[music] [music] >> female: There's no civilization.

It's completely nature, and that is so rad.

You're almost in a different world.

Like, you're not surrounded by people or the city.

It's just the ocean and cliffs on the other side.

And you feel like super at one with nature, and it's really cool.

It's just so different than most places you can find in San Diego.

>> male: It's just very relaxing.

I mean, I come alone.

I get away from it all.

I work in an office 9 to 5.

Leave all that stuff behind so I don't have to really think about anything at Black's Beach.

So I used to try to get some sun in the morning before work.

It wasn't really ever enough.

And I don't worry about skin cancer.

I mean, you know, when your ticket's punched, it's punched.

>> male: Maybe it's as much about what Black's isn't.

No boardwalk, no break wall, no jetties, no parking lots, no beachfront properties.

I don't know another beach like that.

>> male: Black's is clean.

It's got that nice soft sand.

Those cliffs behind you are just spectacular.

All throughout the day, they change with the lighting.

At night, if you're there for a sunset, they're just golden, they glow.

>> female: We heard about Black's Beach and that it was a nude beach, and we wanted to go check it out.

And back in those days, there used to be people hanging out on the beach doing body painting.

So we came down, we got naked, and got our bodies all painted up all pretty.

People hangin' out, smokin' pot, painting.

I remember there was a lot of giggling.

>> male: When I was visiting San Diego to check out Scripps, I had a board with me, and just walked down the beach and across the rocks and just knew Black's was the place, just a magical place.

>> male: Everything about it is just a beautiful place.

You know, you can make friends there.

You can be on your own.

You can do what you wanna do.

But if I'm going to the beach for the day in San Diego, it's only Black's Beach.

>> female: There's something really special about sitting on your board out there and looking straight in and just seeing cliffs.

You feel like you're back in time a little bit, back before people started building in California.

>> male: It's a more spiritual vibe that you get from the guys like me and others that have been surfin' there for 25, 30, 40 years.

Because of the commitment that it takes to get down there, that changes the experience and the feeling that you have ultimately for that experience and how you pass that on.

>> Sean Scott: My dad was very, very close friends with Bill Black, Sr., who owned the beach.

Growing up, we had horse stables here, and we used to ride horses on the beach.

He was my godfather, but he died when I was just a little kid.

He was a figure in San Diego.

I mean, he was like an oil tycoon from Texas.

He had armed guards on horses that would patrol the knoll and make sure nobody could stay on the beach 'cause it was his private beach.

He was a horse racing guy.

And where this house is right now was part of a track where he would train his racehorses.

My dad passed away, and so I got the house.

So we stayed and, you know, I was born and raised here.

>> Briana Scott: There's almost nobody.

The only time you see Black's super crowded is, like, Memorial Day, or, like, the 4th of July.

'Cause other than that, there's, like, nobody down there, and it's awesome.

Before people kinda treated this as, like, "Oh, this is where the beach is."

Didn't really stop to think, "Oh, you know, people live here."

And so we've had more than one person jump our fence to come wash their feet at our backyard.

And I also grew up being really used to seeing guys changing under their towels, and knowing that if they're changing under towels, probably don't look, because those towels aren't necessarily gonna stay up.

[music] >> Max Marien: The thing that makes this place the best is the scenery and how smooth and reliable it is.

So we get to fly here a lot more often than anywhere else.

Just bein' able to look at the cliff from that aerial perspective as you're flyin' along it, we get to know it intimately.

And the terrain features will change the airflow pattern and create lift in certain spots and maybe turbulence in others.

It's beautiful, it's maybe about 3 and 1/2 miles from one end of our cliff to the other.

It only takes about, you know, 20 minutes to cover the whole thing.

So, I was born in San Diego and my dad learned how to fly when I was about 10.

So, I used to come out and watched him when he was learning.

Eventually, he got me enrolled in school here.

I was 11 when I started going on tandem flights, and I did my first solo when I was 12.

You know, I've probably averaged somewhere between 500 and 1,000 flights every year for the last 16 years.

>> Vince Scheidt: Got a magazine article, and this was back in, like, '73 or maybe even earlier than that, and it was how you could make your own wing out of black plastic and bamboo poles.

It was, like, a deathtrap.

I mean, you can imagine jumping off cliffs in this.

That's what they had.

The community was startin' to develop and people were startin' to fly over Torrey Pines and above Black's Beach there.

And I would go over there and I would see these people, and I was just like, "Wow, I can do this," you know?

So I ended up buying one, a commercially-produced one.

I flew that for maybe two years.

There were no facilities there.

It was just a spot people would go.

There was no parking lot.

It was just kinda do your own thing.

There'd be days we'd go over there and there wouldn't be any action at all 'cause there's no wind.

So we'd just spend the whole day talking.

Or if you spent a whole day, a lot of times, I would fly down and land on the beach just because I knew I wasn't gonna be able to soar.

I dragged my girlfriend at the time with me, and she sat in the camper.

We had a cab over camper at the time.

Many years later, told me how much she hated sitting in there all day while I went flying.

She was loyal.

They also made hang gliding illegal for a short time 'cause, you know, it was kinda scary.

Over the course of my hang gliding, four or five years, I probably had six people that I know die.

So there was collateral damage taking place in this activity, you know?

It's just something that you accept.

>> Max: When we do end up losing the wind and we have to sink out, a nice summer day, there's a lot of good talent down there.

So we'll try to be clumsy on the landing.

We look for, like, a group of college girls out there, and, like, "Whoops," you know, and make it look like it was just a dumb rookie mistake, but then, you know, it gets the conversation started.

That's only when the stars align.

