March 6, 2025 • 27 mins
This week on Locales Only, we’re taking a drive around the historic Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City. If you've ever seen or even heard of the film Endless Summer, then you’ve heard of Huntington Beach.
To help explain the historic importance of the area, we’re picking up the president of Visit Surf City, Kelly Miller. He’s going to tell us all about the history of surfing at Huntington, how he revitalized the downtown area, and what kind of community events he has built to bring everyone together! So buckle up and enjoy the conversation!
Big thanks to Fletcher-Jones Motorcar of Newport Beach for sponsoring the show and building out the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQE as our rolling podcast studio!
To help explain the historic importance of the area, we’re picking up the president of Visit Surf City, Kelly Miller. He’s going to tell us all about the history of surfing at Huntington, how he revitalized the downtown area, and what kind of community events he has built to bring everyone together! So buckle up and enjoy the conversation!
Big thanks to Fletcher-Jones Motorcar of Newport Beach for sponsoring the show and building out the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQE as our rolling podcast studio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Kelly, it's Area from Locals Only. How are you.
I'm doing great? How are you guys? Good? Hey, I'm
gonna be picking you up in a white Mercedes in
just about two minutes. I'll meet you outside. You got
it all right? See you by bye. Hey, Welcome to
Locals Only. I'm Eric Hale, and if you don't know me,
(00:21):
I'm the guy that founded Locale magazine fourteen years ago
in my garage. It's been my job for all those
years to tell you the coolest places to eat and
all of a sudden California fun things to do. So
you have date nights that aren't boring, and we've talked
to some really interesting people. Now we have a podcast,
and we're lucky enough to call this Mercedes Benz EQE
all electric sedan courtesy of Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in
(00:43):
Newport Beach. Our mobile podcasts do do. So sit back,
buckle up, and enjoy the conversation. Welcome to Local's Only.
Today on Locals Only, we're gonna be cruising around Huntington Beach,
CALIFORNI you up and down, p ch It's a beautiful
day with blue skies. We're picking up Kelly. Miller. He's
(01:06):
the president of Visit Serf City. They're the organization that
gets people to know about hunting and Beach all over
the world, from the surf competitions to the air show.
We're gonna talk to Kelly about why Huntington Beach is
such a great destination. So sit back, buckle up, and
enjoy locals only there he is right there. How are you? Yeah,
(01:32):
it is Uber Deluxe. How are you? Let me get
you that out of the way. There you go, just
me and just me and William. This is your microphone
so you can talk into that. Yeah, put your water there. Perfect.
Nice to meet you, Nice to meet you. Yeah, your content,
looking at it and thank you. It's very well done.
(01:54):
Thank you so much. Yeah, we're gonna so this would
be a fun little cruise today kind of show everybody
where we're at. Really sure here if you just look,
there's some bikes running across. You can see the HB
Pier and the Pacific Ocean right there and some palm trees.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So little art show going on right there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Amazing. So that's what we're gonna be looking at you.
We're gonna drive up and down and talk about this
this city.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, here you are the historical pch right here.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's nice, right, You gotta like this.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Years ago, Henry Huntington, he had the red trolley line
going here from all the way la down here and
this is used to come down here and he's dumped
people here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It finished all the way in Newport, didn't it? Yeah? Right,
I remember that. And he's who's the city is named after.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
He is, and he when they built the pier, he
brought down a gavin named George freeth Okay who was
a surfer, came from Hawaii and they had big pools
up there up in.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The la Are.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
He brought him down here and they advertised, come on
down watch a man walk on water. So they opened
the pier in five thousand people showed up on a
Friday to see for the first time serving And.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's really cool. How long it was that one hundred
years ago? Eighteen fourteen, Yeah, over a whole years ago. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The next day, ten thousand people showed up. That was
more than all the people lived in Huntington Beach at time,
or so urban legend that.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So we've had quite a history of big events here
in Huntington Beach because in reality Huntington Beach is not
a massive city. This isn't I mean, it's a it's
a part of Orange County for that's not familiar with
it is. It's coastal and it goes inland all the
way kind of over the to the four h five there.
So it might be bigger than you think, but it's
it's not a giant city population wise to be hoped
(03:42):
hosting the size of events that Huntingon dies.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, it's so deceiving. I've lived in eight states,
and some of those states several times, I've had the
fourteen to live around the country and travel around the world.
This is a city's about twenty seven square miles, Yeah,
and it has about two hundred thousand people. And you
tell people that and they said, it just seems kind
of smaller than that. And it has this small Cali
(04:04):
Beach vibe which.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Is really unique about it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So even though we have a fair number of people here,
but you can see it's just this great like this
is what I think about in California.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Right right, Well, Huntington Beach, I would say, is quen
essentially that. Now. Yeah, I live in Newport Beach, just
one city away and I would say where the two
cities are quite a bit different in a lot of ways,
this still feels, I think a little bit more like
the surftown that it was, especially along PCCh. I mean,
you still have the addition of big shopping centers like
(04:36):
Pacific City and new restaurants and hotels like Pisa, but
it still has a little bit of that surf town
I feel, I think along the coast. But let's talk
about something something I'd love to talk to about the
I love the air show. I think the air show
is really cool. I know, I find out when it's
happening every year because of where I live. I start
hearing the warm ups going over my house. How has
(04:58):
that been for you guys? It's been great.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It attracts about six seven hundred thousand people. It's the
largest event we do. The US opens second with about
four hundred thousand, but it comes at a time when
we really need the business and it's the largest air
show now I believe in America late September early October,
depending on what pilots are available.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
But this whole area is just packed. Oh yeah, shouting
out Kevin code for Kevin. He was actually instrumental when
we start our company Locale, he was there to launch
all of our events with us. He's been a really
great guy for all of that. And I was actually
supposed to fly with the Blue Angels a few years
ago and my wife scared me out of it, so
(05:44):
I canceled the day up. I still regret it. I
think it would have been a really cool experience. Yeah,
so that event's one of them, and that I know
you mentioned the US us Open, which is another, I
mean fantastic. I didn't realize that the US Open drew
less people in the year show now. Yeah, it always
seems like there's so many people here for the US Open,
and it runs a little bit longer. It's nine ten days.
(06:06):
It's the largest surfer bend in the world. And people
don't know this, Eric, but in nineteen fifty nine was
the first kind of West Coast big surf competition here
and that was nineteen fifty nine. We had female surfers
then and WSL turns fifty years next year and we
have probably almost a surf contest every week in Huneyton
(06:30):
Beach go about forty or fifty year. Yeah, that's what
people probably don't know because you see the US Open.
