Surfer mag has a nice little history piece on Malibu. I know i’ll paddle out there one day — like so many other spots that are on “tourista” list. Nice to know the background of these famous places and where parts of surf culture come from. Good read.

“The Chumash named the point “humaliwu” which means: Where the surf sounds loudly

From east to west it divides into First Point, Kiddie Bowls, Second Point and Third Point. First Point is a popular longboard wave, while Second and Third Points are better for shortboarding.

These days, Malibu is ruled mostly by chaos. Because it is so easy for anyone to paddle out there, it mixes surfers of all abilities in a way that doesn’t work when the surf gets big

A perfect longboard performance wave, out of the 50s and into the 60s Malibu was favored by the best hotdoggers of the 60s including Dewey Weber, Lance Carson, Tom Morey and most of the greats of that era, who either lived for the spot or came there when a south swell was running and weaved their way through the growing crowds of dweebs, gremmies, kooks, hodads and cowboys who plugged the lineup in increasing numbers.

In the 70s and 80s, the lineup was ruled and order was kind of maintained by the likes of Jay Riddle and Angie Reno, while Malibu produced hot 90s surfers like Ricky Shaffer and Solo Scott.”

http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/spotspotmalibu/index.html