Los Angeles
Not simply all about famous faces, the City of Angels is fast gaining a reputation as a sporting capital of the world, and tourists can easily take part
STORY CHARLES MIRANDA
Danny Roman was on the film set of Helen Mirren’s The Queen in central London, it was raining, miserably cold and the set mood was flat, but then he heard a band of laughter.
The first assistant to the notorious Hollywood heavyweight producer Scott Rudin turned to see a peloton of tourists in ponchos on a guided bicycle tour through the city and was struck that, despite conditions, they looked happy.
“I had always worked in film and here I was in shitty weather and whole packs of ponchos came by,” the now 39-year-old recalled of his 2006 London sighting.
“When I got home and looked up ‘bike tours in Los Angeles’, nobody was doing it. On the beach they were renting bikes, but not tours. So I got laid off and it kinda happened. Yup, losing my job (in film) was the best thing that happened to me.”
Roman went on to establish Bikes and Hikes LA (bikesandhikesla.com) and now has 200 people a week on his tours. It has been nothing short of an epiphany for the sprawling Californian city which is undergoing a revival as a great sporting and outdoors capital of the world. SPORT AND FITNESS You’d have to go back to consider LA the sporting capital of the United States. In the 1950s and ’60s Joe Gold was credited with being the global “father of bodybuilding” with his landmark gyms and sports brand. Even earlier, Jack LaLanne opened the nation’s first health and fitness centre in 1936 and shaped the state’s future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, well before fitness gurus Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda asked Americans ‘YRU Fat’ in the 1980s.
But then it all slipped and seemingly the only form of exercise people knew of LA was strolling the Walk of Fame or gawking at the bods on Muscle Beach. Indeed a few years ago LA ranked 30 in the American College of Sports Medicine’s “fittest cities” survey.
But LA is getting its sporting mojo back, along with a National Football League (NFL) team. In 1994 the LA Rams relocated to Missouri and only returned to widespread celebration and a cash injection for the 2016 season.
“Yes we’re back,” Discover Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board spokesman Shant Apelian said of LA’s rediscovery of its sporting roots and return of the Rams.
“We have 300 sunny days here a year and, the way the city is laid out there are so many opportunities to find the right activity for you whether it’s watching sports or being involved.” DO IT YOURSELF Roman’s business takes cyclists through the now banned-by-bus-tour streets of Bel Air, Beverly Hills to see the Hollywood homes of the rich and famous, and to Griffith Park.
He recommends exercise and sunshine as the two best ways to recover from the jet lag of a long-haul flight from Australia.
“It resets your clock so do a sunset hike through Griffith Park and see the city from up high.”
Roman is talking about one of the largest urban parks in the world. It has almost 1800ha with 275 trails to run, cycle, jog, hike or horseback ride and photograph the famous Hollywood sign.
Personal fitness trainer Erick Martinez, 32, has been doing just that for years, taking clients out into Griffith Park for tailored hikes or cycling.
“It is California, everybody lives outdoors. They do their best exercise outdoors called here by the sun in the morning, during the day or sunset. It’s a major attraction in the heart of the city,” he said as he powered his way to the summit for a breathtaking view over the LA city skyline and surrounding hills, unspoilt perhaps in part due to the rattle snake warning signs ensuring people don’t wander off piste.
If outdoors is not your thang, the famed Los Angeles Athletic Club (laac.com), established in 1880 in the heart of downtown, has worldclass facilities including a swimming pool,