But there's so much surf culture here. There is. There's
always a high school event or some sort of surfing
event that's happening all the time. There is like this.
If you're not from around here. My daughter went to
Newport Harbor. Most of these schools have surf teams, right,
so they're competing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, and the NSSA, the National Surf and Scholastic Association,
was formed and is based here, and they do the
big just like you know we go bast ball for
in high school. They have surf national championships.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And you have the Surf Museum here too, really do
playing off that same theme.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, we go down downtown you'll see. We call it
like the Times Square of surfing here. So you got
the Surf Museum three blocks from pH which houses outside
the world's largest surfboard.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We send them two world records.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Then you should go towards the pier that you got
great surf shops, HSS jacks and rip curl, et cetera.
Then you got the Dukhanamoco statue overlooking our pier. You
got the pier, you got the Surfing Walk of Fame
and the Surfing Hall of Fame and then of course
the iconic peer where you go out there for Don
patrol and even sunset people are always out there catching waves.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh yeah, it's so cool. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing
to see. And we're Surf City USA. We own that
and that's what we are. Well, I think that all
comes too Now we're driving by. I'm just looking over here.
We're driving Sea Salt. I know Alicia, Alicia, Alicia always
messed that up, but she's done a lot with these.
We've really revamped all of these restaurants right along, because
(08:03):
I think there's seven or eight of them now, yeah,
I think she has three or four appearing. She's got
several south of the Pearance.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
She's got another one that's going to be opening up
closer to the Santa Anna River Trail. So between her
stuff and these are all on State Beach, because we
go State Beach the Mingo City to Mingo State. Then
you throw the other vendors in there. So if you've
seen there's people jobs, this.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Is unusual to anywhere really. I mean, you have a
little bit of boardwalk like this Pacific Beach, right, but
here we have basically all the public beach right and
then with her restaurants like Sea Salt and Sea Legs
and all these different concepts, you have the ability to
have this big, open, beautiful private beach and still go
listen to music, have a drink, eat something, which is
(08:45):
really really I think we can see one as we
pass it right here. This is Sea Legs where they'll
do a lot of live concert Sea Legs at the beach,
which is just I saw Bill Burr there, the Fits comedian.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah that's really cool. Yeah, that's good and what I
love about this area. So we just swim by bols
of chicout.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well it's a cheek on that side, which is great,
and it's oh, it's incredible. And as we go, you
know the sunset, then you go to Seal Beach. But yeah,
we're coming right now, just so everybody can see if
you're driving along with this, we're basically just tapped Warner. Yeah,
and that's gonna be sunset and Seals. So this is
basically the end of Huntington Beach or surf City that
(09:21):
we'll be talking about. So I'm not gonna do an
illegal youth turn here. We're going to go back, but
we'll kind of head back into Huntington Beach this way. Yeah,
we'll turn around and go back. But this is one
of those parts of the shoreline where when you do
when you are in other parts of southern California, you'll
notice that most of the beach real estate is occupied
by mega manch that's right right, that's in Manhattan Beach.
That's in Malibu, right, Sorry about what happened in Malibu.
(09:45):
But there's a lot of mansions along the bench in
all of these cities, Laguna Beach, so it's hard to
get down to the access Huntington doesn't have other than
maybe one set of condos near the pier, doesn't have
any houses on this side of pch. Well, I'm glad
you mentioned that, and that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So when we talk about accessibility and that this is
a beach that's opened to everybody, we have been pretty intentional.
When I say we, I mean collective wheel on how
this all these parking lots, all these curb cuts, how
it all develops. So my stepmom had MS for fifty
seven years. I'm very aware of what it's like in
a wheelchairing. So you come here, it's flat, there's easy access.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We have mobi mats, along here.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What's a mobe mat. It's it's a hard it's like
recycled plastic in a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So you can get out onto the sand. It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I had some hip surgery about three four years
ago and I said, you know what, I'm taking my walker.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I'm going to the beach like I know that. We
had some of our relatives out and we were in
Newport and we were trying to get out on the
sand and they had these big kind of like tired
We have those, but it wasn't working very well on
just regular sand. It was still a lot to push
somebody in somebody. So these movie mats make it where
anybody can get out on this. That's right, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We have an adaptive playground that's coming up here, so
it's designed for all ages, but mostly with young children
that may have some challenges both physical or mental.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So that's all set up there.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We have a guy, Rocky McKinnon who teaches adaptive surf,
which is great.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I've heard about Rocky. Yeah, it's unbelievable now where we're
coming up to right here. This just reminds me a
couple of years ago, my wife did her first half
marathon right up here goes this is where she turnament
went up. I didn't join her, you know, once again,
I have really good common sense. I stayed at the
finish line and rooted her on. But yeah, I look
(11:31):
at the view there. But yeah. We also have the
Surf City Marathon and half marathon.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And we got this another big event, a ten mileer
in September or so, so we can close pH And
those are two events we do. So that marathon and
half marathon, and I think there's a ten game, maybe
a five.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Get about eighteen nineteen thousand people. There's just a lot
of people, believe all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You know, when you go to our calendar events at
SURFCITYUSA dot com, Eric, you'll see so many events and
it blows me away that almost every weekend there's something
going on. And this footprint is so unique. You can
go down across from Newport.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
How about dog Beach? I mean, how much can we
talk about this time?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Now?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
There's not another dog beach anywhere. It's a place where
you can actually bring your dog. We can't and just
let them run there you go, and nobody lets anybody
do that. So this is one of our favorites. It is.
This is a reason in itself to come to Huntington Beaches,
Dog Beach, and we have several events here.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
We have Corky Beach Day, which is actually they're moving
it from here just south of the pier this year,
so there's two Corky Days and they get.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
About a thousand corgies each of those. Well, who doesn't
like a thousand corkies. It's crazy. The Queen and King
there around here somewhere. That's all I can say. That's
really I mean, that's the thing is you guys can
see and I apologize for interrupting you, but there's so
much I know to see just right here along this
little stretch that we're driving up and down on and
we haven't even gotten into the you know, like the
(12:56):
beautiful historic High School. One of my favorite places in
Huntington Beach that we haven't even touched on is the
Central Park is one of the best parks anywhere. Have
any questern center. We have Frisbee Golf that you have
probably the prettiest library, one of the prettiest libraries I've
ever been in the city. Yep, just absolutely stunning. And uh,
(13:16):
you know, so there's so many aspects to the city.
