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Escape from HB (Huntington Beach) to SD (San Diego) for a joyous weekday of theme parks, museums, or downtown city shopping. I absolutely love San Diego, and I love it even more when I get to spend the night at one of the luxury hotels recently built. While downtown Gaslamp offers massive amounts of new hotels and hotel rooms you can check into, some old time favorites at the beach include the Catamaran Beach Resort, and the San Diego Hilton Resort.

I can’t get down there soon enough. I am going this week or next, I’ve decided. It gets in your blood and you have to get your San Diego fix. I am posting bunches of hotels on this new site, Visitsandiegohotels.com

Huntington Beach Centennial is down to its last 3 months of celebrating. A beach party, concerts, and other celebrations have been great fun. Some require fees, which leave out the average person and others are free, such as the beach party in early October.

Get down to the beach on Oct. 3 for bands, bonfires and a birthday bash!

Hi Everyone who loves HB - Huntington Beach! Glad you’ve been checking out our excellent web, and are realizing that there’s stuff going on all year long. We’ve taken breaks ourselves, but have reporters out there covering the news and happenings in HB. While the surfing, fishing, swimming, bikes, boards and beautiful beaches are fine, we took a little trip to Las Vegas for some R&R while the prices are cheap. We just want to assure you good times are around the bend in our favorite little beach town on the Calif. Coast. Happy Travels!

Pacsun Pipeline to a Cure is one example of the hundreds of Huntington Beach events helping people in need. This past year there have been many fundraisers for cancer fighters and survivors, especially. Restaurants such as Longboard Pub and Gallaghers have been nice enough to open their hearts and doors to the fundraisers for special people with ills. Likewise, Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort restaurant facillities have been known for their banquet gifts to community events.

Pacsun event will be held on July 18, 2009 as a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa. Do check it out. Maybe you can help! Cost: $350 person. pipelinetocure.com

Surfin’ Sundays Concert at The Pier Plaza Amphitheater Promises to Rock you 3 Balls of Fire

 

On Sunday, May 3, 2009 between  11 a.m. and 5 p.m. an all star line-up of surfing music hits the HB downtown scene. Cost: FREE.

             

Location: Pier Plaza Amphitheater 325 Pacific Coast Hwy
Huntington Beach 92648

 

HBISM Phone: 714-960-3483   

 

Surfin Sundays, now in its 13th season, blasts off with a concert May 3 in Huntington Beach. Located at Pier Plazal, there’s a superb list of surf bands performing with the concert being dedicated to two very special people who have been valiantly beating the
odds against cancer. Founder/Director of Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, Natalie Kotsch, is making
headway with a new method of treatment & HBISM supporter, guitar legend,
Dick Dale is now cancer free! Here’s the bands that are performing in a concert you must see!

 

BANDS:
THE WEDGE
is a Dick Dale Tribute Band and will include Special Guests Lively Ones Joel
Willenbring on Saxophone and Guitarist Jim Masoner.

 

POLLO
DEL MAR faithfully year after year comes to us
with tremendous enthusiasm and unusual surf sounds all the way from San
Francisco.

 

3 BALLS OF FIRE originates from Austin Texas but
Guitarist Mike “Burnin” Vernon has been spending a fair bit of time in Los
Angeles recording so we lucked out as well.

 

SURF ROCKERS debuted for the first time last
year on our stage and knocked our socks off. 
Special guest appearance Outer Wave’s former Guitarist Jerry Rogers.

 

DEADMEN DON’T SURF is a rare opportunity that doesn’t
present itself too often but when it does you grab it and run with it.  Two key players are Ron Eglit & Kerry
Chester

 

We invite you to join in the festivities and help us celebrate 13
years of great music, from dedicated musicians who donate their precious
time in support of the museum. Our 15 concert lineup features 39 bands, oldies
but goodies and promising newcomers as well as celebrities like Dick Dale, Dean
Torrence, John Blair & Eddie Bertrand, who just happen to
drop in. We are blessed to play host to bands from the 60’s, Spain,
Northern California, Oregon, Las Vegas, Texas, Georgia, San Diego,
Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles & Orange Counties.

