Why free burgers smell like surfing movies

The siblings Malloy—Chris, Keith, and Dan—are a famous trio in the surfing industry. Throughout their careers as pros, they’ve often celebrated their backcountry California upbringing on a ranch in Ojai, a sleepy town hugged by the valleys of Ventura, the next county up from Los Angeles. Chris has been heard more than once nostalgically speaking of the California from 200 years ago. It’s the essence of California they vocally try to preserve.

A few years ago, two filmmakers visited the Malloy family ranch for a documentary called One California Day (OCD) that released in 2007. (A movie highlighting the cultural and historical relevance of California to surfing.) While filming, they captured footage of the canyons and mountains that compose almost-coastal California—the few miles of inland that don’t allude to the immediacy of the ocean. Jagged cliffs abandon unassuming hills dotted with rejuvenated, albeit flammable, brush and the charred remains of sycamores sacrificed in past wildfires. It’s breathtaking.

Tonight, the coordinators of the BioBlitz held a welcome barbecue at the King Gillette Ranch in Malibu Creek State Park for the scientists and other educational staff conducting this weekend’s field studies. The ranch rests at the bottom end of the Las Virgenes Valley. According to Gillette's web site, the ranch "offers a rare unspoiled view of California’s rich archaeological, cultural, and historic resources, including a Chumash settlement, and nationally significant structures designed for razor magnate King C. Gillette in the 1920’s by Wallace Neff, architect of California’s Golden Age."

It could have been held on the Malloy’s farm. The diversity of terrain in SoCal is different from our digs in Washington, DC, where one can easily overdose on green. Looking to the sunset in the hills was no different than turning on my DVD player to OCD (except that they filmed sunrises). Much of the land about to be dissected by science classes will expose kids to species that have been crawling beneath, nesting in, and growing from centuries old rocks, trees, and dirt.

Chris Malloy might dig this.

Side note: You can learn fascinating things when face to face with a men’s room urinal. Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes (Crotalus oregnus helleri), for example, are “the only dangerous venomous [reptiles] that naturally [inhabit] the Santa Monica Mountains.” California park rangers are quick to warn of the menacing possibilites of rattlers. The snakes, much like many predators, are dichotomous: they help maintain a sustainable population of its species of prey while providing a potentially perilous obstacle to inattentive hikers. Their venom, I’m told, is “primarily hemorrhagic” and (duh) only well-experienced herpetologists have any business handling the serpents. So, hopefully we’ll find a few the next two days.

Tomorrow is the big day, the reason we came out: an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 nature enthusiasts determined to educate themselves on the abundance of life that surrounds their environment…and make the 2008 BioBlitz a stellar happening. Events like these are vital to ensuring future generations are informed about and prepared to adopt sustainable lifestyles...so $4 gallons of gas won't be an issue.

Here’s to hiking safely with snakes with maracas for anuses.

-j/d