We haven't started talking about the shopping like Pacific City
and Delitaire and all that. So there's a lot of
reasons to come here. So how do you define them?
Is the messaging always come to Serf City or how
are you great question getting people to come here? So
what we.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Try and do is our brand promise is real simple.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the quintessential California beach destination.
So when you think about the music of the Beach
Boys and Jan and Dean, Dean Torrents, my good friend
who's on our board, who's eighty six years old.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Well, Mike Love is set right in that seat where
you're sitting. Did you know that Mike Love from the
Beach Boys sat right there on that microphone.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So when we talked to people, and we know that
when they come from La County or San Diego County
or Riverside County and they get here and they go, oh,
this is what I thought about in CALIFORNIAI is. So
what we try and do is we try and package that.
First up, how does it make you feel? There's an
emotional connection there, whether you're smelling the fire pits over
(14:18):
five hundred. Here you see the palm trees, the sunsets,
the smell, the pelicans, the porpoise, all that stuff. When
you think about that, then that's the first thing. That's
where I want to go. Then we go down a
little bit deeper. We say, so, what do you like
to do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Are you? Are you active?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Right? So then we tee up some things on our
website about some things you can do.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You mentioned the frisbee golf or disc golf. You can
do that right.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
There's an equestrian center out there, which is which is
great if you want to come here play.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
We have beach Volleyball westin Center. By the way. When
you get there, it feels like you're in a different
It's part of the country that's just mud on your
shoes and a bunch of horsetalls, and you just disappear
into this other part of part of the world. That's
really cool. I just wanted to give that a show.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
No, that whole area is that Central Parks about three
hundred and thirty three hundred and forty eight ers.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Now you are in a different world of the secret garden.
NEI meander through there. So then our food scene is
really coming on big. Now we got these all these
great new restaurants. We love h Q gastrop Yeah, we
love Joe Lee that just opened with that beautiful view
Lorea and Pasea Pasea Lorea. And you know, Jim at
(15:23):
t K Burger was just that I hate one of
my years ago, one of my first advertisers, and he
used to let me sit upstairs in that second window
upstairs and have a burger high. Jim and one of
my one of my first good friends when I started
this publication.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And t K Burger is an institution that you have,
you know, you can steal. It's like six ninety five,
I think Cheezburgers. They literally it's it's ready in a minute, right,
Well it's and it's also the crunchy eyes. And it's
also the the whatever seasoning he puts on the fries.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
That make him so so good. Yeah. But yeah, all
those restaurants of HQ Gastropob has the beautiful little like
speakeasy in the back. Joe he has these eighty or
plus ocean views and it's just absolutely gorgeous. And yeah,
the Pasea, I mean Pa Sda, it's had it been
there a while now it's been there, yeah, ten years,
you know, but now I came.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I've been here eleven years and I think it opened
about eight eight maybe nine years ago, and they just
redid a major there.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Gorgeous. Yeah. And then and then the Pacific City's turning ten.
It is year, I know, which is hard to believe
because it was a hole for I think ten or fifteen.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Years, and the brands there. Now there's going to be
a new couple of new places. I'll let them take
the thunder on that. But it's what's happened since COVID
hit is. You saw, you know, people come and go
as far as their businesses. Now you're starting to see
a resurgence of more retail and more restaurants. We just
passed a couple of couple of Taco Rea places over there,
like street taco places.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I love, normous fish tacos. That's a little hole in
the wall hidings gym. Yeah. If anybody hasn't been there,
well yeah, actually yeah, So I used to one of
my first locations wing let us put our magazine there
fifteen years ago. So I used to carry it myself
out of my car and load up that wall. It
was right there. We'll come down Main Street. Maybe. Yeah,
that's well, that's maybe on the way back. We finished
with that. Because there's a big thing that you guys
(17:05):
do on Tuesdays there, right, every Tuesday, Surf City Nights,
which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And this is cool. This is Marine uh headquarters here.
This is the first junior lifeguard program in the country.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Bug Higgins was one of those guys that started that,
and Jean was the other guy. They they saw a
Dukhanamoco surf I believe was it Newport or was.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It further south?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Might have been further south maybe by saying to me,
But they came back, they got some wood, they crafted.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Their own shaped surfboard. But they started the.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Marine program here and they took the examples of what
the Hawaiians had done about saving people's lives and you
know all that stuff. And George free got that I
mentioned it was part of that that whole development of
how to save people in the surf.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's amazing. Now that they've done a great job of
the junior lifeguard program, that's incredible. Yeah. Now as we
get now this way, I feel like now we need
to talk about volleyball because now we have the whole
vaully all thing right.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Right, Yeah, and here's the RBS that we talked about.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
So these were we got RV's all through here. Normally
we'll have the volleyball tournament. And then further south we
start getting into the back onto the state land, I
think where we start having concerts like country concerts and stuff.
Right like, this is NonStop. Your calendar is NonStop.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And then here's the four you got the but Kimpton
was back there. So between the Kimpton and you got
the the we talked about, then the waterfront Kilton here,
and then they also have.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The beautiful their their rooftop bar there as well.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
They just got they just put a cover, they reimagined it.
It's kind of a little kind of a speakeasy. Now
it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So that's a great spot. If you guys don't know that.
It's so you got to have a reservation, but get
up there because it has probably the best view. Oh
that's incredible anywhere on this coast.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So then you got this is this is about almost
over fourteen hundred rooms, yeah right here, and you'll see
they'll do activations like this just you'll do some special things,
very little concerts, great food, seat cobble wobble at Sammy
Hager's place right there.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Two thousand and eleven. Yeah, we had our fourth ever
launch party here at the Highest Regency. And I'll show
you see the bridge that we're looking at just for
some So what happened? It started raining. First of all,
I had to get a tent, and then somebody hit
a substation and all the power wall. So if you
(19:25):
guys can imagine up on this bridge right here, I
was up there praying that the power would come back
on because our event started in twenty minutes. And guess
what happened. Guess what happened? What power came back on.