Most of the time it's, like, old naked dudes; it's just like, oh man.

>> Vince: You just step off into the air and you're lifted away.

It's a really cool experience.

It's almost like meditation if you do it long enough.

And I would sometimes fly for five or six straight hours.

>> Max: This is probably one of the best places to fly in the United States.

Honestly, I haven't had any thoughts about not doing this.

So I couldn't even imagine a life without paragliding or hang gliding.

>> Max: Today, I was chasing one of the hawks that fly around out here.

The peregrines nest on the cliff about halfway down.

They get aggressive in the spring 'cause they've got chicks in the nest.

They go right for your body or the back of your neck.

It's kind of unnerving to have a peregrine back there squawkin' at you and lookin' all fierce.

[music] [music] >> Will Sooter: When the dot-com crash came, and then 9/11 right after that, my phone just quit ringing.

I was comfortable enough to be able to not have to work.

I have a degree in natural resources management with a specialty in fish and wildlife management.

Had a lot of free time, and I was a runner.

And I would run down to Torrey Pines and towards Black's on the beach.

On one of those runs, I saw a peregrine falcon.

And I thought, "You know what?

I'm gonna start following that bird every day and see what he does."

I started taking notes, and I went out and bought a camera and I got binoculars, and I literally would follow him up and down the coast wherever he went.

I spent three years following that bird, and then I watched him die on a perch one day.

He just collapsed.

And so, I set up shop down there and I decided, "You know what?

I'm gonna come down here and spend seven days a week."

I didn't think I'd ever do it for more than a year or two.

You know, here it is, 11 years later.

[laughing] And I knew it was the fastest bird in the world and the fastest animal in the world.

And to have one in San Diego County that I could actually observe every day, 'cause it was a big deal because these are on the Endangered Species List.

I get in bio synchronicity with a wild animal.

I concentrate on those birds 8 to 12 hours a day, documenting their every movement.

I don't know how to explain it, except when I have to get in my car and get on the freeway and drive back home, it's like I'm going back into another world that it's like, "Look at all these people walkin' around on their devices and everything.

They have not a clue what's really going on in the natural world."

If you're gonna commit to doing a project or somethin' in your life, do the best you can do.

Why waste your time?

You don't do it for the money.

You don't do it for the fame.

You do it because it's a passion, and my passion is observing wildlife.

From what I last heard, there's probably about close to maybe 400 breeding pairs in the state of California now.

That's a success story when you think about how close these birds came to extinction.

>> Kimberly Clark: When you come to San Diego, it inspires you to be active.

And you can't have this great weather and this beautiful scenery and not wanna get outside and play in it.

This is just, like, one of the most impressive places you can take people.

If I'm bringing somebody from out of town, now I take 'em on a run here because I'm a runner.

But, you know, when I was in high school, I would take everybody who came in from out of town here because how can you not love this area?

>> Lucy Cardona: I grew up in Escondido.

So I have been going to Torrey Pines and Black's for over ten years now.

Black's, all I knew is that it was a naked beach [laughing] with a bunch of old naked men.

[laughing] And I knew that there was a full moon drum circles.

It was kind of like the urban myths goin' around the school.

I checked out my first one when I was in high school.

I came down with some friends, and it was kind of bizarre though, since I had never seen something like that before.

People just hangin' out.

There was a couple playing drums, you know?

They had had those didgeridoos and people just kinda dancing around.

It was pretty wild.

But I guess living here, you get kind of spoiled and you don't realize what you have, and you kinda take it for granted, but then when I met all my friends in college, they were all from different areas, and that's what they wanted to see, was the beach, and, you know, Black's Beach, and Torrey Pines.

So we'd come out here and explore.

>> Lucy: I think what's so different about this whole area is the cliffs and the beautiful, the different layers, and it's also the glider port area.

It's a surf spot.

It's a training spot for people that run.

I mean, there is a lot to do here, big variety of activities.

You can't help but be in awe just at how beautiful it is.

I think that that leads to a lot of really good, serene, calming runs just because you see breathtaking scenery that you get to run in.

I think that a lot of runners pick up running for a healthy lifestyle, but a lot of it's for stress management.

If I'm trying to get more miles in, I'll run the whole coastline here, but I think that just getting to see the beach can be really calming and have a really calming effect, so I like to at least see it once during my run.

[music] [music] [music] >> Sean: When my dad moved up into the farms, he got a key 'cause if you're a resident, you get a key.

So I, of course, took that from him right away, said, "Yeah, Dad, you don't surf, you know, what are you gonna do down there?"

But I always give everybody a ride up if I can.

And it's amazing, for 40 years almost, I've had a key, and I've only had it ripped off once, and it wasn't ripped off intentionally.

Someone ripped off my car at the bottom of the road, and we found it, like, in San Francisco, and the key was still in the hiding spot.

I have a truck basically just to be a beach truck, and it has 10,000 miles on it, and 98% of those miles is just the mile going up and down that road.

Before UCSD existed, this was called the Beach and Bridle Club.

You had to be a member of that club to get a key to that gate, and Bill Black controlled the gate 'cause it was his property.

But he had the CC&Rs that he had set up.

He wouldn't allow blacks in the neighborhood.

He wouldn't allow Jews.

I mean, he was very, very restrictive on who lived in this neighborhood.

There's bootleg keys, stolen keys.

I mean, there's hundreds of people who have keys.

>> male: Oh, especially among surfers.

People know that there is a gate and there's a key, and that's probably the most coveted key in all of California.

I've seen people offer $7-$8,000 for a key to Black's.

And I think some people do look at it a bit of jealousy, especially people that come from out of the area because they mess with the lock all the time.