 

  

HB’s International Surfing Museum hosts an exhibit reception with two bands, food, drink and celebrities such as Gordie (Duane Gordon), famous board shaper. Surfboard Shapers Part 1: The Wooden Years, is the name of this new display featuring surfboard shapers beginning when surfboards were made from wood, glue and varnish.
Date: Sunday April 26th Time: 1 to 4pm.

For the 2nd year in a row, California Greetings wins the prestigious People’s Choice Award presented by the Orange County Register newspaper. The store has been in business since 2003, and feature eclectic gifts, funky items, souvenir stickers, cards, and books, clothing, home decor and the Huntington Beach Centennial Merchandise, plus coupons. The store is a member of the Downtown Business Improvement District. 

Huntington Beach, Calif.–Boy Scouts of America is a nonprofit organization that has long been known for its focus on the environment. Nowhere is that more evident than in Huntington Beach where good deeds often go unnoticed. Recently reporter Chris MacDonald was invited by Jean Nagy of the Huntington Beach Tree Society to provide coverage of an event in which Vincent Coleman, a Junior at Marina High School, worked toward his
Eagle Scout honors. Vincent, his family, friends, members of The Huntington
Beach Tree Society, plus community volunteers,
helped with this planting of 158 california native plants around the
new Riding Arena at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center for
the Therapeutic Riding Center.

We all love a good cause and during this economic environment, special event fundraisers have seemed to really help people in need more than traditional methods, or as an adjunct to other sources. That’s why we really want to help our friends, but like others, just don’t have the funds to offer. So my way of helping is through promotion. That’s why I am double and triple posting Natalie Kotsch’s fundraiser upcoming at Gallagher’s. Natalie, a tireless promoter of the surfing culture, founded the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum. Her contributions to Huntington Beach and aloha spirit have gone further in helping to brand the city and create goodwill than most efforts.

So when Natalie needs help, all the people she’s helped through the years (much like Michelle Turner, who has given free meals to surfers and youngsters in need), tend to feel a strong love and desire to help this brave lady facing cancer. Please consider supporting her though the fundraiser held at Gallaghers Pub and Grill in Huntington Beach on Monday, May 30th starting at 9pm.  All proceeds will go towards the medical
bills for Natalie Kotsch and Renee Benson, both fighting cancer. gallagherspub.com

The newest addition to the Huntington Beach hotels & resorts family is the Shorebreak Hotel. Welcome little sister or brother. Now ranked as the closest hotel to the Huntington Beach Pier, there won’t be a hotel for years to come that can gain this claim of being closest. The views are the selling point in which you’ll pay more for direct ocean facing rooms & suites. Here’s a bit more information about this new place. Read about Shorebreak Hotel. 

Huntington Beach Polo Club–What ever happened to the polo club and games they played at Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center?

If you spend much time driving by the horse stables visible from Golden West Street across from the Sports Complex, you may remember the weekend polo games, and maybe you even stopped to watch. I was one of those fans who grew up watching polo in the Midwest. I’ll never forget heading out to the green lawns and stepping on the grass to smooth it for the next round. The beautiful white tents, tablecloths and ladies in the fine summer hats all spoke of money and time on your hands.

It was exciting to see that Huntington Beach had polo games when I arrived into town and settled here.  I went some Saturday afternoons to watch the excitement in a fast-paced match, then went home to brush off the dust in fields that weren’t quite as glamorous as the country clubs in Chicago, but nevertheless, provided a flavor of the game and its thrills in a style of polo called arena polo. Arena polo really fit with Huntington Beach, I thought, but something didn’t work out, and one day it was gone.

When the equestrian center changed its operations, discontinuing not only those big events such as the GTE Summer Classic, and when the polo team left, it was sad to see the venue become more focused on the bread&butter weddings, meetings, events, and stable rents. It’s show business, as they say.

But it’s with some delight that I discovered that polo lives on in OC. The original Orange County Polo Club that was launched in Anaheim in
the 1980s and moved to Huntington Beach for about 15 years, has found a new home. After playing at El Toro Marine base for several seasons till forced to move out for the Great Park, one of the players has decided it’s time to build an arena so they can continue the sport. Denny Geiler, owner of Newport
Beach-based SoCal Self Storage and cofounder of the OC Polo Club, is investing in the club’s future by moving forward with plans to build an arena at  Coto de Caza Equestrian Center.

