You know you're in the the belly of the Los Angeles beast when an historic landmarks commissioner describes a tumbledown skate and surf shop as "the most culturally significant thing in Santa Monica." But that's how preservationist Ruthan Lehrer put it to the local rag, Westside Chronicle, this week.

Back in the '70s, Horizons West Surf Shop, then called Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions, was the epicenter of gnarly, knee-scraping action for the Dogtown "Z-Boys." The legendary storefront and hangout for a ragtag group of blond-mopped skate rats was in the shadow of the wrecking ball in recent months, and the property owners were considering ripping down the unsightly building to erect a yuppie apartment complex.

The whole thing unfolded like the plot of a late-70s after-school special. The community rallied. The developer reconsidered. At the end of the day, store owner Randy Wright rechristened his soon-to-revamped shop, a "virtual Z-boys skate museum," and aging shredders (and Heath Ledger obsessives) everywhere secured a shrine for future pilgrims—all without an impromptu skate-off. Too bad, really.