People will shove wax in it.

People have put dog feces on it.

So it's kind of a jealousy thing.

>> male: See, I'm on both ends of this, so I've been driven up the road many times, but I've also walked it many times.

You're hot, you're sweaty.

The ground's baking.

You're sluggin' up the hill, and here comes a carload full of guys, big smiles on their faces.

And they don't stop for you.

They just keep goin'.

So I've been on both the giving and the receiving end of that.

>> Karin Zirk: We used to come up to Black's Beach in the summertime on the full moon with our surfboards and LSD, build a fire, and spend the night surfing and doing other things.

[laughing] And then I started talking to a couple people and we started talking about Black's, and we talked about how much we loved Black's.

And then we were just sittin' around going, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had a drum circle at Black's since we all love Black's so much?"

So we planned one for the full moon in January of 1994, and it was just, like, 4 or 5 of us that decided to focalize this, and we tacked up flyers around the county 'cause back in those days there really was no Internet to speak of.

The night of, we got down here at, like, 4 o'clock, and we built a fire, and we waited.

And then, all of a sudden, we, like, looked south on the beach, and there was just, like, all these people walking up the beach, you know?

We probably had 3 or 400 people.

And we were like, "Wow, this was really cool."

I did it every month for five years.

You know, and people dancing naked by the fire are just communing in their method of being with the full moon, being with the Creator, being with the drums, being with whatever spiritual tradition they find.

>> Shawna Stark: It's kind of away from Babylon, in the sense that you can't see too many lights from the city when you're down on the beach.

You can't hear the road.

What you are is you're engulfed in nature.

That whole place was great for us to gather with our intentions 'cause it's kind of like we're holding hands with earth and the ocean, which is a huge part of life.

And that's the symbol of the rainbow family, is we are all one.

We're all a part of this beautiful rainbow of things.

It's crazy madness.

It's beautiful, but it's also chaos, and that wasn't how it used to be.

There was a little bit more order to it.

But the drumming took over, and it wasn't so much about the spiritual evolution we were creating anymore, but more about, "Let's just drum it away," and people got frustrated with that.

>> Karin: I don't really mean to rag on the drinking, but the thing with alcohol is there's a time and a place.

You know, it's like if you're a churchgoing person, you generally don't bring a six-pack of beer to church.

And for us, and for a lot of the people comin' to drum circle, that is church.

Some circles are AA, some circles are about Jesus, and some circles are about drums, and some circles are just about getting really--faced drunk.

And they're all good, and I love them all, and I respect them all, but just, you know, don't try and wreck somebody else's vibe.

You know, if you want a different vibe, go start your own circle.

>> Clint Linton: But the chancellor's house is right over there.

It's dated at 9,850 years old.

It's the second-oldest burial in the entire country was found there.

I work on behalf of the Kumeyaay; that's my tribe.

We have something called the KCRC, the Kumeyaay Culture Repatriation Committee.

There's two roles for a native monitor.

You're there to police the archaeology, make sure they do things honestly, ethically, and within what the tribes wanna see.

The other role is to bring the tribal perspective to archaeology and to these agencies so they can hear and understand our points of view.

That's the side of the job I like.

But it only happens through us doing it.

We have to go out there and either take the hand that's given to us or extend a hand and say, "We wanna work with you."

And it's happening more and more.

We are getting past that initial anger.

The federal government's against us 100% on everything we ever do.

It's still the same way.

We fight over every little thing with the Fed.

Working with the local agencies, like the City of San Diego, they're very cool to us.

They sympathize, they understand on that local level, "This is part of our community.

How do we deal with this?"

At the federal level, it's, "No, wave a magic wand.

Make 'em go away."

I'm an archaeologist as well.

What I've seen is a continuity.

The artifacts don't change.

Basically, the economy of here, from Black's Beach all the way around the cove, it's a stable economy for 10,000 years.

We did not adversely affect the environment.

No one species went extinct.

This is, like, the biggest buffet in the world, is the ocean and the estuaries where they worked.

You'll find every food you want here.

In the archaeological record, we find the ancestors were eating dolphins.

They're eating sea lion.

They exploited over 180 different species, from shellfish to sea otter.

They lived occupations year-round.

And if something was a nice place to live now, it was a nice place to live back then too.

They're really all just one gigantic burial ground.

There's been hundreds and hundreds of burials come out of there.

They're all part of that same complex.

It would have had its own place name for being described as the burial ground that it was, but natives are not privy to that, it's gone.

Nobody knows where the natives from here even went.

But that's sort of the history of how things were in San Diego.

It wasn't nice, you know, for the natives.

It was really an ugly history.

When I first started working down here and I had my very first burial I ever dealt with, I brought it back to KCRC and said, "This is what we have.

What's our protocol?"

And they were kind of stopped, like, "What do you mean we have a huge village down there?"

"Yeah, it's one of the biggest village, oldest villages in the country."

And they're kinda like going, "We didn't even know it's there," 'cause that's how farly disconnected we are.

[music] [music] >> Clint: The first time I come to Black's Beach, some kids in school said, "There's a nude beach in San Diego," and we were all like, "Where--what?"

And we pictured the French Riviera, you know, like, oh, you're gonna go there and there's these beautiful women laying all over the place.

So we come down here, me and one of my cousins, and it wasn't what we thought it was.

That was my first experience with it, of going, "Oh, not all nude beaches are French Riviera style."

>> female: One of the biggest reactions I would always get was like, "Oh, the nude beach?

Oh, you can hang out with the nudies."

I'm like, "Well, not really, I'm 12."

I just personally don't feel like I'm comfortable there because I'm a young girl and there's all these men there, but I do think it's important to have it.

