Venice, California is known by many for its eccentrics during the day. The bubbling homeless people who you aren’t sure are insane or high out of their mind. Or the freaks and sidewalk attractions that seem to be ever-changing but always shocking. With piercings and tattoos that you didn’t even know were possible or performing with a huge snake that they treat as a loving pet. It is always quite the show.
When talking to people about Venice at night, however, it is a whole different story. Complete shock and disbelief overwhelm their faces as they rave about the violent gangs that inhabit the area and how you will get robbed, shot or stabbed if you go there at night. Venice did get some coverage recently after a video clip came out showing two homeless people getting beaten up by two “thuggish” looking people at night. Common sense would tell you that Venice is a dangerous place at night that shouldn’t be messed with.
I was skating at the local skatepark when my friend told me they were planning to go to Venice tonight. I was shocked and excited. I had never heard of anyone doing that. It sounded like a very cool and interesting experience. I excitedly said yes! There wasn’t anything ever going on in my town, so I was starving for an adventure. The added bonus of visiting at night made it even more interesting.
Venice’s nightlife is so stigmatized by crime and the unknown, but my experience of it turned out to be very different. Crime ended up being a very small part of it, almost unnoticeable. I’ve found that whenever something gets such a “forbidden” or “taboo” label, that usually means it is nothing like they say; rather it is actually a full of fun and excitement.
We left Lancaster, California around 10pm, and about the quarter of the way there, we stopped in Acton. We made the stop to get some grub and a pack of cigarettes at a McDonalds /gas station. While ordering our meal, we befriended two locals who were at the McDonalds (there wasn’t anyone else there other than us and them). They seemed destined for a night of boredom with not much to do— most people with things to do aren’t in McDonalds at midnight.
As we were talking, we told them what we were doing, and they thought it was great. They asked if they could come along, offering gas money and great conversations. We were willing to talk to them, but sadly the car was already packed with five people.
Living in the AV, on the outer limit of LA county, we were pretty far from Venice, but with little to no traffic it only took around 2 hours in total, and we got there at midnight.
Relieved that the car ride was over and anxious to stretch our legs, we parked in an alley off one of the last busy streets and starting heading out to the beach. It was a bit surreal to walk there at night. As we walked farther and farther from the busy street, the calmness and quietness of the night was fully realized. While navigating the streets to make it to the beach, we found there wasn’t anybody on the streets. We barely saw any lights on; it almost seemed like a ghost town. The only thing that told us that people lived there was a holler from the occasional rooftop kickback. Those yells felt like yells of encouragement — and evidence we were on the right track. Seeing the art inhabiting the many back alleys and walls of Venice was really cool.
As we hit the boardwalk, it truly hit home where we were, and yet the area had such a strange feeling of being deserted. The iconic images of Venice Beach that you expect to see when you visit for first time were missing. The strand and the shops that line it that add to the relentless energy and weirdness of Venice were all closed. There weren’t hordes of people walking up and down the strand. The only sign of other people were the groups that riddled the shoreline and parking lots.
After the weirdness of the situation rubbed off, a sense of excitement and almost childlike glee took over. A sense of freedom and peace of mind came over me. I become much more relaxed as we strolled down the strand, looking for a patch of shoreline past some tennis courts – or some other building– that blocked the beach. Finally, the journey was over, and we found our destination. All that was left was to relax and have fun.
As we made our way towards the beach, we passed a group in the parking lot. They were loud and probably drunk. At first I got scared, thinking, “Are they yelling at us?” “What do they want?”. It didn’t help that they were standing by a streetlight but still silhouetted in darkness, creating a scene right out of a scary movie! It was nothing though, just a unsure mind thinking the worst.
Luckily, there was an open spot on the shore that we could claim. On both sides of us, there were numerous groups doing the same as us. We sat down and settled into our little spot on the beach.
My friend passed me a bottle of rum that had already passed between two of our group. I took out a cig and passed the pack along. The stiffness that taken over my body from the long car ride and the cold started to go away. My body started to loosen and warm up. To the left of me, a far distance away, was the Santa Monica Pier which looked really cool at night. To the right of us, also a far distance away, was some kind of parking lot or skatepark. I don’t know; I wasn’t paying too much attention to it.
But on both sides of us were groups of fellow midnight beach partiers. The one to left of us was about 30 meters away, but the ones to our right were only 10 or 20 meters away. After relaxing and enjoying the peaceful crash of the waves, the cold air of the night and the soft moonlight, our soon-to-be-friends from the left came over to say hi. Well at least one guy did. He waved hello, and we returned the gesture. We offered him some of our rum as a welcoming gift and he gladly partook.
It turned out that today was his first day of freedom after being in prison for drug charges. He decided the best way to celebrate his first night of freedom was to go Venice Beach at night and skinny dip! He had very politely put his clothes on before making his way over to us, but we could see the black silhouettes of his friends putting their clothes on in the background.
He was full of energy and excitement and very eager to talk to us as much as he could. Maybe he was high on cocaine, or maybe he was just excited to talk to free human beings after being locked up. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Whatever the reason, it was very enjoyable to talk to him. It turns out he was a pro skater for a minor skateboard brand. He showed me a video of him on his website (the name escapes me, sadly). Hearing that he got out of prison made it much more believable that he was a pro skater (haha!). Being skaters ourselves we really hit it off at this point, and the chatting went for a long time.
In the middle of the conversation, his girlfriend, now dressed, came over to try to get him to leave and go home. She seemed tired and ready to leave— and not too interested in us. He put up a heartfelt protest but ended up caving in. But he made sure we exchanged numbers before he left (I lost that phone and thus his number, unfortunately).
