Dockweiler State Beach is a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, with of shoreline and a

hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

practice and training area. Although a unit of the California state park system, it is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. Part of the park is located directly under the flight path of the adjacent Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The property was established in 1948. Originally part of Venice-Hyperion Beach State Park, it was renamed in honor of prominent early Angeleno Isidore B. Dockweiler in 1955.

Location

Dockweiler State Beach is in the

Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

neighborhood at the western terminus of

Imperial Highway The Imperial Highway is a west-east thoroughfare in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial in California. The main portion of the existing route begins at Vista Del Mar in Los Angeles near the Los Angeles Inter ...

. Between the beach and the airport lies the ghost town of

Palisades del Rey Palisades del Rey (Spanish for "''Palisades'' of the King") was a 1921 neighborhood land development by Dickinson & Gillespie Co. that later came to be called the Playa del Rey district of Los Angeles County, California. It lay at an elevation of 1 ...

. In August 2000 parkgoers witnessed smoke and flames shooting out of a Boeing 747's engine and metal parts as large as a dishwasher landing on the beach. The

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

flight bound for Amsterdam had just taken off from LAX and suffered a possible

bird strike A bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion (for an engine), bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH)—is a collision between an airborne animal (usually a bird or bat) and a moving vehicle, usually an aircraft. The term ...

in one of its four jet engines. The aircraft was able to circle and land again without injury to the 429 people aboard.

Hang gliding

The park boasts the Dockweiler Hang Gliding Center and the Hang Gliding Flight Training Concession; where beginners can learn the sport of hang gliding; experienced hang glider enthusiasts may practice the art and sport as the plaque set in 2000 at the site indicates. Enthusiasts and students of the concession launch off dunes. The facility was built by the city, county, and state; to serve lesson-and-renting needs a concession is operated by a concession named WindSports International, Inc. under a limited contract. With gentle breezes and a broad, sandy landing zone, Dockweiler was a major testing ground for hang gliding pioneers in the 1960s. Concerned about safety and liability, however, city officials banned the sport at the beach in 1986. Practitioners lobbied for 13 years to reopen Dockweiler to hang gliding, ultimately winning a $6 million renovation in 2000 that included the Dockweiler Hang Gliding Center. It was the first hang gliding park established in conjunction with a city government. Friends of Dockweiler Gliding Society (FDGS) was founded at the 2015 Otto Lilienthal Birthday Party sponsored by the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association; the FDGS is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the park's gliding activity for the public.

Bicycle path

The Dockweiler State Beach bicycle path is maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. It runs from Ballona Creek to the El Segundo city limit. Bike Path ID: 22. Mileage: 3.79. This bicycle path connects to the Ballona Creek bicycle path at its northernmost point and is part of the 22-mile coastal

Marvin Braude Bike Trail The Marvin Braude Bike Trail (also known as the Beach Bike Path, Coastal Bike Trail, The Strand, or the South Bay Bicycle Trail ) is a paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County, California ...

system.

Use

One of the few beaches in Los Angeles County where bonfires are permitted, it is popular for barbecues and picnics.

Wildlife

Snowy Plover The snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecie ...

s nest on the beach.

References

External links

Dockweiler State Beach
state site
Dockweiler State Beach
county site

{{Protected areas of California, SP 1948 establishments in California Beaches of Southern California California State Beaches Beaches of Los Angeles County, California Parks in Los Angeles Protected areas established in 1948 Playa del Rey, Los Angeles