There's not really anywhere else people can do that.

I totally respect people, you know, wanting to be a nudist.

>> male: If you're a lifeguard and you have to take control of the other end of the beach, you may end up going out on your rescue board and bringing three nude guys in on it, you know?

I mean, where else does that happen in the world?

>> Jim Dubois: I really hate to be encumbered in my life with clothing.

I mean, I really hate to wear clothing.

I hate clothes.

I find it amusing when people go to a beach that they feel compelled to wear a bathing suit.

You know, you're actually wearing clothes into the water.

I've always been a sun worshiper.

I really do consider myself a naturalist.

From the first day I got here, I mean, the first opportunity I had to put my feet in the water, I did.

And I saw it like a christening.

>> Erik Rueher: Why does one person like one thing versus another thing?

Sometimes there's just no reason.

It's personal preference.

The feeling of freedom, the feeling of sun, swimming without a swimsuit.

You know, all those things are really great.

I think people have a natural curiosity about other people's bodies and because our society hides that, there's some interest in, "Okay, what do people look like?

And why is it such a secret?

And why is everybody covered up?"

>> Dave Cole: When you meet somebody, you immediately judge them by what they're wearing.

When you meet people nude, you can't prejudge them.

Now you're talkin' to a person and you get to know them as a person, and it's powerful.

I know people on the beach that I have known for 15 years.

I still have no idea what they do for a living, and it doesn't matter.

I think being a nudist is a great way to live.

It has made me much more accepting of people in general.

I treat people better now than I think I used to.

>> Nicole Babkow: You have to try it to just get over that, and then you're like, "Then you'll get that."

Won't need to explain it 'cause you'll just be like, "Oh, okay, I get it."

It might not be your thing, but at least you tried it.

But it's all about--you have to start with body acceptance.

As long as you're okay with yourself, then it's a little bit easier out here.

>> male: '84 I got here, in the Navy.

Somebody told me there was a nude beach.

Twenty-one years old, my brain says, "Supermodels."

Never even considered there might be men there.

I was afraid to ask anybody.

I didn't want 'em to think I was a pervert, which I was.

I wanted to go see these naked women.

Took me a few weeks.

I finally found it.

Then I hiked down the hill, and I sit down, and there's a bunch of fat old men.

At some point, I really felt awkward because I'm sitting there with my shorts on and everybody else around me is sittin' around naked, and so I squirmed out of my shorts.

And the first thing I realized was nobody cared, nobody noticed.

I never had that, "Aha," moment, where it clicked that, you know, this isn't about looking at other people.

I just enjoyed the atmosphere.

I enjoyed the comfort of not having a swimsuit.

It's special in the sense that it's the largest.

Most nude beaches are very small.

They might be 100 yards.

Black's is almost 2 miles.

It's probably one of the most famous in the world.

It's very important to the nudist community.

Almost everybody in the nudist community knows of it, and it's right in our backyard.

I mean, God, it's wonderful.

>> male: I've been to some, you know, 40 or 50 nude beaches around the world.

There are a couple in Europe that compare, but in the United States, I don't think there's anything that comes close.

Black's Beach was definitely the number one.

The biggest crowd, it was just the biggest and the best.

There's a dividing line between the city beach and the state beach.

The city beach was very different in the 1980s.

But that entire area, that mile or 2 was totally open to nudity, although it was mostly used by surfers and people who weren't interested in nudity.

There were naked people.

There were clothed people.

There were hikers.

But there's a gay section, a lot of young people, a lot of college students, a lot of hippies, mixtures of older people, families.

You know, so it was just a real mix of people.

And then that changed in around 1999, or that era.

Nudity was no longer legal in that area.

>> Nicole: I come here to be naked.

I come here for the people.

This is a very open place.

You never know who you're gonna meet.

We have many teachers down here.

We have high-ranking members of the FBI.

Many of them just say, "You know, that's who I am.

I prefer to stay quiet."

And some of even give fake names because they're not comfortable with their social status or their career.

>> male: I like women.

I want 'em to be there.

I don't wanna sit around with a whole bunch of guys all day long, that's a little weird.

So we started seein' these handful of guys that were up and down the beach and creepin' all the girls out.

And we just said, "You know, let's do somethin' about this.

Let's make them uncomfortable."

You know, we'd just walk over and lay an umbrella in front of 'em, block his view.

There were times that we'd get four guys that would just walk over and stand in front of him, where our crotch is at eye level.

Put a wall of--right in front of 'em and just stand there, and then just start talkin' about him as if he's not there.

>> Nicole: There are not many single females out here.

Everybody has their comfort zone.

Some women will be bottomless.

Some women'll topless.

And since we are a clothing-optional beach, it's okay.

When we have events here.

I always make it a point to invite anybody.

You know, somebody's here alone, doesn't really know anybody, "Hey, you know, we're havin' this event down there if you wanna meet new people.

Come to our barbecue."

And you find some interesting people.

>> male: Somebody brought down charcoal.

We all brought down food.

Had a big Labor Day picnic.

We had a wonderful thing goin' for about ten years.

Well, I knew people from all over the world 'cause people come from all over the world to visit this beach.

It was her idea to get married there because it was a special place for both of us.

So we had over 100 people, and they raked a aisle in the sand for us, and they lined it with sandcastles, flowers, and seashells.

It was a wonderful day, a perfect day.

We just had fun.

We still get people sayin', you know, "It was the most fun wedding I've ever been to in my life."

There was a girl I ran into a couple years ago.

I was talkin' to her on the beach and she goes, "Did you get married here a couple years ago?"

And I was like, "Yeah."

