crowds and have this northernmost section of the Strand almost to yourself. The slopes of Topanga State Park and the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains dominate the scenery to the north, making the view much more attractive than some seen from the beaches farther south. Painted every few hundred feet on the trail's concrete are the words "Bikes Only." This does not mean that you cannot skate on the path, only that pedestrians aren't welcome; don't worry, they have all of that sand to walk on! In any case, nobody is enforcing the rule, nor is there any speed limit on this section of the Strand.

In the first mile, the trail's sandy route passes near a row of older seaside homes sporting spiral staircases. Hotels and the requisite volleyball courts dot the inland side of the 10-foot-wide concrete path. Beyond that is the Pacific Coast Highway and its backdrop of sandy bluffs.

At the two-mile point, the path climbs a low hill and continues northward just below a shrub-covered bank close to the highway's edge. Through Will Rogers State Beach the concrete gives way to an asphalt path that has a separate lane for pedestrians. If the parking lots are empty enough, the pavement there is better than the trail farther north. Just beyond a little patch of grass and some rest rooms, the illustrious Strand dead-ends quite suddenly at a culvert after nearly 20 miles, humbly terminating as a beat-up six-foot-wide asphalt trail.

For some crowded trails and the hottest in-line scene on the Strand, continue south from the Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach (see the next listing).