Explanations abound regarding the source of the name for the stretch of beach south of Torrance Beach commonly known as Rat Beach.
Among the theories: “Rat” stands for “Redondo and Torrance.” Or it means “Right after Torrance.” The beach was named for the pet rat a surfer brought to the beach while he surfed, or for rats gathering at a drainage outfall near the beach, or rats who came ashore when the Dominator sank off the Palos Verdes Coast in 1961.
All of them have been posited as possible origins of a somewhat scraggly stretch of Los Angeles County beach just north of the Roessler Pool and the popular Haggerty’s surf spot.
Before we get into the particulars of the name, let’s establish Rat Beach’s location. It’s often confused with Torrance Beach, a lovely white-sand stretch of beach that extends from Miramar Park on the north for just under a mile south to the northern edge of Malaga Cove.
Its location makes one of the explanations, that “Rat” means “Redondo and Torrance,” a less likely one, since Rat Beach, which extends south from Torrance Beach to Malaga Cove, does not adjoin Redondo Beach, almost a mile to the north. Torrance Beach lies between the two.
For years, the city Palos Verdes Estates claimed the area, referring to it as Malaga Cove Beach. A Dec. 31, 1937 editorial from the Palos Verdes Peninsula News demanded that the city take strict control of the beach in order to make it “an exclusive part of the Palos Verdes shores for the residents of Palos Verdes only.”
The editorial bemoaned the incursions of rowdy outsiders onto the beach, and reported that boats near the Palos Verdes Swimming Club, located at Roessler Point, had been broken into and vandalized. It went on to demand that police step up patrols in the area.
The Rat Beach name came about decades later.
Perhaps the most colorful story concerning the name involves professional surfer Rick Irons. Irons, a member of the Haggerty’s Surfing Club in the 1960s, owned a pet rat that he used to bring with him when he surfed. He would leave it on the beach while carving up the waves, and his fellow surfers began calling the area Rat Beach in its honor.
Irons later moved to Hawaii, earned his degree, and served as the editor of Surfing magazine for several years.
Another taller tale involving the name came about after the SS Dominator ran aground offshore near Rocky Point in Palos Verdes Estates on March 13, 1961. The freighter, which carried a cargo of meat and grain, had to be abandoned.
According to legend, after the wreck, a large colony of rats living on the cargo in the ship’s hold made their way ashore and infested the nearby coastline, resulting in the name. Rats are survivors, but this batch must have been excellent swimmers to make it onshore, and hearty travelers to make it from Rocky Point north to Rat Beach, a distance of more than three miles.
A third rat origin story has to do with Malaga Creek. The stream terminates with an outfall at the southern end of Rat Beach, in the rocky area near the present-day Palos Verdes Beach and Athletic Club. As the beach wasn’t always meticulously maintained, a colony of rats supposedly thrived in the brushy, rocky area where the stream met the beach. This led to the area being called Rat Beach.
Other explanations claim the name refers to the “ratty” nature of the beach, which was the object of regular clean-up efforts during the 1960s and 1970s, though this is also difficult to substantiate.
Okay, so what’s wrong with just calling the beach Rat as shorthand for “Right After Torrance”? Absolutely nothing. It makes perfect geographical sense. There’s just no clear origin story for that explanation, which seems to have derived from popular usage in recent decades.
The Manhattan Beach Brewing Company created an ale in its honor in the early 1990s called Rat Beach Red Ale. The microbrewery discontinued production of the beer in 2009, but another brewery in Torrance, Buzzrock Brewing Co., has since introduced a new Rat Beach Red Ale in tribute to the original.
Rat Beach made the news twice in 2022. On Sept. 7, the beach was closed for about three weeks after a 10,000-15,000 gallon sewage spill near the Malaga Creek outfall. Then, on Dec. 9, a 200-foot section of hillside collapsed onto the beach.
The landslide, part of a larger, unfortunate recent trend of land movement on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, resulted in the closure of the beach and the evacuation of several hilltop houses.
Rat Beach remains popular among local surfers and beachgoers, despite not having the scenic ambience or quality waves of other spots. It may not be beautiful, but it’s ours, with crowds kept low due to it being accessible only by a path leading down from a parking lot near the former Malaga Cove School.
We may not have been able to pinpoint the exact source of Rat Beach’s name, but it’s clear that the name itself is here to stay. I think I’ll go with “Right After Torrance,” which is as good an explanation as any.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
Palos Verdes Peninsula News archives.
“South Bay locals: Do you know where RAT Beach is?”, by Blake Lane, NewsBreak website, Aug. 26, 2023.
Note: Special thanks to Toni Sciacqua, SCNG Managing Editor, Digital, for the story idea.