Talk about jumping through the hoops! Coto de Caza (gated community) residents had to give their blessings to the arena plans, but they weren’t so certain that  that the polo
field wouldn’t be disruptive. Things have turned around and some Coto residents are thinking of even joining the club, which currently charges just under $2000 for an annual membership, arena polo will secure not only a place to play, but a tradition spanning nearly 30 years in Orange County, Calif. An existing stables has room for 300 horses and with some spaces available, will allow the likes of Huntington Beach resident and polo club member David Schuberth to board his horse in South Orange County if he wants.

For us polo fans, we won’t be invited into the games, I’m guessing. Coto residents unfamiliar with polo games and arena play in the gated Coto thought there would be a lot of traffic, nighttime lights and noisy people watching the game in giant stands, according to Geiler, who’s working to get plans approved for the arena as a permanent home for a beloved sport.

Known as a sport for the mature and well-to-do, people often begin playing polo later in life in this expensive hobby costing more than golf.  There are approx. 25 arena polo clubs in California.

Huntington Beach, Calif.–You can call it a staycation if you like. But one thing’s for certain. HB locals are out raising more money for sick kids, having more contests for special causes, and attending events in larger numbers during this economic slumber. Nearly every week a school, group or cause is hosting a dog frisbee disc contest, a car show or 5K run. It’s a good thing! The benefits excess include: more activities on weekeneds; more opportunities to connect for causes; and more things for tourists to do while in town.

This week, for instance, a tourist contacted me to say she was amazed there were so many things going on. She thanked me for my volunteer efforts at rounding up events and posting them on my site, Huntingtonbeachevents.com, and said she looks forward to visiting Huntington Beach.

I started this website when there was a lack of comprehensive listings of events in Huntington Beach, and I mainly wanted to know what was going on. At that time, I do believe there were less special events happening.  I had to divest of my personal publication as I began promoting Huntington Beach tourism for the City’s non-profit marketing arm, the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, it was called (recently I saw it named Huntington Beach Marketing Bureau.)  I returned to my personal efforts when I left that job after two years of creating a calendar for the Conference and Visitors Bureau in Huntington Beach. What has happend in the past several years is nothing short of amazing. Now blogs make it possible for every group to post info about their events, and calendar of events software also allows you to spread the word with five minutes and click.

The Huntington Beach news community has grown tremendously. Some “reporters” are paid and most are not. The newspapers still provide a minority voice in the coverage with The Wave and Huntington Beach Independent being the two primary sources. Someone near & dear to me covers many events and offers his stories and photos to my publications, and a print newspaper. Then there’s the paid video guy, Matt Liffering, and the non-paid city historian, Jerry Persons, who both attend many events in Huntington Beach. Not to forget, Joe Shaw and his contributors for his blog. Several realtors have launched blogs, surfers with a camera have expanded their “jobs” and more and more info is spread online.

Where is it all going? I was a newspaper reporter and photographer at one time before I did all this stuff. As I saw budgets decline, I began building websites maybe 10 years ago.  While I believe the reporters are honest and stick with the facts, some of the newspapers are doing a major disservice the social networking online effort. I have insider info from individuals who are actually paid and solicited to blog for major newspapers, with the task of simply posting comments to columns as their “job”. By posting a comment, they give the paper a positive vote (the old system of negative votes was removed).  It is a fabrication of the news and a disturbing trend that hopefully one day will end. It is done to increase visibility in organic search in search engines.  It’s ultimately about revenue, and has allowed credibility to take a back seat. It is simply survival, one of these sources told me.

The good news is that events are more plentiful than ever, and if you have something of popular appeal, appropriately priced, and well timed, your success at hosting an event is favorable, thanks to the Internet and social networking.

A coaliton against illegal immigration launched a boycott against tourism to Mexico with a goal of halting the flow through distribution of fliers along the international border in San Ysidro in San Diego County.  Accusing Mexico of being aggressive and hostile to the United States and disrespectful of its laws, this Minutemen group and groups nationwide, including Huntington Beach’s Coalition for Immigration Reform, are urging Americans to stay in the U.S. and not give tourist dollars to Mexico.

About 22 million people visit Mexico every year and it’s believed that the effort will barely influence of affect individuals crossing the border for anything from a cheap vacation to legalized drinking or even medicine, cosmetics and surgery. The timing of this effort comes on the heels of an announcement yesterday that an illegal citizen and her Mexican daughter can stay in Huntington Beach for the welfare of the child, whose father seeks custody of his daughter in Mexico.