She goes, "That was my first time to a nude beach."

She goes, "I loved it."

She goes, "I wanna get married in the nude."

Black's for years has been my happy place.

People all over the country know me as Black's-Beach-is-my-life, and it was for 10 years, 10 or 12 years.

It literally was my life, and it's hard to give that up.

>> male: From Scripps Pier to Box Canyon is a Marine Protected Zone now, which is good because that is such a unique environment.

You have intertidal zone, then you have the beach zone.

You have the interaction with the cliff.

You have the canyons, which are conduits for other types of wildlife.

You've got coyotes.

You've got bobcats.

You've got skunks.

You've got possums.

So if you went down there at night, the beach is covered with skunks.

[laughing] I wonder how many nudists have been sprayed down there.

[laughing] Prior to the mid-'70s, there was no environmental protections in California.

No one thought about it as being a protected area or a preserve.

They just thought of it as being land.

Nowadays, you have to go through the whole environmental review process, which is what I do professionally.

So, now people think of land differently.

They think of land as being either owned by somebody or government or preserve or parks.

They never think of it as just being land, at least along the coast.

There's all kinds of cool plants and animals.

You know, there's California gnat catchers, which is a listed species.

There's some barrel cactus and just a bunch of really cool stuff.

It's a really interesting area biologically.

>> Walter Munk: I think we've all realized that the problem of climate change is a difficult scientific problem, but the problem of doing something about it is much more difficult.

But I think it can be managed.

Finite technical problem, many people work together, I think it's solvable, just like the war against the Axis was solvable.

>> Walter: My name's Walter Munk.

I'm research professor Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

I was a junior at Cal Tech 1939, and I was dating a girl at Scripps College.

I needed a job so I could spend the summer dating her.

And I called on the director, Harald Sverdrup, asked if he would give me a summer job, and he said, "Yes."

I really very much enjoyed my first summer here and decided that's what I wanted to do.

Scripps, in order to entice people to go to the intellectual desert, La Jolla, actually offered anybody who was offered a job and accepted it an acre of land.

Wasn't that something?

I worked in the Pentagon, and I learned about our plans to land in Northwest Africa.

And I went home and said, "I've got to find out how big the waves are in winter in Northwest Africa."

And we sat together for months in the Pentagon and decided, "How do we predict waves?"

We had the prediction for the Vichy landing.

And by more luck than skill, we had two good days.

I said, "Let's figure out what happens to the waves when they come into Scripps Canyon."

And we wrote a paper that's probably my first publication.

>> Falk Feddersen: So, as a graduate student, I was like, "Whoa, they're gonna pay me and I can learn about the mathematics of surfing, and I can go surfing too?"

So, it was a romantic ideal.

I'm a coastal physical oceanographer.

I study the waves and the currents and how stuff moves in the near shore region.

There's a big canyon offshore, and that canyon splits into two heads, one of which is called the La Jolla Canyon, but then there's another head of the canyon that branches up towards the north, and that entire canyon system is one of the reasons that you get such good waves at Black's.

It actually bounces.

The wave energy bounces off the canyon.

So, on a, like, really solid, like, 290-degree swell, and Black's is actually facing a little bit to the south, and all of a sudden, you get these peaks, they look like they're comin' out of the south.

It's because that wave has reflected off of the canyon and melded with another wave that's coming out of the west.

And it gives you these big A-framing peaks.

Right there at the canyon rim, there's all kinds of life, and the water gets cold very, very fast.

Marine life likes the contrast between warm and cold water.

>> Walter: But that first summer in '39 here at Scripps, I learned about the submarine canyon off Black's Beach.

It had just been discovered, and it's precipitous and beautiful.

Waves move faster in deeper water.

So if you have a canyon and the waves come in from deep water, in the middle of the canyon, they move faster.

"Refraction" is the right word, just like a lens in optics.

And if you have it come in just right, you get these enormous waves.

There had not been a wave forecast before we did it.

I tried to find out and I'm reasonably sure that there had been none.

But now we have 250 or so graduate PhD students here at Scripps, and they've become so computer-oriented that I keep hoping that we don't lose the ability to make direct ocean observations.

You can fail if you do an experiment and something doesn't work out.

It's not so likely that you fail with a computer.

People are so afraid of failures.

I've had many failures, and it hasn't done me any harm.

But we are very much involved in the climate problem now.

We think we really have to have a war on climate, like we had a war against the Axis.

It's difficult, but there's no question in my mind that if nothing is done, it's gonna be very, very awkward.

>> Ernie Hahn: Every day like this morning, when I get out of the water and I go into work, I feel like I was given a special gift and I can't wait to get to that the next time.

Surfing's in my DNA.

You know, my dad surfed for 35 years.

But once you find a spot like Black's, it's extra special.

It picks up a northwest swell better than any place in San Diego.

When I surfed there, learned how to barrel ride, and learned how to tube ride, learned how to cope with the big waves and canyon sets.

It's just unlike any wave, certainly in San Diego, with the deep offshore canyon, the refraction that happens off the canyon, and it just forms a unique little hollow wave, and it's just a better wave.

It becomes more than just that riding a wave experience.

It's the 15-minute walk.

It's the cliffs.

It's the water.

It's the light, and it really is that cathedral-like experience.

I can compare it on any given day, it's as good as any spot, I think, in the world.

>> CK Littlewood: I moved to San Diego in 1979 to attend UCSD.

At that time, I didn't know what a magical place it was, but I found out very quickly.

Despite the growth of San Diego, you can go down there, especially early in the mornings, and you can be one of only a couple people down there or by yourself.

It's in the middle of a major metropolitan area, but you can still walk down there and find peace and uncrowded beauty.

