County Line Beach is a beach located in

Solromar, California Solromar (portmanteau of ''Sol'', ''Oro'', and ''Mar'', Spanish for "sun", "gold", and "sea") is a small unincorporated community in Ventura County, California, United States. Located at the north end of the Malibu coast, the community is just ...

, an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

. This stretch of sandy beach is easily accessible from the adjacent Pacific Coast Highway. This surf spot popularized by the

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

in their 1963 hit song "

Surfin' U.S.A. "Surfin' U.S.A." is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys, credited to Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson. It is a rewritten version of Berry's " Sweet Little Sixteen" set to new lyrics written by Wilson and an uncredited Mike Love. The s ...

" is administered by the California State Parks' Malibu Sector Coastal Lifeguard Program in addition to Leo Carrillo State Park. The beach lies within the south coast portion of Ventura County amidst a mostly rugged coastline that is some of the most striking and diverse coastal terrain in the county and a backdrop for many televised car scenes. The beach lies at the mouth of a canyon in the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range. Because of its p ...

that hugs the shore along the Ventura County's south coast.

Location

The beach is within Solromar, the most westerly community on the Malibu Coast and is within the Malibu zip code. The area was not included within the city of Malibu when the city incorporated as it is located just across the boundary separating from

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. Its sandy beach stretches over half a mile, bordered by the Whaler's Village Condominium complex to the east, the MariSol residential community to the North and a tract of single family beach homes on the western end."The Beach Boys' Malibu Beach House"
''

PR Newswire PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...

'' (Nov. 20, 2012)

Neptune's Net Neptune's Net is a seafood restaurant in Malibu, California. The landmark has been featured in countless television and film productions. History In 1956, the site began as a gas station, real-estate office, and restaurant called Panorama Pacif ...

, across the highway from the beach, has been used for filming movies like

Point Break ''Point Break'' is a 1991 American action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by W. Peter Iliff. It stars Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Gary Busey. The film's title refers to the surfing term " point break", where a ...

Fast and Furious ''Fast & Furious'', also known as ''The Fast and the Furious'', is an American action media franchise centered on a series of films revolving around street racing, heists, and spies. The franchise also includes short films, a television se ...

, and

Iron Man 3 ''Iron Man 3'' is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Iron Man (2008 film), Iron Man'' (2008) an ...

. The restaurant was opened in 1956. Firestation 56 is located at the southern end of County Line Beach and the 2008 station features two engine bays, living quarters for the crew, offices, an exercise room and shop. The Malibu Fire Station is staffed by three firefighters and houses Engine 56, Brush Engine 356. Also assigned are two Rescue Water Craft (jet-ski), and Patrol 56. Yerba Buena Road intersect the Pacific Coast Highway and leads up into the

where there are residential properties, and a number of recreational activities within the

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) is a national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in Southern California's Santa Monica Mountains. Located in greater Los Ange ...

such as the Grotto Trail. There is also a health and wellness retreat called The Ranch Malibu which has attracted celebrities like

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby (1978 film), Pretty Baby ...

and

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her 1999 debut single "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot ...

. It has a small parking lot and street parking is available along Pacific Coast Highway which is part of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route. This is an access point for California Coastal Trail.

Recreational activities

Board surfing, body surfing, kite surfing, wind surfing and stand up paddle boarding are common activities at County Line Beach. The water quality at County Line Beach is consistently graded as an A+ by the environmental steward organization Heal the Bay. It has a beach break with good peaks for surfing, and a point break that stays glassy from the thick

kelp bed Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on E ...

s. Junior surf competitions are held there and it has received some celebrity notoriety with "Ventura County Line" being mentioned as a favorite surf spot by the

in their 1963 hit song "

" Kite surfing and wind surfing are also popular at the beach.

Coastal marine habitat

Scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

and

freediving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breat ...

are popular because of the easy access and a

marine habitat A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the seawater, saltwater that is in the sea (the term ''marine'' comes from the Latin ''mare'', meaning sea or ocean). A habitat is an ecological or Na ...

consisting of an abundant

kelp forest Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on E ...

with numerous reefs. When the waves are small and the water visibility is clear, diving conditions can be good to excellent. The outer reefs have an abundance of sea life and are popular among spear-fisherman when the

white seabass The white seabass or white weakfish, ''Atractoscion nobilis'', is a species of Sciaenidae, croaker occurring from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, to Juneau, Alaska. They usually travel in Shoaling and schooling, schools over deep rocky botto ...

are running. Spearfishing, kayak fishing and shore fishing are popular here. The largest draw is for the California

when it is in season typically at the end of Spring and through Summer.

Pacific halibut The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and Calico bass are also popular game fish. Wildlife including dolphin, whale, seals, seabirds and fish are abundant off of County Line Beach. The large kelp forests and abundance of opalescent inshore market squid means a high biodiversity. The market (opalescent) (118,000 tons, $7,670,000) squid fishery is California's largest and most lucrative commercial fishery, off the coast from the beach. The thick kelp beds also provide an opportunity to test for

radioactive contamination Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of Radioactive decay, radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is uni ...

that could arrive in

ocean currents An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours ...

from Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.Sahagun, Louis (January 16, 2014
"Study to test California's kelp forests for radioactive contamination"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

References

{{SMMNRA Beaches of Southern California Malibu, California Parks in Ventura County, California Surfing locations in California Beaches of Ventura County, California

Location

Recreational activities

Coastal marine habitat

See also

References