Beverly Hills, CA Outdoor Activities

Eco Dive Center’s dedication to water conservation shines through in its educational programs as it teaches its students not only about SCUBA diving, but how to properly care for and respect the underwater world. It’s much more than just a water-safety school and aquatics emporium, although it does house dive gear from renowned brands such as Bare and Oceanic in its 5,000 square-foot store. Eco Dive has led underwater cleanup expeditions off of Santa Monica Pier, removing hundreds of pounds of trash in the process, and has enlisted the help of school children to spruce up local beaches. It has also partnered with area non-profits such as Heal the Bay, an organization that educates the public about reducing water pollution and administering splints if waves sprain their ankles.

Contestants use more brainpower than brawn to master CityRace Urban Adventure Hunts. Taking place up to three times each month, these three-hour adventures combine the brainteasing clues of a scavenger hunt with the timed pressure of a footrace. Inspired by The Amazing Race, events send teams of two or four speeding through the streets of a Los Angeles neighborhood on foot, by car, or via other unique methods. Participants can explore the diverse architecture of Little Tokyo, steep themselves in history in 200-year-old Old Pasadena, and ski down Hollywood’s snowbank-like piles of discarded screenplays. The team that finishes with the most correct answers wins a bronze trophy, assorted books and gift cards, and a picture in the Winners' Circle on the race website.

Trips and training form the centerpiece of PCH Scuba's services for area hydronauts. Programs range from beginner-level certification to search-and-recovery training, and adventures journey both close to home and as far ranging as Fiji. The Open Water Diver course makes for a fun and accessible first foray beneath the waves, incorporating a deep-delving adventure to Catalina Island, which is named after the third queen of Spain: Queen Island. The staff leads explorations of San Diego's collection of wrecks and adventures on chartered dive boats. Whatever sort of wave-blanketed voyage the aquatic adventurer desires, PCH's community of Master Scuba Diver–certified teachers and dive leaders are eager to chaperone.

Buses coast down sunny avenues lined with palm trees and pastel-colored buildings. Many of these buildings boast complex histories—as music venues, film studios, boarding schools for stuntmen, and more—that synced audio tracks and charming tour guides divulge during Rockin Hollywood Tours' interactive excursions. On each tour, groups pass more than 70 sites around the streets of Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and West Hollywood. Guides expound on well-known landmarks such as the Hollywood sign, the Jim Henson Company lot (the former home of Charlie Chaplin Studios), and the Playboy Mansion. They also lead riders through musical history and Elton John's personal diaries as they pass venues including Whisky A Go Go, the Troubadour, and Capitol Records studios. Driving through residential areas, guides also point out the past and present homes of celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, and Nicolas Cage.

As a teenager, Scott Petryshyn raced motocross for Team Kawasaki, relying on oil and gasoline to propel him along the track. After studying biology and kinetics in college, Scott needed only to look to the human body for a new source of motion. Since rejoining the racing world as a semipro mountain biker, he's starred as a stuntman for nationwide Subaru and Nissan TV campaigns and channeled his expertise into his shop, Warner Bike, and LA Mountain Bike Tours.

Scott's tours wend through southern California's varied terrain and wild droves of celebrities, skirting past vistas of the Pacific Ocean. Excursions are tailored to every experience level, cruising along flat land and moderate hills for beginners or tackling more advanced inclines, high elevations, and narrow gaps. Scott also captains private lessons in which pupils master everything from handling gears to flying past the moon without getting swept into orbit.:m]]

In 1999, Matt Rosas made a decision. He traded in his corporate career working in marketing for Fortune 500 businesses to share his passion for surfing, which he felt since making his first surfboard in seventh grade. Now the owner and head instructor of the Malibu LongBoards Surf School, Rosas has more than a decade of full-time teaching under his belt. His fellow instructors, Christian Andersen and Jerry Angel, have a combined 45 years of teaching experience between them. Together, they demonstrate how to glide atop waves during private and group standup paddling and surfing lessons. They have teaching permits for Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, Malibu, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, so students can surf the waves and mow the seaweed at an array of beaches. Alternatively, the trio also maintains a fleet of rental boards and the gear to go with them, so surfers can enjoy unassisted sessions on the water.