>> Ty Kramer: In 1981, a friend took me down to Black's for my first time, and I'd never been to a place that was not your stereotypical Southern California beach.

Seeing just unspoiled nature virtually untouched by anybody, there weren't too many people that wanted to walk that far to go to the beach, and there's no water, no restroom, nothing down there.

So hardly any crowds at the time.

Generally, when deep water comes to shallow water, it has to do with the reef.

And I think--is one of the only beach breaks that'll break as hard as, or almost as hard as a reef will break.

I think people, when they think of Black's, think of it as one of the best beach breaks in the world.

I would bet you that worldwide more people know Black's as a nude beach than know it as a surfing beach 'cause I've been in other states with a Black's Beach shirt on, and they'll go, "Oh, Black's Beach.

That's the nude beach."

They never say, "Oh, that's Black's Beach.

Killer waves there, right?"

>> male: I even get that here in San Diego.

I'll wear a Black's Beach shirt and they'll go, "Oh, you go to the naked beach, huh?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

[music] >> male: Black's is one of those waves that if you catch early, it's just magical.

I'm a goofy foot, so it's probably the best left in Southern California.

I don't know how much I would surf if I didn't have Black's.

I mean, I've been spoiled my whole life with the best wave.

I mean, I've surfed in Hawaii and other places, which are great and all, but to have it in your backyard, it's just crazy.

I mean, there's been days, frighteningly big days I've been out there and thought I was gonna die.

[laughing] >> male: When it gets big at Black's, sometimes the waves'll slow down in that canyon, and the wave behind it will double up on it.

So, the general rule is no matter how big it is, there's always potential for the 2X set.

So, if it's 8 foot, a 16-footer could roll through at any minute and catch everybody off guard.

But one day, CK and I were surfin' there.

He was sitting in front of me a little bit, and as I turned around, just for a sec to keep my eye on the horizon, I see a big dark lump coming.

And so I beat it without saying anything to CK, and I just took off.

And the first set was rolling through, and I just scratched it over, and so did CK.

And the second one was even farther out and even bigger.

It's a big, looming cleanup, what we call a "canyon set."

And I just scratch over that one.

And here comes the third one, and it's enormous, and it's just taking out the entire horizon.

And I get up to the very top, and the wave's just about ready to break, and I spun around on my board and I just waved at CK.

Like, he's paddling as hard as he can, and he looks pretty worried that this wave's gonna come down on his head.

But as soon as he sees me, he starts to laugh and smile, and then the wave broke, and I didn't see him again that morning.

>> CK: But that was a good 2 and 1/2, 3 stories high.

Just got annihilated.

We call that one, to this day, "The wave."

Only two times in my whole life have I literally prayed out loud to God to save my life, and both of those times were at big canyon-dwelling Black's.

>> male: You gotta know your limitations down there.

It's a very strong wave.

And for that very reason, when I've gone around and surfed a variety of spots from Australia to Indonesia or Tahiti, Black's is incredible training because pound for pound, it is a punishing wave.

There's a real feeling of camaraderie, and there's a real feeling of not only taking care of the beach, but taking care of each other down there.

And it's a tight-knit group.

>> male: Not a person.

I mean, you could look all the way down the beach, and it'd look like it was just deserted, and go out and surf on days and be by yourself, and perfect, crazy.

And then that all changed when the Internet came to be.

People with surf line and surf cameras and wave models and weather tracking, it changed the whole thing.

Now, there's a click of a button, everybody knows what Black's is like.

>> Jon Sundt: When I was 17, my mom and dad split up, and he moved to La Jolla Farms.

Got a house right above Black's.

And my dad told me, "Hey, yeah, I got a new house, blah, blah, blah.

It's out at surf break Black's that you know about."

I was pretty stoked.

So I started surfin', you know, pretty regularly when I was 16, 17, 18.

I went to UCSD because of Black's.

I just applied to one school at UCSD 'cause I knew I was gonna go there.

I was gonna surf Black's.

And I worked at Chart House in La Jolla, and I could go in at 4:30 and I could all I wanted and start work at 5.

I could see Black's from the restaurant.

Half the guys that worked there surfed Black's.

You know, I remember waiting tables at Chart House and actually having the post-nasal come while you're takin' the order, and just, like, turning away, and just letting it drip, and just wipe it on your shoulder and come back and finish the rest of the order.

You know, 'cause you had just surfed Black's.

[music] [music] >> Jon: I used to throw this contest down there.

I started a nonprofit called Natural High, but back then it was called Sundt Memorial.

We raised money to teach kids not to do drugs and pursue their natural high.

And we had, you know, Slater, Machado, all the kinda pros of that era.

They'd come down and surf Black's.

And they'd surf in the same contests you would.

It was bitchin'.

Yeah, those were the days, man.

We had 3 or 400 people on the beach.

We had a band.

We had food.

We had--it was just--it was killer.

Black's is one of these breaks where you can go down there and have, like, the best time of your life, and then on the big enough swell, you can have the scariest time of your life, you know?

It can just scare the--out of you.

Black's on a really big day is a whole different ballgame.

It's like the whole character of the ocean changes.

You get these sets that come and sink the whole ocean floor.

You know, I get butterflies just thinkin' about it.

I think Black's is kinda like a woman.

Like, maybe you know this girl or this woman pretty well, and then you meet her on a certain day, and it's like, "What just happened?"

For the most part, you go down there, you have a great time.

It's a fun wave.

But you get the right swell, and it's a different beast.

So my first house was down at the Windansea Horseshoe area, and I always thought to myself, "I gotta live closer to Black's."

And then I got a little bit closer.