We had a great event, our fourth launch party in
twenty eleven. So we have a lot of history with
Huntington Beach ourselves. I mean, you can see everybody that
(19:46):
was already talking about it's it's it's a real big
part of what we do. Maybe should we head back
that way a little bit. Yeah, it's come down Main Street.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So this is the old this is Beach Boulevard, So
you know, this was how people used to get to
the beach. In the fact fact they still do from
the four or five, et cetera. And this was where
people they used to come here, and now you can
see everything behind this is city Beach, and everything down
here is State Beach, State Beach.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And it's another thing just to tie in with me,
was you know, I've lived here for twenty six years now,
but going back about thirty five years, that's how old
I am. On my first trip to southern California on
my own as an adult, I stayed in Hunting the
Beach on Beach Boulevard in a Best Western about two
blocks up. That's what I could afford and absolutely had
the time of my life. So I mean, and that's
(20:34):
the thing is I feel like this is one of
those more approachable cities. It is. It is where there
isn't something. You know, you're probably going to spend a
little bit more to stay on these waterfront resorts, but
there are other options for pretty much every pocket book
to come stay. We have about twenty four to twenty
five hotels.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
We do have some short term vacation rentals, depending on
which your budget, which you want to do, how many
people travel, there's.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
A lot of options there. We just passed.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That's the HB web Lands oh yeah, yeah, So they
have a conservancy over there, and then there's the both
cheek of conservancy. So we're we're anchored basically by those
by those two wetlands, and they're just so nice that people,
well well smart people decided to preserve.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Those areas years ago. This is another area that's been redone,
this whole shopping center right here. Ye, so we still
have tumbleweeds. Every tumble weeds is still there. Stills is
still there, and I'm talking about the bar if you
guys know, you know, but it used to be a
lot different looking center. Sea Legs used to be there
a while ago. But yeah, they kept stumbleweeds.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Been in the one time in eleven and a half years,
I was meeting somebody there. Yeah, if you want a
cold draft and want to disappear, sometimes that's where you go.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That's fun. We're going to give them a little shout out, right,
we do awesome. So we're going up Beach Boulevard. I
think we're not just uh, you know, maybe talk about
a few more things about kind of the downtown area. Sure,
why don't we just go over that. Why don't we
finish with that? Talk about the Tuesday nights because I
think one of the things that you'll see in Huntington
is long before there were COVID closures and businesses outside
(22:10):
on patios and taken over streets, Huntington has been doing this,
I don't know, it's got to be thirty years maybe
it is, and just taking over the main street. And
they've always been big proponents of letting people have their
restaurants and seating outside. They have even way before. Right,
this was in fad right, right, And.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
There's a couple I'll give you a little bit of history.
This is because I know the person that kind of
helped start that, so Matt, way back in the day. Right,
it was I think on a different night, and it
might have been at Pure Plaza for a while. Then
they decided let's put it on Tuesday night and let's
close the first three blocks of Main Street, and that's
what they did. It may even have been up on
fourth block for it little.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I remember thinking.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Further up, Yeah, that parking lot that was there which
is now development. So what's great about it is and
this is pretty wise. It's kind of like, Okay, you
got a business downtown, how can you get more people
to downtown and sell your wares like for hours.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So that was the genesis of that.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So if I had a business, you get set up
shopped out there right right. And they've expanded that now
to have a farmer's market and brought in a variety
of other sorts of goods and services.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And it's other than when it rains or in windy.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
That thing is happening every Tuesday from about five to nine.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And it's pretty for community. It's to see people.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It's great music going on there, and kids are there
and we do a lot of things like a tree lighting.
We do a big Halloween deal where we get.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And I would say that, I mean, it's great for
a Tuesday night to take your kids because downtown Huntington
Beach on a Friday or Saturday night is a little
bit more adult sent it's bars and and you know,
still restaurants and things like that, but there's definitely a
little bit of a fun element that goes on for
adult adult beverages.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There is, And I'll give them We're going by some
police squad cars out here.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I'm going to give them some shout out.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
We've worked hard with the PD as well as the
city council and staff to really you know downtown each
to be quiet's had that reputation years ago, and that's
really it's changed a lot. And during COVID we had
the first three blocks, we had them closed, so we
had more outside seating and there's now a little bit
of discussion to kind of bring that back. So's what's
great is we are getting more families, we are getting
(24:17):
more just people coming down there, and there's a sense
with the ambassador program that we helped start, so there
are people walking the streets late at night on the weekend.
Good so to give you a sense about security and
it's a fun place to be.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. We actually were just fortunate enough
during the La fires, I was able to get in
touch with SpaceX and we helped by the agencies get starlinks. Yeah,
one of them. We got Coasta, Mesa, Newport Beverly Hills,
City of Orange and the Huntington Beach Fire Department through
my friend Scottio who was a Huntington Beach firefighter, and
(24:50):
he put us in touch with the chief and we
were able to get them thirty starlinks. So when they
were up fighting the fires, they had telephones up there,
they're the best. Yeah, so and that's some you know,
sometimes you don't even realize that, like how a city
like this helps out other cities. And I think that's
really important. So Eric, let me mention this.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We're going through sort of like these suburban areas and
they're so close to the downtown core. And what I
love about a couple of things about Huntington Beach is
I think it's this great Mediterranean sort of look.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So the temperature only changes about.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Fifteen degrees from winter to summer year round, so it
can be one hundred degrees up inland and it'll be sixty.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Five to seventy five here.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Iss you very well now, But you have all this
great landscaping here and there there's blooms as we see. Yeah,
it's mid February. Oh yeah, and I have roses in
my house. I'm about a mile from here, and I
just love that. And you see different architecture. You got
old ranch like here and then you got some new
stuff that's a little bit more modern.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Definitely a mixture in Huntington. There's not a lot of
hoa feeling here. It's more like build what you want,
and that's a lot of different stuff that's right, which
is a nice feeling.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And then for the cyclist getting back to again, you
know Orange County and even Honey, there's bike lanes throughout
this entire city.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So very bike them. I mean you have to have
because none of us follow biking rules anyway. If we
live in a beach town, so you don't cross where
we want and drive where you want. So it's nice
to have a lane for that.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So you've come from say the four or five whatever,
now you're coming. This is on Main Street and Huntington
High that you mentioned high school? Yeah, right, so here,
I mean, look at these look at these great trees,
gorgeous and people. There's a lot of pride in these neighborhoods.
And this is where the Fourth of July parade, the
largest parade west of the Mississippi, four to five hundred
(26:34):
thousand people basically, and this.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Whole street is lying and it's unbelievable. I've been down
here for a four major party. I don't know if
I remember being down here, but I was here. Other
people remember you, they remember me. Just try not to
have that outs all rise. You don't want to hear that.