Huntington Beach’s surfing competition season switched into high gear recently with the launch of the Association of Surfing Professionals’ North America Longboard Qualifying Series event, Costa del Mar. Local surfer Colin McPhillips from San Clement took home the prize in the this first event. He’s aiming for his 4th longboard world title. Outranking Kai Sallas, Steve Newton, and Surf City’s own Josh Mohr, there’s still plenty of room as the season advances into its next competition. 

Professional Longboard Association is back in action and has given the longboarders a tour to embrace in the region–a California tour. It’s been at least four or five years since longboard surfing has carried a season worth of its own events. U.S. Open basically has been “it”.  Next on the tour is a PLA event April 25-26 at Ventura. Oxbow is planning
two world-class events this year– to be announced.

California Beach Vacations are awesome in Huntington Beach. If miles of sandy California beaches appeal to your sense of serenity and adventure, you’ll discover you can look to infinity practically. Gaze as far as the eyes can see to 8.5 miles of beachfront, the longest uninterupted coastline in the region.  With four separate beaches for your beach pleasure, you’re bound to discover miles of pleasure. Broken down into the separate beaches I enjoy: Huntington City Beach features the prime location next to the famed HB Pier.
Bolsa Chica State Beach is the northernmost beach on PCH between Golden West & Warner Streets.
Dog Beach is part of City Beach. It is located at Seapoint to Golden West on PCH.
Huntington State Beach is the southernmost beach with lots of firepits. It gets the bulk of the beach parking in the summer months.

Now the hotels at these beaches go like this:
Bolsa Chica features to great Sunset Beach hotels, Ramada Limited and Best Western Harbour Inn.
Huntington City Beach features Best Western Huntington Beach Inn, Shorebreak Hotel, Hilton Hotel and Hyatt Regency Resort.

As the president of the United States flew overhead in a helicopter, the kids at Peter Green Park were oblivious to this event, opting for a ride down the cool slide.

While there’s no actual proof that President Barack Obama actually visited Huntington Beach today, we did see five helicopters fly by from Long Beach Airport to Costa Mesa where he spoke at a Town Hall meeting at the OC Fairgrounds. Twice I took photos as the helicopters came and as they left for the airport. And I took my images smack dab in Huntington Beach. Can you imagine the mess it must have been at Long Beach Airport? I just flew in there a few days ago and am glad I planned it right. But wait a minute. According to eyewitnesses at Long Beach Airport, there wasn’t much to see.

Those who thought they would see the his new Air Force One land at Long Beach Wednesday afternoon were very disappointed. Disgruntled travelers whose flight departures had been delayed because of Air Force One’s arrival handled the delays quite well, and Gwen Dailey, of Huntington Beach, took her grandson Garrett Dailey, 5, out of  kindergarten at Golden View Elementary School to watch Obama’s arrival. The kids were studying presidents in his class and the grandmother wanted Garrett to see an historic moment, she said. When Air Force One landed, the crowd caught glimpses of the 747 between palm trees, the Gulfstream plant next door and various other obstacles. Described as a non-event, some left hoping to have seen more.

I was busy playing tennis at Peter Green Park (thanks for the nice tennis court, Peter!) when the helicopter flew by and when I got home the evening news broadcasts had moved onto Natasha Richardson’s death and Octomom’s trip to the hospital to bring two babies home. My son is a huge fan of Pete Weisner, a local reporter and professor at Chapman University, so he turned on some local PBS channel to watch him on the news (Peter wasn’t there). The commentator had somebody talking about Obama’s visit to OC, but the show had been pre-taped and there was no evidence that either individual had attended the actual Town Hall meeting. So life rolls on. And this weekend we’ll see the Beachcruisers Meet at Huntington Beach.

Small cutbacks have turned into lifestyle changes…and some people are complaining as this downturn hurts. While Nightly Business Report asked stock experts just six months ago if we were in a recession, and all said “no”, finally the flood gate of dirty secrets was let out of the bag and Americans, who knew things weren’t right, are discovering it doesn’t go away overnight.  Americans are experiencing cuts a lot deeper today than just a few months back, and the likes of Jason Jepson of Huntington Beach, Calif., who quit buying power bars at his health club, are admitting to the pain they feel in this difficult transition into “less”…which isn’t more.