I bought a place down at the Shores, and I could just barely see the cliffs of Black's and the back of the waves of Black's from my house.

And then I wanted to dream drive, and I drove around La Jolla lookin' at all the houses I would wanna own one day, and they were all centered around Black's.

And this is one of 'em.

I saw this house from the cul-de-sac.

We used to always check the surf here.

"Wow, this is it.

Man, this is the house I've always wanted."

And I got up here and blah, blah, blah, blah, and you can't quite see Black's, but you're pretty damn close.

You're right at the Black's lookout street.

>> male: Oh, get some, whoo!

>> Ryland Rubens: I always just surfed 'cause my family did it, and I started with I was three, so I started really, really young.

Around, like, eight to ten, I was kinda like, "Oh, like, I wanna do this."

You kinda learn skills out there that you can take around the world really anywhere.

I've kinda had more comfort around the world because I learned stuff from surfing Black's.

One time, I went out at Black's on a big day, like, a really big day, and I was probably about 9, 10 years old, probably, like, 20-foot faces.

It was pretty big.

It is pretty scary, but I was a crazy, crazy little kid.

Like, I had no fear 'cause when you're so young, you don't realize how dangerous the moment is.

You know what I mean?

But when it gets to, like, 12 to 15 on the face, I think it kinda empties out a little bit 'cause it gets, obviously, more serious and more dangerous.

But I think that size and up is kind of when those fangs come out.

[laughing] I've been pretty lucky, but one time, I was probably about 11 or 12, and it was, like, a really big day.

Me and my dad were paddling out, and we were almost to the outside and this big set came, and, you know, I'm, like, 12, so I have no strength or anything.

So I tried duck diving under it, and my dad makes it under, but I don't, and it sucks me back, and then it holds me down for a super long time.

He said he looks back and my board's, like, tombstoning.

And I was, like, all the way on the bottom.

That was kinda scary 'cause when it holds you down for that long, it's really easy to panic.

Obviously, that's not what you should do, but when you're that young, you kind of start freakin' out.

Whenever it was big when I was younger, he'd always ask me if I wanna go out and stuff.

He wasn't just forcing me to paddle out.

And that's what it's always been, you know?

He's just kind of, like, he just asks me if I wanna do it, would I feel comfortable with, and just kinda goes from there.

And I give him credit.

If I had a son, like, putting him out in those big waves, that would be pretty scary.

I can literally not compare any wave to Black's.

I've been kind of around the world, and I haven't really seen anything like it.

If you ask anyone around the world that's surfed Black's on a big day, they'd be like, "Oh, yeah, it's serious."

Even if you're from Hawaii or wherever, when it gets big, it's on.

It's pretty solid.

[music] [music] >> female: I kinda, like, measure my stages of life based on the wetsuits 'cause there's a tiny, tiny one, you know, from when I'm five, and then there's one of when I'm ten.

It goes up and up until now 22.

I was so stoked as a little kid.

Slowly I started, you know, being able to paddle on my own and catch waves and then start surfing with my dad.

That was the coolest thing.

What other kid at, like, ten gets to go surf with their dad at Black's?

Like, that's rad.

And luckily, more girls now are going out, which I really like seeing, but for the longest time, I was the only girl, especially the only little kid.

A couple of years ago, during the winter, there was this huge swell.

The faces, I think, were, like, 20 feet.

And we just sat and watched the power of the ocean.

It was the coolest thing ever.

It makes you really appreciate it and how small you are.

>> male: When my daughter was three or four years old, I was pushing her in waves at Black's.

And she was so small, but she looked like an infant riding waves.

So what surfing has done, that sport has been the cement that's kept my family very close 'cause the kids, when they're here in the summertime, we always go surfing.

In the Midwest or in the North where you don't have surf, people have hunting, fishing, golf.

They have other things that they can do to create that bond with their kids, but there's just something about the stoke.

That first wave you catch on your own and stand up on an unbroken wave, there's no words for how amazing it is that you're riding on this natural wonder, this hydraulic oddity, and you're in command of it on a board.

But when that day comes, and as a dad, you're out in the lineup, and you're like, "Come on, come on, you can do it."

And your son or your daughter paddles out and they're next to you, and you watch them catch that first wave, it's a milestone in your life and that you just never ever forget.

It's spiritual, you just can't understand it unless you do it or it's happened to you.

>> male: Well, see, I'm 47.

I think my personal goal right now would be 70, 70, and I think I could do 75.

I'd probably have to move up on my 5'10" board that I use right now for most everything.

As long as, you know, my health can stay good, I can stay in good shape, which as long as I'm walkin' the hill, I will be.

While I'm throwin' that out, let's say 80.

>> John Sandmeyer: I consider it the strongest waves in San Diego.

So you get people that know what they're doin' better, but when it gets bad, it gets real bad quickly.

I joined at 17 straight out of high school.

At the time, I was probably the youngest lifeguard ever, and have been a permanent now for about 25 years.

I never thought I'd still be doing it.

A lot of the guys that have grown up in San Diego consider working Black's as just a perk.

There's so many days, like, through the fall that are so nice, and it's good experience, and you go for hikes just to learn the trails.

And you find new stuff all the time up there.

Black's can be completely desolate, or then, if a big swell moves in, it can be 250 guys in the water, and it's crazy down there.

Someone gets in trouble every day.

That more than anything is what's kept me there, is because there's always something going on.

Just so many calls for service on the cliffs, just the cliffs alone.

We get so many more people that get stuck.

Over 75 cliff rescues a year.

You know, over one a week.

The most memorable was this woman that got stuck on the cliffs.

