The four-mile stretch of beach from 55th Street in Newport Beach, California, to the end of the Huntington Beach Pier may be the happiest and zaniest place on earth on Saturday mornings. It certainly was this past weekend, with an Olympic-distance triathlon, the “Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge,” a vast women’s volleyball tournament and the usual assortment of thousands of surfers, fishermen, runners, joggers and walkers thrown together in a typical Southern California brew.

Of course there were also two lonely Taiko drummers mastering their art far out on the sand.