I don't want to put on my church clothes on
a weekday. Go see judge. So I think we covered
(26:59):
quite a lot. Thank you for telling us all about
Surf City. Yeah you want to hang right right here, Yeah,
go to Main Street. We'll go down Main Street as
we finish up. But I just want to thank you
for joining us today. Thank you everybody for listening, and
we'll see you next time on Locals Only. Absolutely, I
(27:21):
want to thank everyone on the straw Hut Media team,
including executive producer Ryan Tillotson and our editor and producer
Parker Jay Hicks. And as always, a big thank you
to Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach for providing
this beautiful Mercedes Benz EQE to be our rolling podcast studio.
(27:41):
Join us next time on Locals Only, where you can
buckle up and go for a ride in our mobile
podcast studio with some of the coolest people in Southern California.
Hey, Kelly, it's Area from Locals Only. How are you.
I'm doing great? How are you guys? Good? Hey, I'm
gonna be picking you up in a white Mercedes in
just about two minutes. I'll meet you outside. You got
it all right? See you by bye. Hey, Welcome to
Locals Only. I'm Eric Hale, and if you don't know me,
(00:21):
I'm the guy that founded Locale magazine fourteen years ago
in my garage. It's been my job for all those
years to tell you the coolest places to eat and
all of a sudden California fun things to do. So
you have date nights that aren't boring, and we've talked
to some really interesting people. Now we have a podcast,
and we're lucky enough to call this Mercedes Benz EQE
all electric sedan courtesy of Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in
(00:43):
Newport Beach. Our mobile podcasts do do. So sit back,
buckle up, and enjoy the conversation. Welcome to Local's Only.
Today on Locals Only, we're gonna be cruising around Huntington Beach,
CALIFORNI you up and down, p ch It's a beautiful
day with blue skies. We're picking up Kelly. Miller. He's
(01:06):
the president of Visit Serf City. They're the organization that
gets people to know about hunting and Beach all over
the world, from the surf competitions to the air show.
We're gonna talk to Kelly about why Huntington Beach is
such a great destination. So sit back, buckle up, and
enjoy locals only there he is right there. How are you? Yeah,
(01:32):
it is Uber Deluxe. How are you? Let me get
you that out of the way. There you go, just
me and just me and William. This is your microphone
so you can talk into that. Yeah, put your water there. Perfect.
Nice to meet you, Nice to meet you. Yeah, your content,
looking at it and thank you. It's very well done.
(01:54):
Thank you so much. Yeah, we're gonna so this would
be a fun little cruise today kind of show everybody
where we're at. Really sure here if you just look,
there's some bikes running across. You can see the HB
Pier and the Pacific Ocean right there and some palm trees.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So little art show going on right there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Amazing. So that's what we're gonna be looking at you.
We're gonna drive up and down and talk about this
this city.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, here you are the historical pch right here.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's nice, right, You gotta like this.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Years ago, Henry Huntington, he had the red trolley line
going here from all the way la down here and
this is used to come down here and he's dumped
people here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It finished all the way in Newport, didn't it? Yeah? Right,
I remember that. And he's who's the city is named after.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
He is, and he when they built the pier, he
brought down a gavin named George freeth Okay who was
a surfer, came from Hawaii and they had big pools
up there up in.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The la Are.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
He brought him down here and they advertised, come on
down watch a man walk on water. So they opened
the pier in five thousand people showed up on a
Friday to see for the first time serving And.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's really cool. How long it was that one hundred
years ago? Eighteen fourteen, Yeah, over a whole years ago. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The next day, ten thousand people showed up. That was
more than all the people lived in Huntington Beach at time,
or so urban legend that.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So we've had quite a history of big events here
in Huntington Beach because in reality Huntington Beach is not
a massive city. This isn't I mean, it's a it's
a part of Orange County for that's not familiar with
it is. It's coastal and it goes inland all the
way kind of over the to the four h five there.
So it might be bigger than you think, but it's
it's not a giant city population wise to be hoped
(03:42):
hosting the size of events that Huntingon dies.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, it's so deceiving. I've lived in eight states,
and some of those states several times, I've had the
fourteen to live around the country and travel around the world.
This is a city's about twenty seven square miles, Yeah,
and it has about two hundred thousand people. And you
tell people that and they said, it just seems kind
of smaller than that. And it has this small Cali
(04:04):
Beach vibe which.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Is really unique about it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So even though we have a fair number of people here,
but you can see it's just this great like this
is what I think about in California.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Right right, Well, Huntington Beach, I would say, is quen
essentially that. Now. Yeah, I live in Newport Beach, just
one city away and I would say where the two
cities are quite a bit different in a lot of ways,
this still feels, I think a little bit more like
the surftown that it was, especially along PCCh. I mean,
you still have the addition of big shopping centers like
(04:36):
Pacific City and new restaurants and hotels like Pisa, but
it still has a little bit of that surf town
I feel, I think along the coast. But let's talk
about something something I'd love to talk to about the
I love the air show. I think the air show
is really cool. I know, I find out when it's
happening every year because of where I live. I start
hearing the warm ups going over my house. How has
(04:58):
that been for you guys? It's been great.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It attracts about six seven hundred thousand people. It's the
largest event we do. The US opens second with about
four hundred thousand, but it comes at a time when
we really need the business and it's the largest air
show now I believe in America late September early October,
depending on what pilots are available.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
But this whole area is just packed. Oh yeah, shouting
out Kevin code for Kevin. He was actually instrumental when
we start our company Locale, he was there to launch
all of our events with us. He's been a really
great guy for all of that. And I was actually
supposed to fly with the Blue Angels a few years
ago and my wife scared me out of it, so
(05:44):
I canceled the day up. I still regret it. I
think it would have been a really cool experience. Yeah,
so that event's one of them, and that I know
you mentioned the US us Open, which is another, I
mean fantastic. I didn't realize that the US Open drew
less people in the year show now. Yeah, it always
seems like there's so many people here for the US Open,
and it runs a little bit longer. It's nine ten days.
(06:06):
It's the largest surfer bend in the world. And people
don't know this, Eric, but in nineteen fifty nine was
the first kind of West Coast big surf competition here
and that was nineteen fifty nine. We had female surfers
then and WSL turns fifty years next year and we
have probably almost a surf contest every week in Huneyton
(06:30):
Beach go about forty or fifty year. Yeah, that's what
people probably don't know because you see the US Open.
But there's so much surf culture here. There is. There's
always a high school event or some sort of surfing
event that's happening all the time. There is like this.
If you're not from around here. My daughter went to
Newport Harbor. Most of these schools have surf teams, right,
so they're competing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, and the NSSA, the National Surf and Scholastic Association,
was formed and is based here, and they do the
big just like you know we go bast ball for
in high school. They have surf national championships.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And you have the Surf Museum here too, really do
playing off that same theme.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, we go down downtown you'll see. We call it
like the Times Square of surfing here. So you got
the Surf Museum three blocks from pH which houses outside
the world's largest surfboard.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We send them two world records.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Then you should go towards the pier that you got
great surf shops, HSS jacks and rip curl, et cetera.