She was reported as being nude, and I happened to make the brilliant decision to bring a female lifeguard, the only one that was cliff certified.

The victim was kind of this local up there, kind of a naturalist.

She likes to try to find different routes.

She kinda things she's, like a mountain goat.

Decided when she got stuck that she would take off all her clothes so that when she slid down, she wouldn't get them dirty.

So, Lisa got to her, and then we lowered her to the beach.

But that night, it made all the news.

The next day, I was at the Shores outside, and one of the lifeguard up in the top of the tower yells, "Quick, turn on," whatever the radio station that Howard Stern was on.

And Howard Stern was talkin' about the call.

During the broadcast, he says, "Yeah, but I wanna know who that dumb--supervisor was that sent down the girl lifeguard."

And I'm like, "Yes, I made the big time."

That was me.

San Diego Lifeguard Service has been around for 100 years, and it started as a detail of the San Diego police, and then, we joined into the fire department in the early '90s, and that took us to a whole better level of emergency preparedness.

We just had more professionalism to be first responders.

Even though there's always been this image of lifeguards in sandals and red shorts, there's so many people gettin' into trouble from Black's down to the tip of Point Loma that we've really demonstrated that it's such a valuable resource and that we are as good as the firefighters in what we do, and even better in all water areas.

>> male: One of the coolest things that ever happened to me at Black's is I was surfin' there on a Santa Ana winter day, and a whale swam by, like, maybe 100 yards offshore with a pod of dolphins.

And me and a couple people, we got to maybe, like, 50 yards of this whale, and it just kinda swam up, and you could tell the eye was focusing right at us.

And the dolphins were just swimming with it and jumping around it.

It was amazing.

>> male: You can't explain how cool it is to be in that environment.

You have leopard sharks.

Seals will come right up to your mask and touch their nose on the glass.

There are so many halibut down there, it's crazy.

>> male: One time I was walkin' down the beach with my kid, and we see this giant lump on the sand, and it's a giant leatherback turtle, it's dead.

I mean, the thing was as big as the top of a VW bug.

We all three, like, stood on top of the shell, just goin', "Where did this come from?

This thing is huge."

>> male: We actually have a friend who was surfing Black's, and a dolphin was playing, jumping, like they do, and landed on him and broke his back.

In fact, if you get together a bunch of people who've been to Black's year over year over year, they have stories unlike any other 'cause there's just stuff that happens down there.

>> male: There's all these little things about San Diego where, if you took this little thing away from San Diego, it wouldn't quite be the same anymore, and Black's Beach is one of those.

>> female: I can remember seeing the super shuttle drive in from the airport with a car full of people who just flew in from some city and took super shuttle to come to the full moon drum circle.

>> female: I love swimming naked, especially in the summertime.

There's just something that feels so good about not having to wear a stupid bathing suit.

>> male: I mean, I've got peregrines above me.

I've got babes on the beach below me.

I've got the A-frame out in front, it's awesome.

>> male: I've got "Black's Viking" on my license plate.

I grew up throwing contests at Black's.

I bought a house that overlooks Black's.

I put a camera on my neighbor's house so I can check Black's.

I love it, man.

I love Black's.

>> male: It's starkly beautiful in a natural way.

When the sun is setting, they're so pretty, these silver and orange bluffs that are right there, and then the water's on your left, and the cliffs are on your right.

And then you reach Torrey Pines and you see the pine trees up there, and there's no place on the earth like that.

>> male: I think Black's is our last great beach experience in the city of San Diego.

Just to feel like you're out in the wilderness, yet you're still within the city boundary and surrounded by the city.

>> Clint: My best experience with Black's beach was with Carmen Lucas, my elder there, and we were at the chancellor's house and we're lookin' this way down at the water right about down there.

When the sun shines on it and comes through, it creates an arrow right down on the water, and it points directly to the burial ground.

You can only see it at certain times, and she saw that.

A lot of things with tribes and native stuff, you don't put it where you think it should be.

You put it at the place that the Creator left it for you.

That's the place it's supposed to be.

And that's sort of a native concept that I don't think us as natives really discuss.

We just sort of take it for granted.

There's a way you're supposed to do things, a time and a place you're supposed to do things, and it's given to you.

You don't take it.

>> male: When my dad died, I took his ashes and buried him out there 'cause it's such a special place.

I paddled out, and sprinkled my dad's ashes up and down that beach on a big day in the winter.

>> Jon: It's everybody's gate.

I just had an opportunity to give to UCSD, which I've been doing for many years.

They said, "Do you wanna write a poem for the gate?"

I said, "Sure."

And the poem says: "Beyond the gate at the end of the road, the journey begins and memories last forever."

That's a poem for everybody that's goin' past that gate 'cause that day might be one of the best surfing days of their life.

There is a journey that begins when you go past that gate.

It's like you're goin' into a different world and you're experiencing a different part of San Diego, the beauty of Black's Beach.

And then the second meaning of that poem was eternal.

You know, beyond the gate at the end of the road, when we all pass away.

>> male: If you didn't know what year you were, you can't see any houses, all you see is these, you know, 150, 200-foot bluffs and cliffs.

It's kind of the land before time.

You could literally be there 100 years ago, 150 years ago, and it would have been very much the same.

[music] >> male: Black's caught me when I was 12, and ever since then, it's just become, like, a part of my life.

So I think it's a really healthy obsession.

I'm stoked, right?

I have a lifelong legacy to pass on to my grandkids when they surf Black's.

And it is for everybody.

The only real local at Black's is God and the dolphins, you know?

Those are the only real locals.

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> male announcer: Support for this program comes from the KPBS Explore Local Content Fund.

Supporting new ideas and pr