Venice Beach

Venice Beach is a sand-bottom municipal beach on the Santa Monica Bay coast of Los Angeles County, anchored by the Venice Beach Boardwalk along its central shoreline. The Boardwalk, officially Ocean Front Walk, is a two-mile pedestrian strip running parallel to the beach. The City of Los Angeles describes it as the second-most-visited tourist destination in Southern California, with more than ten million visitors per year. Muscle Beach Venice, an outdoor weight-lifting venue at 1800 Ocean Front Walk, sits along the strip; the namesake migrated south from the original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica in 1959. The Venice Skate Park, a concrete skate plaza built directly on the sand between Windward Avenue and Sunset Avenue, sits on the beach side of the Boardwalk. The beach traces back to Abbot Kinney's Venice of America development of 1905, which included a network of canals and a 1,600-foot amusement pier. The original Abbot Kinney Pier burned in 1920; the rebuilt amusement pier closed in 1946 and was demolished in 1947. The Venice Canals Historic District, three blocks inland between Washington Boulevard and Venice Boulevard, preserves a portion of the 1905 canal network and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the south end of the spot, 1.5 miles from the Boardwalk core, the Venice Fishing Pier is a 1,300-foot concrete pier at the foot of Washington Boulevard, built in 1963, condemned in 1986, and restored and reopened in 1997.

The bottom along the named beach is sand throughout, with breaking surf and no rocky structure or kelp within shore-access range. The spot is a surf zone biome.

Swimming and surfing are the dominant in-water activities along the full length of the beach. Skateboarding and rollerblading along the Boardwalk and at the Venice Skate Park are prominent surface uses, and the beach is a well-known skating destination. Hook-and-line fishing from the Venice Fishing Pier at the south end is common. With no rocky structure or kelp at the central beach to hold fish, spearfishing, snorkeling, and scuba from shore are all uncommon.

Paid municipal lots sit along Pacific Avenue and at Venice Boulevard, with hourly rates during the day and a flat weekend rate; the Rose Avenue lot near the Boardwalk core is the most convenient access point. Metered street parking on the blocks adjacent to Ocean Front Walk fills before 9 a.m. on summer weekends. Two Los Angeles city rules apply here, and they name different gear. Municipal Code section 63.44(I)(4) bars the use of a spear gun on any city beach or in the water within 1,000 feet of shore unless a posted area permits it, and it says spear gun only. Section 63.44(J)(10) goes further inside any park that contains a fishing pier, which covers the beach around the Venice Fishing Pier at the foot of Washington Boulevard, and bars any fishing spear or spear gun there. The beach is county-operated, so Los Angeles County Code section 17.12.450 bars using or carrying a fishing pole, spear, sling, or other spearfishing gear in the ocean within 100 feet of anyone in the water who is not using the same, and lifeguards can close any stretch to fishing. Hook-and-line fishing is legal under standard California regulations.