Then you got the Dukhanamoco statue overlooking our pier. You
got the pier, you got the Surfing Walk of Fame
and the Surfing Hall of Fame and then of course
the iconic peer where you go out there for Don
patrol and even sunset people are always out there catching waves.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh yeah, it's so cool. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing
to see. And we're Surf City USA. We own that
and that's what we are. Well, I think that all
comes too Now we're driving by. I'm just looking over here.
We're driving Sea Salt. I know Alicia, Alicia, Alicia always
messed that up, but she's done a lot with these.
We've really revamped all of these restaurants right along, because
(08:03):
I think there's seven or eight of them now, yeah,
I think she has three or four appearing. She's got
several south of the Pearance.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
She's got another one that's going to be opening up
closer to the Santa Anna River Trail. So between her
stuff and these are all on State Beach, because we
go State Beach the Mingo City to Mingo State. Then
you throw the other vendors in there. So if you've
seen there's people jobs, this.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Is unusual to anywhere really. I mean, you have a
little bit of boardwalk like this Pacific Beach, right, but
here we have basically all the public beach right and
then with her restaurants like Sea Salt and Sea Legs
and all these different concepts, you have the ability to
have this big, open, beautiful private beach and still go
listen to music, have a drink, eat something, which is
(08:45):
really really I think we can see one as we
pass it right here. This is Sea Legs where they'll
do a lot of live concert Sea Legs at the beach,
which is just I saw Bill Burr there, the Fits comedian.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah that's really cool. Yeah, that's good and what I
love about this area. So we just swim by bols
of chicout.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well it's a cheek on that side, which is great,
and it's oh, it's incredible. And as we go, you
know the sunset, then you go to Seal Beach. But yeah,
we're coming right now, just so everybody can see if
you're driving along with this, we're basically just tapped Warner. Yeah,
and that's gonna be sunset and Seals. So this is
basically the end of Huntington Beach or surf City that
(09:21):
we'll be talking about. So I'm not gonna do an
illegal youth turn here. We're going to go back, but
we'll kind of head back into Huntington Beach this way. Yeah,
we'll turn around and go back. But this is one
of those parts of the shoreline where when you do
when you are in other parts of southern California, you'll
notice that most of the beach real estate is occupied
by mega manch that's right right, that's in Manhattan Beach.
That's in Malibu, right, Sorry about what happened in Malibu.
(09:45):
But there's a lot of mansions along the bench in
all of these cities, Laguna Beach, so it's hard to
get down to the access Huntington doesn't have other than
maybe one set of condos near the pier, doesn't have
any houses on this side of pch. Well, I'm glad
you mentioned that, and that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So when we talk about accessibility and that this is
a beach that's opened to everybody, we have been pretty intentional.
When I say we, I mean collective wheel on how
this all these parking lots, all these curb cuts, how
it all develops. So my stepmom had MS for fifty
seven years. I'm very aware of what it's like in
a wheelchairing. So you come here, it's flat, there's easy access.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We have mobi mats, along here.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What's a mobe mat. It's it's a hard it's like
recycled plastic in a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So you can get out onto the sand. It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I had some hip surgery about three four years
ago and I said, you know what, I'm taking my walker.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I'm going to the beach like I know that. We
had some of our relatives out and we were in
Newport and we were trying to get out on the
sand and they had these big kind of like tired
We have those, but it wasn't working very well on
just regular sand. It was still a lot to push
somebody in somebody. So these movie mats make it where
anybody can get out on this. That's right, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We have an adaptive playground that's coming up here, so
it's designed for all ages, but mostly with young children
that may have some challenges both physical or mental.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So that's all set up there.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
We have a guy, Rocky McKinnon who teaches adaptive surf,
which is great.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I've heard about Rocky. Yeah, it's unbelievable now where we're
coming up to right here. This just reminds me a
couple of years ago, my wife did her first half
marathon right up here goes this is where she turnament
went up. I didn't join her, you know, once again,
I have really good common sense. I stayed at the
finish line and rooted her on. But yeah, I look
(11:31):
at the view there. But yeah. We also have the
Surf City Marathon and half marathon.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And we got this another big event, a ten mileer
in September or so, so we can close pH And
those are two events we do. So that marathon and
half marathon, and I think there's a ten game, maybe
a five.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Get about eighteen nineteen thousand people. There's just a lot
of people, believe all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You know, when you go to our calendar events at
SURFCITYUSA dot com, Eric, you'll see so many events and
it blows me away that almost every weekend there's something
going on. And this footprint is so unique. You can
go down across from Newport.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
How about dog Beach? I mean, how much can we
talk about this time?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Now?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
There's not another dog beach anywhere. It's a place where
you can actually bring your dog. We can't and just
let them run there you go, and nobody lets anybody
do that. So this is one of our favorites. It is.
This is a reason in itself to come to Huntington Beaches,
Dog Beach, and we have several events here.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
We have Corky Beach Day, which is actually they're moving
it from here just south of the pier this year,
so there's two Corky Days and they get.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
About a thousand corgies each of those. Well, who doesn't
like a thousand corkies. It's crazy. The Queen and King
there around here somewhere. That's all I can say. That's
really I mean, that's the thing is you guys can
see and I apologize for interrupting you, but there's so
much I know to see just right here along this
little stretch that we're driving up and down on and
we haven't even gotten into the you know, like the
(12:56):
beautiful historic High School. One of my favorite places in
Huntington Beach that we haven't even touched on is the
Central Park is one of the best parks anywhere. Have
any questern center. We have Frisbee Golf that you have
probably the prettiest library, one of the prettiest libraries I've
ever been in the city. Yep, just absolutely stunning. And uh,
(13:16):
you know, so there's so many aspects to the city.
We haven't started talking about the shopping like Pacific City
and Delitaire and all that. So there's a lot of
reasons to come here. So how do you define them?
Is the messaging always come to Serf City or how
are you great question getting people to come here? So
what we.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Try and do is our brand promise is real simple.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the quintessential California beach destination.
