I do not have a lot of life stories of Doheny Beach other than a birthday celebration, a meet up with friends, a paddle boarding attempt and a live country music concert (Driftwood Festival).
Nevertheless, Doheny is a beautiful iconic first beach of California in the Dana Point area located in South Orange County. But, it wasn’t always what it is today…
Doheny was donated by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny in 1931 in memory of his son Ned. It was donated for public use and wasn’t named Doheny State Beach until 1963. Doheny along with San Clemente State Beaches were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp. (CCC) which was a new deal program under the Roosevelt administration.
Doheny is located in the mouth of San Juan Creek and it was home to an amazing gem of a wave called “Killer Dana” that broke at the headland and held 12-15 foot thick magical swells and surfers flocked from everywhere to ride it. It was considered one of the best places in Southern California to surf before the Dana Point Harbor was built in 1968 which changed all that for the Southern California surfing community.
The harbor project altered the path of Orange County and changed the Dana Point lifestyle and culture from surf city to one of condos, boats, and yuppies.
Doheny today is one of California’s most popular state beaches and a pacesetter for the California State Beach program with its beautiful beaches, campgrounds, picnic areas, hosting of events such as music festivals and the recently cancelled Pacific Paddle Games.
It’s also home to Hobie Surf Shop started by the legendary Hobie Alter who helped transform Dana Point into the epicenter of the growing surf industry in the 1950’s & 1960’s. Hobie passed away in 2014 and now has a memorial dedicated to him named “Hobie Riding the Wave of Success” in Dana Point’s Watermen’s Plaza Park. Check out this article for more history regarding the culture and surf history: https://visitdanapoint.com/activities-and-things-to-do/arts-culture/surf-history/
What is the culture? – “The original surf city USA”
Life Stories –
As I mentioned, I do not have a lot of life stories about Doheny Beach, but it does remind me of my life long friendship with Bonnie who I mentioned in the Laguna Beach article. So, I thought I would dedicate this blog post to her since she helped me celebrate my 14th birthday at Doheny Beach just a few years or decades ago! 😉
I have a handful of ride or die girlfriends dating back to my high school years but no friendship has stood the test of time as long as Bonnie’s. Bonnie and I met in our Junior High School 7th grade Home Economics class.
When I was 10 years old, my family moved back to California from Georgia where we had been living for the past four years and my father settled us in Glendora, CA which is the place we first lived after immigrating from Chile.
My sister and I attended Williams Elementary school where we struggled to make new friends and often got picked on for 1. Being the new girls 2. Having a slight southern drawl and 3. Being Hispanic.
I attended Williams for 2 years and unbeknownst to me, when it was time to graduate to 7th grade, I learned I would be attending a different Jr. High school than the majority of the other girls I managed to befriend. Since our house fell on the east side of the dividing line, I was assigned to Goddard Jr. High which is today known as Goddard Middle School whereas the other girls attended Sandburg.
Goddard is located about as north as you can get in Glendora and my walk to school went from just around the corner to over 1.5 miles one way. And to top it off, I didn’t have any friends and for the first time, my sister and I were no longer attending the same school.
So, when I met Bonnie in Home Economics class, I didn’t realize at the time that I would be meeting a friend for life. I don’t remember quite how we met although Bonnie mentioned something about me pulling a chair out from under her! lol
But from that point forward, Bonnie and I became inseparable. We wore our hair the same way – parted to the side with a braid and beads strung in it like Bo Derek except it was a single braid. We shared clothes, school lockers (both in Jr. and HS), registered for the same classes, did sleep overs, accompanied each other on family outings and vacations. We were each other’s plus one. We loved to dress up, we won the Spirit Award at Goddard. We especially loved dressing up for Halloween where our outfits ranged from punk rockers in trash bags to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween parties at Rubel Castle where Bonnie’s dad was the Black Smith. We loved to explore Glendora, walking to down town to buy treats at the former Bocks store, riding our bikes and especially hiking the trails at Big Dalton. Bonnie and her family were and still are very salt of the earth, so I learned so much from her and from them.
We even had our own language called “Op” where we would say “Op” before each vowel so “How are you?” became “Hop-ow op-are yop-u?”. It was our secret language and we could chat without anyone knowing what we were talking about. If fact, we became so proficient at speaking this way that one time when we were vacationing at Yosemite National Park riding the double decker buses (our favorite activity) chatting to each other in “Op”, someone actually asked us where we were from! By the way, our times in Yosemite and the beaches along the Merced River will be a great topic for another blog post!
During my first year at Goddard, my family bought a house and we moved (a little closer to Bonnie’s house). And although we moved to the west side of the school boundaries, I was allowed to remain at Goddard. But from that point forward, I would ride my bike to Bonnie’s house in the morning and from there we would walk to and from school together.
One day, when we were walking back to Bonnie’s house after school, this boy was riding his bike towards us holding a kitten and we asked if we could pet it. The boy allowed us to and then asked if we wanted to keep it, and I immediately said “yes”!! So, he just handed us the kitten and rode off. And there we stood looking at each other, holding the new kitten giddy with excitement! It’s a good thing it happened to be my birthday that day because my mom let me keep him. I him named Bandit and he lived to be over 20 years old, that cat was a survivor!
Bonnie and I took many beach trips. She with my family to Laguna, and I with her family in their RV to places like Huntington Beach, Ventura Beach, etc. She accompanied me to Doheny Beach for my 14th birthday where we had a blast riding the side by side bikes around the park.
Despite life challenges and going our separate paths for a number of years, Bonnie and I have maintained that bond and today we are still fortunate enough to share and be there for each other during this chapter of our lives. There are people in your life that you just know are soul mates and even if you don’t speak for years, you can just pick up from where you left off as if nothing has changed.
Bonnie and I are definitely soulmates and life long ride or die friends. I cherish the opportunity to look back and appreciate where it all started which was a Home Economics class at Goddard Jr. High with many days spent with our toes in the beach!
Twining… 
10 Year Reunion 
Driftwood Festival 
Sand on the head 
14th birthday celebration
Toes in the Beach 