A typical Sunday at the Santa Monica Rings, an adults playground (Video and Pictures)

By
Antranik
– May 7, 2012Posted in: SoCal, The Constant Awesome, Video

In Santa Mon­ica, just south of the pier, is the Orig­i­nal Mus­cle Beach, full of gym­nast rings, high bars, mon­key bars, rails, ropes for climb­ing, and so forth.  The entire area is col­lo­qui­ally just referred to as “the rings” because often times the most spec­tac­u­lar per­for­mances can be seen on them, espe­cially on the week­ends.  It’s lit­er­ally a free, open play­ground on the sand where you could very get cre­ative in the way you work out your body.   I call it an adults play­ground, because it really is one and feels that way.  It’s not like going inside a gym and work­ing on machines.  You have to fig­ure out how to work­out your body by being a lit­tle cre­ative.  Often­times I’ll see some­body doing some­thing inter­est­ing and I’ll copy them and try to do the same.

Check out the video below to get a feel for what the day is like

In this video below you’ll see a woman swing­ing on the trav­el­ing rings, and then peo­ple walk­ing on slack-lines (which peo­ple setup vol­un­tar­ily), hoop­ing, climb­ing rope and so forth. The video ends with a quick glimpse of the Santa Mon­ica pier with the Fer­ris Wheel in the distance.

 

What makes this spot truly awe­some are the peo­ple that reg­u­larly attend the place.  It’s like a niche com­mu­nity.  You’ll start to notice that the same peo­ple keep show­ing up, and they’re VERY NICE PEOPLE.  Don’t be afraid to ask them ques­tions, it’s very rare that some­one is an ass­hole, because I think every­one under­stands that we ALL didn’t know what we were doing the first time as well, so they are likely to be very help­ful if you’re eager to learn.  That rea­son alone, makes the rings one of my favorite places in LA. It’s really a gem.  I wish I dis­cov­ered it ear­lier in my life.

Photo by Bar­bara Lonsdale

^ That’s my [upside down] brother! ^

Photo by Jerry Garns

Where is this place?

This google map shows the loca­tion of both the large and junior trav­el­ing rings.


View Larger Map

Where should I park?

For a 10 minute walk away, 4th and Bay Street has com­pletely free, unre­stricted park­ing.  Read the signs.  Google 4th and Bay St.  Some of the side streets there have free park­ing too.

If you’re going to be there after 6pm (when DST allows for long days), go park on Main Street, between Pico and Col­orado.  Or on Ocean Ave, between Pico and Col­orado.  Both of them are a less than 5 minute walk to the rings.

There’s also park­ing by the pier, which is expen­sive $7–12 for a full day, but it’s not a big deal if you’re car­pool­ing and want to be there all day and want con­ve­nience I guess.

Want to try the trav­el­ing rings?

I do too!  It just looks so god damn COOL.  And guess what, it really IS awe­some, but just like all acrobatic/gymnastic things, it requires prac­tice to build up the strength and mus­cle mem­ory. Check out this arti­cle I wrote up on how to use the trav­el­ing rings!


Related posts:

  1. Just shar­ing the sky… [Endeavor pig­gy­back + Para­sailer + Hot­tie on the Santa Mon­ica Rings]
  2. The Women of the Trav­el­ing Rings (Videos)
  3. Get your bikes ready! CicLAvia This Sunday!
  4. Video: Incred­i­ble time lapse pho­tog­ra­phy of Los Ange­les at night
  5. How to use the Trav­el­ing Rings