After the excitement and commotion had died down, I again fell into the groove of the night. My friends started talking about stripping down to our underwear and going swimming in the ocean. I was very apprehensive, as I imagined how cold the water to be. I was already feeling pretty chilly, and running into what I imagined was ice-cold water didn’t sound like good idea!
After some persuasion from my friends, I was ready. I took a second swig of the bottle, stripped to my boxers and jetted off towards the water in a mad attempt to try to push through the expected initial freezing cold. I was right; it was freezing! But, as I made my way out further, the coldness started to go away, and warmness replaced it. A combination of my body getting used it, the exercise of swimming and the effects of the rum made me feel really warm…in fact, so warm that any thought of the water being freezing was completely forgotten.
The water caressing my skin felt amazing! I took some time to float on my back and look up at the midnight sky. Unlike the desert, it wasn’t full of stars, but it still made for a beautiful sight.
Then, much bigger waves replaced the small and insignificant ones. The thought of body surfing became an exciting prospect. I started to body surf the waves, which was quite exhilarating. My friends didn’t know how to do it, but they quickly learned. We started racing each other and had a lot of fun. It was the best experience of the ocean I ever had.
Before I knew it I was only one left in the ocean. All my friends had taken a break because the coldness and tiredness had started to creep up on them. I joined them to take a break for a cigarette. Afterward, three of us went back into the water.
All told, we were in the water around 1-2 hours in all. While in the water, we noticed a helicopter in the sky and automatically knew that it was police helicopter. We were tense for a moment, trying to see what was going to happen —being on the beach at night is illegal, and the police will arrest you if they catch you.
We felt pretty safe, as there were people on both sides of us. We thought of them as a buffer for us. We sat crouched down as the spotlight zoomed around us. It didn’t land on us, but it did pause on other groups on the beach. We returned to enjoying the water, though now more aware of our surroundings.
About 30 minutes later, though, the same chopper appeared again. This time the spotlight, while surveying the beach, lit up our clothes and my two friends who were staying out of the water — we were spotted! The same thing was repeated further down the beach, uncovering each group of midnight beach partiers.
We got really freaked out but physically remained just tense, not moving yet. Our feet still in the shallowest part of the tide, we stopped to look at the other groups. They weren’t doing anything; they seemed totally unfazed by the helicopter’s spotlight.
We sat there for a moment in confusion, not knowing whether to relax or high-tail it out of there. But then, the police made up our minds for us.
At the very far end of the beach, right next to the pier, we saw bright headlights turn on. It seemed our fellow partiers at the end of the beach had been caught. We saw more cars coming our way, too. They didn’t turn on their headlights until they were close to the groups. We quickly realized what was happening and booked it, flying out of the water to grab our stuff before running away.
After swimming for so long we were very tired – and the sand wasn’t making it any easier – but the threat of the police made our feet move faster than ever!
Barefoot and wearing only our underwear, we ran into the small, idyll streets of apartments. We were split up, losing each other in the chaos, but we all seemed to have the same idea of using the alleys and small roads as our best bet to lose the police. We made sure to run a decent amount away from the beach, as there were cops driving down the strand, too.
I found a tiny niche in the side of a small apartment building. It was just big enough for me to squeeze inside and hide from the cops. It opened into what seemed like a pitiful excuse for a backyard, with just a tiny patch of grass.
But it was on the backside of the building, so I took this opportunity to put my clothes back on. I had to make sure to be very, very quiet because I was right next to a window — and probably someone’s bedroom. As I started putting on my clothes, one of my friends appeared and quickly slid into our hiding place, eager for a place where he could rest. Soon, another friend joined us in our small haven. He’d obviously had to do a bit more running to get away from the cops, as his deep breaths gave away.
Being so tried made him pretty careless when it came to keeping quiet. After making a couple of loud noises he got the idea and stopped. I was just getting my jeans on when a man (I wasn’t able to see him at all in dark) opened his window. He told us –in a surprisingly patient and polite manner – to get out. Maybe this happens a lot to him, or maybe he is just a cool guy. Either way, we were kicked back out into the ally. We were still soaking wet, but at least now we were semi-clothed. We took to the apartment staircase directly across from us to finish getting clothed.
After finishing putting on our clothes, we started heading toward our car. Again, we found ourselves navigating the streets trying to find our way out. At first we were on guard, afraid the police could be around any corner. We soon realized that the police weren’t going to make the effort to come out here and look for us; they had scared some hoodlums and arrested some stoners — more than enough to get their paychecks. That’s all they care about.
After we realized that, we were able to relax again. Then we started to wonder where the rest of the group was. Hoping they had not been arrested, we carried on to the car. We arrived at the car and had a smoke while waiting for our friends to arrive. They weren’t answering their phones, so hope was dwindling. But after around 15 minutes, they arrived. Relieved, we were ready to get out of there.
With sand invading every piece of clothing and being sopping wet and dreadfully tried, we were ready to go home. Luckily, the way home took even less time than it did to get here, which was nice. The adventure made for a very enjoyable and memorable night.
For me, it seemed like Venice Beach was a pretty cool and safe place at night. The only people who I felt threatened by were the cops — and even they weren’t too bad, as we were pretty easily able to escape them.
Hopefully one day I can experience Venice Beach during the day too!
Written by Jeff Maxim
Please send Bitcoin tips to:
1JWpKYwaB4y1Eb4s8QyJmGqzmRCfNP3VFq
Gnar Times 