So when you think about the music of the Beach
Boys and Jan and Dean, Dean Torrents, my good friend
who's on our board, who's eighty six years old.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Well, Mike Love is set right in that seat where
you're sitting. Did you know that Mike Love from the
Beach Boys sat right there on that microphone.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So when we talked to people, and we know that
when they come from La County or San Diego County
or Riverside County and they get here and they go, oh,
this is what I thought about in CALIFORNIAI is. So
what we try and do is we try and package that.
First up, how does it make you feel? There's an
emotional connection there, whether you're smelling the fire pits over
(14:18):
five hundred. Here you see the palm trees, the sunsets,
the smell, the pelicans, the porpoise, all that stuff. When
you think about that, then that's the first thing. That's
where I want to go. Then we go down a
little bit deeper. We say, so, what do you like
to do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Are you? Are you active?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Right? So then we tee up some things on our
website about some things you can do.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You mentioned the frisbee golf or disc golf. You can
do that right.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
There's an equestrian center out there, which is which is
great if you want to come here play.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
We have beach Volleyball westin Center. By the way. When
you get there, it feels like you're in a different
It's part of the country that's just mud on your
shoes and a bunch of horsetalls, and you just disappear
into this other part of part of the world. That's
really cool. I just wanted to give that a show.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
No, that whole area is that Central Parks about three
hundred and thirty three hundred and forty eight ers.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Now you are in a different world of the secret garden.
NEI meander through there. So then our food scene is
really coming on big. Now we got these all these
great new restaurants. We love h Q gastrop Yeah, we
love Joe Lee that just opened with that beautiful view
Lorea and Pasea Pasea Lorea. And you know, Jim at
(15:23):
t K Burger was just that I hate one of
my years ago, one of my first advertisers, and he
used to let me sit upstairs in that second window
upstairs and have a burger high. Jim and one of
my one of my first good friends when I started
this publication.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And t K Burger is an institution that you have,
you know, you can steal. It's like six ninety five,
I think Cheezburgers. They literally it's it's ready in a minute, right,
Well it's and it's also the crunchy eyes. And it's
also the the whatever seasoning he puts on the fries.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
That make him so so good. Yeah. But yeah, all
those restaurants of HQ Gastropob has the beautiful little like
speakeasy in the back. Joe he has these eighty or
plus ocean views and it's just absolutely gorgeous. And yeah,
the Pasea, I mean Pa Sda, it's had it been
there a while now it's been there, yeah, ten years,
you know, but now I came.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I've been here eleven years and I think it opened
about eight eight maybe nine years ago, and they just
redid a major there.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Gorgeous. Yeah. And then and then the Pacific City's turning ten.
It is year, I know, which is hard to believe
because it was a hole for I think ten or fifteen.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Years, and the brands there. Now there's going to be
a new couple of new places. I'll let them take
the thunder on that. But it's what's happened since COVID
hit is. You saw, you know, people come and go
as far as their businesses. Now you're starting to see
a resurgence of more retail and more restaurants. We just
passed a couple of couple of Taco Rea places over there,
like street taco places.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I love, normous fish tacos. That's a little hole in
the wall hidings gym. Yeah. If anybody hasn't been there,
well yeah, actually yeah, So I used to one of
my first locations wing let us put our magazine there
fifteen years ago. So I used to carry it myself
out of my car and load up that wall. It
was right there. We'll come down Main Street. Maybe. Yeah,
that's well, that's maybe on the way back. We finished
with that. Because there's a big thing that you guys
(17:05):
do on Tuesdays there, right, every Tuesday, Surf City Nights,
which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And this is cool. This is Marine uh headquarters here.
This is the first junior lifeguard program in the country.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Bug Higgins was one of those guys that started that,
and Jean was the other guy. They they saw a
Dukhanamoco surf I believe was it Newport or was.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It further south?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Might have been further south maybe by saying to me,
But they came back, they got some wood, they crafted.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Their own shaped surfboard. But they started the.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Marine program here and they took the examples of what
the Hawaiians had done about saving people's lives and you
know all that stuff. And George free got that I
mentioned it was part of that that whole development of
how to save people in the surf.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
That's amazing. Now that they've done a great job of
the junior lifeguard program, that's incredible. Yeah. Now as we
get now this way, I feel like now we need
to talk about volleyball because now we have the whole
vaully all thing right.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Right, Yeah, and here's the RBS that we talked about.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
So these were we got RV's all through here. Normally
we'll have the volleyball tournament. And then further south we
start getting into the back onto the state land, I
think where we start having concerts like country concerts and stuff.
Right like, this is NonStop. Your calendar is NonStop.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And then here's the four you got the but Kimpton
was back there. So between the Kimpton and you got
the the we talked about, then the waterfront Kilton here,
and then they also have.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The beautiful their their rooftop bar there as well.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
They just got they just put a cover, they reimagined it.
It's kind of a little kind of a speakeasy. Now
it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So that's a great spot. If you guys don't know that.
It's so you got to have a reservation, but get
up there because it has probably the best view. Oh
that's incredible anywhere on this coast.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So then you got this is this is about almost
over fourteen hundred rooms, yeah right here, and you'll see
they'll do activations like this just you'll do some special things,
very little concerts, great food, seat cobble wobble at Sammy
Hager's place right there.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Two thousand and eleven. Yeah, we had our fourth ever
launch party here at the Highest Regency. And I'll show
you see the bridge that we're looking at just for
some So what happened? It started raining. First of all,
I had to get a tent, and then somebody hit
a substation and all the power wall. So if you
(19:25):
guys can imagine up on this bridge right here, I
was up there praying that the power would come back
on because our event started in twenty minutes. And guess
what happened. Guess what happened? What power came back on.
