Torrance Outdoor Activities

Instructors at Pacific Sailing's ASA-certified sailing school teach a variety of students the basics of navigating coastal waters and instruct students in specialized types of sailing or in the students' greatest areas of interest. Captains lead group and private lessons that cover basic keelboat sailing, basic coastal cruising, bareboat chartering, and coastal navigation—providing the skills necessary to unfurl and tie a sail or navigate using electronics, the light of the stars, and directions from a well-traveled seagull. The instructors conduct their lessons and lead skippered day sails, sunset sails, and overnight trips at the helm of Colgate, Hunter, Catalina, Irwin, and Beneteau sailboats.

Estro-Jen's mom told her that if she pursues her passions, happiness will fall at her feet. As a child, teenager, and now adult with her own business, that happiness has always been at her feet—in the form of roller skates. These days, between slingshotting around the rink during roller-derby matches or pulling tricks on the vert ramp, she spends her time designing skates for women. Expressing her innately fun personality, she slaps leopard-skin patterns onto skates, black tiger stripes onto red boots, and teal suede onto high tops. Pink or clear wheels with black spiral lines, as well as retro calf-high socks accessorize her line. Not wanting to neglect the upper body, she also outfits skaters in teal short-shorts and screen-printed T-shirts from Moxi apparel. For those who want to enhance their skills and impress passing school busses, Estro-Jen brings in her friend Brian Gallagher to instruct skaters on how to roll and master ramps.

Although he climbed the corporate ladder at a sprinter's pace in his young life, Kirk Robinson understood the only place he belonged was out on the ocean. He was known to his coworkers as a superior business mind⎯that is, when they actually managed to find him at his desk and not at the beach windsurfing. So, after reading The Road Less Traveled and Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, Kirk found the inspiration to start Captain Kirk's Inc. in 1992. He then quickly gathered a team that also possessed his passion for watersports, including his kiteboarding wife, Kitty, and set up shop.

Today he and his crew show others how to get the most out of the ocean through kiteboarding, windsurfing, and standup paddleboarding lessons. Additionally, Captain Kirk's retail includes all the supplies needed to master those three activities. Completing the trifecta, Kirk also owns La Ventana Resort, where guests can bask in the beauty of aqua waters, a private beach, and luxurious lodging while experiencing everything from sport fishing and scuba to kayaking, mountain biking, and whale watching.

From its breeze-swept outpost on Cherry Beach, Alfredo's Beach Shack affords guests renting various leisure watercraft easy access to open waters. Sailors can find solitary tranquility amid the gentle waves while paddling a single kayak, or they can enlist a friend or mannequin to share a tandem kayak. Mounted atop a standup paddleboard, seafarers can conquer the surf while feasting their eyes on sandy beaches dotted with expansive houses and swaying palm trees. The Shack also rents out gondolas for romantic jaunts on the sparkling water.

The male and female firearm experts of American Home Defense shape their shooting and self-defense classes around legal regulations with an emphasis on personal safety. In private shooting lessons, students learn to handle three of the most common handguns and home-defense classes equip participants with the know-how to protect their families from intruders or a neighbor's moat monster.

Helmed by two-time Manhattan Open winner Dave Mahoney, the tennis experts at South Bay Tennis Network help players hone their on-court prowess. Mahoney’s style of play emphasizes an attack style with serves and backhand topspin modeled in the style of Pete Sampras and a forehand and backhand slice like that of Roger Federer. Students learn to work toward specific, practical goals in their path to improvement.