I lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade and it may shock you that nobody went to the beach. The beach was for tourists. Santa Monica beach, and especially Venice Beach was dirty and gross. If you wanted to go swimming you went south. Manhattan, Beach .. Redondo Beach ... still pretty gross. Newport Beach, now that's where you went if you really wanted to go swimming, But now I hear there's Muddy Waters at Newport Beach and it's not very good and in fact kinda sad, boring and not really worth the drive. By the time you get there, you may be thinking to yourself ... that's a lotta hype, was it even worth it...?