Venice Recreation Center: Skate Park, Handball, Paddle Tennis, and More

The Venice Recreation Center is a place for many forms of exercise. Its facilities include a weight pin, a skate park, basketball, handball and paddle tennis courts, and the famed muscle beach. The center is frequented by many skilled athletes and home to many challenging and sometimes obscure sports. These factors may seem daunting for a newcomer, but the few that train there are unconcerned by the spectacle they might create on the highly trafficked boardwalk that winds through the property. Coordinator Fred Ealey provides equipment such as punching bags or basketballs, and welcomes anyone to partake. Competitors can argue or get heated in a game but at the end of the day, sportsmanship wins. Ealey says there's never a dull moment at the center.

Fred Ealey
The recreational ground covers the area between Venice Pier and Rose Avenue. On the facility is Muscle Beach, the weight pin area, hand ball activities, four basketball courts, and a new skateboard plaza.

Hand Baller
Handball's played one-on-one or two-on-two. You can only bounce once. You can hit either one of the walls, that's why it's called three-wall-handball. You have stay between the lines while you're playing and you can only score a point on a serve.

Paddle Tennis Player
Venice is the number one center in the world for paddle tennis. There's eleven courts on the beach. People come from all over country and all over the world to play down here in Venice.