2025 sailboat races begin
King Harbor Yacht Club’s annual Thursday night Twilight (sailboat) races season returned to the South Bay April 10. The weekly one-hour races continue through September.
Also, last Saturday, April 12, the Trans-Harbor Spinnaker Series began for 2025 with 47 boats racing a 22-mile route between Marina Del Rey and King Harbor.
Earth Day celebration Saturday at Wilderness Park
South Bay Parkland Conservancy will hold its annual Earth Day event Saturday, April 19 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Hopkins Wilderness Park, featuring more than 20 local organizations and environmental groups for crafts and activities, a lunch, and live music from local high school performers.
Activities include a nature walk, a seminar on monarch butterflies and habitat restoration.
South Bay Film Festival debuts
The Rotary Club of Redondo Beach held its “South Bay Film Festival,” Friday, April 11, at the Hermosa Beach Community Theater.
The event spotlighted old movies filmed locally, as well as a contest for new shorts from student filmmakers, centered on the theme of “Kindness.”
“Welcome to the hopefully-first annual South Bay Film Festival,” said Michael Stark from the stage, president-elect of Redondo Rotary.
Rick Anderson, a then 11-year-old kid with other barefoot skateboarders in the 1965 short film “Skaterdater” – considered the first skateboarding movie – answered a few of Stark’s questions from the audience after the film showed.
“The surf wasn’t all that good all of the time, so we started skateboarding,” Anderson said to Stark’s question of why they skated barefoot. “What we were trying to do was become better surfers.”
Anderson was part of the kids’ Imperial Skateboard Club in Torrance. “Skaterdater” won the Palme D’Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.
“It was a great life in the South Bay. I’m still living a great life in the South Bay,” Anderson said.
Last week’s South Bay festival featured the 1990 movie “Men at Work,” filmed entirely in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. Actor Geoff Blake was the evening’s special guest, who appeared in the movie.
Rotary member Nancy Langdon co-chaired the event.
“It was just a real privilege to celebrate cinema of the South Bay, and we hope to do it again,” she said.
RBPD on the lookout for distracted drivers
Throughout April, the Redondo Beach Police Department is actively looking for drivers in violation of the state’s hands-free cell phone law during “Distracted Driving Awareness Month.”
Drivers are prohibited in California from holding a phone or electronic communications device, even when stopped at a light.
This includes talking, texting or using an app.
All are punishable by a fine. Violating the hands-free law for a second time within 36 months of a previous conviction means a point added to a driver’s record.
“Staying focused behind the wheel is something we can all do,” Redondo Beach Police Traffic Investigator Bijan Pirsaheli said. “Distracted Driving Awareness Month is an important reminder that even a moment of inattention or a quick glance at a phone can lead to serious consequences. Stay focused, stay alert and help us keep our roads safe.”
In 2022, a total of 148 people were killed in distracted driving traffic crashes in California.
According to the RBPD, this is likely under-reported because law enforcement officers cannot always tell if distraction was a factor in a crash.
CORRECTION:
The April 9 Easy Reader article, “A milestone day for former Redondo teacher” left out part of Esther Weber’s teaching background. She taught grades first through sixth at Tulita Elementary in Redondo Beach for the last part of her career, which spanned the ‘50s to the early ‘90s. ER