We had a great event, our fourth launch party in
twenty eleven. So we have a lot of history with
Huntington Beach ourselves. I mean, you can see everybody that
(19:46):
was already talking about it's it's it's a real big
part of what we do. Maybe should we head back
that way a little bit. Yeah, it's come down Main Street.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So this is the old this is Beach Boulevard, So
you know, this was how people used to get to
the beach. In the fact fact they still do from
the four or five, et cetera. And this was where
people they used to come here, and now you can
see everything behind this is city Beach, and everything down
here is State Beach, State Beach.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And it's another thing just to tie in with me,
was you know, I've lived here for twenty six years now,
but going back about thirty five years, that's how old
I am. On my first trip to southern California on
my own as an adult, I stayed in Hunting the
Beach on Beach Boulevard in a Best Western about two
blocks up. That's what I could afford and absolutely had
the time of my life. So I mean, and that's
(20:34):
the thing is I feel like this is one of
those more approachable cities. It is. It is where there
isn't something. You know, you're probably going to spend a
little bit more to stay on these waterfront resorts, but
there are other options for pretty much every pocket book
to come stay. We have about twenty four to twenty
five hotels.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
We do have some short term vacation rentals, depending on
which your budget, which you want to do, how many
people travel, there's.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
A lot of options there. We just passed.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That's the HB web Lands oh yeah, yeah, So they
have a conservancy over there, and then there's the both
cheek of conservancy. So we're we're anchored basically by those
by those two wetlands, and they're just so nice that people,
well well smart people decided to preserve.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Those areas years ago. This is another area that's been redone,
this whole shopping center right here. Ye, so we still
have tumbleweeds. Every tumble weeds is still there. Stills is
still there, and I'm talking about the bar if you
guys know, you know, but it used to be a
lot different looking center. Sea Legs used to be there
a while ago. But yeah, they kept stumbleweeds.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Been in the one time in eleven and a half years,
I was meeting somebody there. Yeah, if you want a
cold draft and want to disappear, sometimes that's where you go.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That's fun. We're going to give them a little shout out, right,
we do awesome. So we're going up Beach Boulevard. I
think we're not just uh, you know, maybe talk about
a few more things about kind of the downtown area. Sure,
why don't we just go over that. Why don't we
finish with that? Talk about the Tuesday nights because I
think one of the things that you'll see in Huntington
is long before there were COVID closures and businesses outside
(22:10):
on patios and taken over streets, Huntington has been doing this,
I don't know, it's got to be thirty years maybe
it is, and just taking over the main street. And
they've always been big proponents of letting people have their
restaurants and seating outside. They have even way before. Right,
this was in fad right, right, And.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
There's a couple I'll give you a little bit of history.
This is because I know the person that kind of
helped start that, so Matt, way back in the day. Right,
it was I think on a different night, and it
might have been at Pure Plaza for a while. Then
they decided let's put it on Tuesday night and let's
close the first three blocks of Main Street, and that's
what they did. It may even have been up on
fourth block for it little.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I remember thinking.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Further up, Yeah, that parking lot that was there which
is now development. So what's great about it is and
this is pretty wise. It's kind of like, Okay, you
got a business downtown, how can you get more people
to downtown and sell your wares like for hours.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So that was the genesis of that.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So if I had a business, you get set up
shopped out there right right. And they've expanded that now
to have a farmer's market and brought in a variety
of other sorts of goods and services.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And it's other than when it rains or in windy.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
That thing is happening every Tuesday from about five to nine.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And it's pretty for community. It's to see people.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It's great music going on there, and kids are there
and we do a lot of things like a tree lighting.
We do a big Halloween deal where we get.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And I would say that, I mean, it's great for
a Tuesday night to take your kids because downtown Huntington
Beach on a Friday or Saturday night is a little
bit more adult sent it's bars and and you know,
still restaurants and things like that, but there's definitely a
little bit of a fun element that goes on for
adult adult beverages.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There is, And I'll give them We're going by some
police squad cars out here.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I'm going to give them some shout out.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
We've worked hard with the PD as well as the
city council and staff to really you know downtown each
to be quiet's had that reputation years ago, and that's
really it's changed a lot. And during COVID we had
the first three blocks, we had them closed, so we
had more outside seating and there's now a little bit
of discussion to kind of bring that back. So's what's
great is we are getting more families, we are getting
(24:17):
more just people coming down there, and there's a sense
with the ambassador program that we helped start, so there
are people walking the streets late at night on the weekend.
Good so to give you a sense about security and
it's a fun place to be.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. We actually were just fortunate enough
during the La fires, I was able to get in
touch with SpaceX and we helped by the agencies get starlinks. Yeah,
one of them. We got Coasta, Mesa, Newport Beverly Hills,
City of Orange and the Huntington Beach Fire Department through
my friend Scottio who was a Huntington Beach firefighter, and
(24:50):
he put us in touch with the chief and we
were able to get them thirty starlinks. So when they
were up fighting the fires, they had telephones up there,
they're the best. Yeah, so and that's some you know,
sometimes you don't even realize that, like how a city
like this helps out other cities. And I think that's
really important. So Eric, let me mention this.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We're going through sort of like these suburban areas and
they're so close to the downtown core. And what I
love about a couple of things about Huntington Beach is
I think it's this great Mediterranean sort of look.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So the temperature only changes about.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Fifteen degrees from winter to summer year round, so it
can be one hundred degrees up inland and it'll be sixty.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Five to seventy five here.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Iss you very well now, But you have all this
great landscaping here and there there's blooms as we see. Yeah,
it's mid February. Oh yeah, and I have roses in
my house. I'm about a mile from here, and I
just love that. And you see different architecture. You got
old ranch like here and then you got some new
stuff that's a little bit more modern.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Definitely a mixture in Huntington. There's not a lot of
hoa feeling here. It's more like build what you want,
and that's a lot of different stuff that's right, which
is a nice feeling.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And then for the cyclist getting back to again, you
know Orange County and even Honey, there's bike lanes throughout
this entire city.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So very bike them. I mean you have to have
because none of us follow biking rules anyway. If we
live in a beach town, so you don't cross where
we want and drive where you want. So it's nice
to have a lane for that.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So you've come from say the four or five whatever,
now you're coming. This is on Main Street and Huntington
High that you mentioned high school? Yeah, right, so here,
I mean, look at these look at these great trees,
gorgeous and people. There's a lot of pride in these neighborhoods.
And this is where the Fourth of July parade, the
largest parade west of the Mississippi, four to five hundred
(26:34):
thousand people basically, and this.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Whole street is lying and it's unbelievable. I've been down
here for a four major party. I don't know if
I remember being down here, but I was here. Other
people remember you, they remember me. Just try not to
have that outs all rise. You don't want to hear that.
I don't want to put on my church clothes on
a weekday. Go see judge. So I think we covered
(26:59):
quite a lot. Thank you for telling us all about
Surf City. Yeah you want to hang right right here, Yeah,
go to Main Street. We'll go down Main Street as
we finish up. But I just want to thank you
for joining us today. Thank you everybody for listening, and
we'll see you next time on Locals Only. Absolutely, I
(27:21):
want to thank everyone on the straw Hut Media team,
including executive producer Ryan Tillotson and our editor and producer
Parker Jay Hicks. And as always, a big thank you
to Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach for providing
this beautiful Mercedes Benz EQE to be our rolling podcast studio.
(27:41):
Join us next time on Locals Only, where you can
buckle up and go for a ride in our mobile
podcast studio with some of the coolest people in Southern California.
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