Six? All.
Perhaps the most debauchery-filled weekend in the South Bay is none other than the first weekend of August. The event: Six Man.
Six Man (noun): The Coachella of volleyball tournaments, the event spans one weekend in the middle of summer in the upscale community of Manhattan Beach. Each team is comprised of six players, either male or female (no co-ed). It’s about $500 for each team to enter. Professional players are welcome, but the majority of participants are amateurs. Many of the teams get sponsors. Many of those sponsors are alcoholic beverage companies. Or bars. The teams dress up in costumes to promote their brand. Costumes range from the hilarious, to the clever, to the beyond provocative. Creative themes include naughty nurses, sexy ballerinas, Oompa Loompas, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now I know what you’re thinking, how could an event that revolves around half-naked, totally trashed men and women – and volleyball - be all bad?
Think of the South Bay as one big college campus – with older students. Manhattan Beach (and parts of El Porto) to the north are like the main hall, and Redondo Beach to the south is kinda’ like the old annex. Like any college, there are cliques, rumors, illegal substance abuse and the overt juggling of significant others.
With the first month of summer in L.A. being so overcast it’s earned the nickname “June Gloom” (and it consistently delivers year after year), the beach communities have a lot of time to make up in the remaining summer months. Fourth of July festivities kick it off, but Six Man… Six Man is when the party reaches its apex. It’s a time when inhibitions are low and libidos are high.
Nearly 34,000 people live in Manhattan Beach and almost 40 percent of the population is between the ages of 25 and 44.
It’s a siren call for everyone – young and old, locals and more increasingly, international visitors, to converge in this tiny enclave of Los Angeles - crushing an area that is normally a quiet little beach community. Despite the increase in the police force, Six Man-goers have been known to revel in the streets, urinate on the beach, dance on tables, have sex in public places, and imbibe their body weight in alcoholic libations.
That is, of course, when they’re not watching the volleyball tournament.
Spotted this year:
- A beyond-intoxicated man repeatedly climbing a light pole outside of Ercoles on Highland Ave.
- A thirty (or forty)-something woman strolling on the beach near the Pier; wearing her neon pink bikini bottoms backwards
- An underaged girl "accidentally" stumbling into the middle of a game as she searched desperately for her bike. (In her defense, she was sobbing uncontrollably. Probably couldn't see through the tears.)
- Two men taking a dip in the ocean - wearing only boxer briefs
- Several “straight” men dressed up like a modern-day droogs, with a Southern California twist - Two women dancing on a makeshift "stage" while a man inflated an inner tube - which was around one of the girl's waists.
Needless to say: a great time was had by all.