The HB resident moved from a $1,200 apartment to a $700 room in a house as money concerns increased.
Also in Huntington Beach, a family of four (two adults & two kids) in the Hope View School tract lost their home and are waiting till evicted to find figure out where they’ll go. Working in the mortgage biz, they have yet to find jobs to pay rent and keep a roof over the children.
Just blocks away on Edwards Hill, several investors have been rocked by the Bernie Madoff scandal. Just living from month to month is tough now.
Over in South Huntington Beach near the new Trader Joe’s one person we know has shelved a 20-year career as a job placement professional and is trying to rep a food product for commissions that don’t come easy.
Then there’s the lady who lost her job at a legal firm and is shredding documents for a friend in an office, earning bits & pieces till she lands a full time job to pay the mortgage.
One couple wants to divorce but they can’t afford it now. He’s unemployed (lost his job) and she freelances.
Another did divorce and with the cash, he is carrying his business to keep it afloat.
Then there’s the family that found the husband left without notice. With no job and a disabled child, the wife is still looking for ways to survive and is thinking of moving in with her parents till something comes along.

This is the reality that the faces Surf City today. While some residents still are gainfully employed and unimpacted, anyone who tries to sell a house will learn that values aren’t the same as they once were. If you bought on the upslope, then you may lose your shirt. If you are retiring right now and were counting on a 401K, then you may have just seen your retirement plans fade.

A nation of optimistic buyers has become a nation of pessimists who are cutting back on window shopping as spending becomes a necessity for food, utilities and the basics. Hunkered down and hanging on to even pennies, when you’re in a crisis mode, you lock down.

The ways that people cope with spending are innovative, but mostly practical. For instance, a manager at a Von’s store was seen shopping with his wife at 99¢ Store, buying produce. Travelers and conference planners have come up with some great ideas to repackage their travel. “We’re holding off our conference till the fall,” said one technology firm planning a conference to Huntington Beach. Translated, the company didn’t have enough attendees signed up to break even on the trip, thus the delay in holding it. For those who think they can spend money on hotels, they are spending less and staying shorter amounts. Never have there been so many one night hotel stays as this year. In Huntington Beach, the City Treasurer, Shari Friedenrich reported at the recent council meeting that Hotel Occupancy Tax was down 15%. While that amount seems modest, one of the city’s largest sources of income is impacted by the downturn.   And just in case you are not touched by all this, remember that no job is secured, unless you own an oil well in town. There aren’t many who do, but they seem to be holding strong.

A Huntington Beach girl who resides illegally with her mom in HB has been allowed to stay with mom during a custody battle in which her father wants he back in Mexico where he lives. A Federal panel overturned a district court decision that would have sent her from her mother to live with her father in Mexico, even though none of three people are U.S. citizens.  With a custody battle raging across the border, the feds are letting her live here because she is settled in her new country despite her lack of legal status. Overturning a District Court judgment that would have sent the 11-year-old to live with her father in Acapulco, this case addresses international custody disputes. In a ruling by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, this apparently  new interpretation of the Hague Conventions on the protection of children in cross-border disputes, creates one more nail in the coffin of adherence to U.S. laws over non-American citizens according to immigration reform proponents.

Ira Mehlman, national media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said his organization believes the mother and daughter should be sent back to Mexico and let the Mexican authorities sort it out. The fact that someone brings a child to this country doesn’t entitle that child to stay automatically.

Did the fish served in the Surf City pokey make a man sick? He says that it did. Sean Harrington, 27, of Santa Ana, alleges the mahi-mahi he was served gave him food poisoning and made him sick, probably because of improper storing, he says. A prisoner at the jail for eight months, Harrington filed a claim for the medical expenses for his illness, about $2,400. Serving time for a driving under the influence and failure to stop accident in which he pleaded guilty, Harrington cooked the mahi-mahi that allegedly gave him food
poisoning on July 23. This is supposedly nothing unusual as the City of HB has an agreement with Orange County allowing some inmates to serve their time in Huntington Beach rather than county jails. Harrington said he cooked the fish properly, and it should have been fine, but it wasn’t. The jail has a kitchen similar to a restaurant kitchen. Its areas are inspected twice a year by state officials.