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At the heart of Malibu's legendary landscapes, where the mountains meet the sea. It is home to historical landmarks and Hollywood celebrities. And, unfortunately, it also is a place of brush fires, canyon floods and mudslides. The beaches of Malibu are among the Southland's best.

Malibu Lagoon State Beach is classy, clean and not always crowded. Board people know it as Surfrider Beach. Malibu Point, a rounded bulb of land, sets up the waves to break much farther out than normal, creating swells of outstanding shape that roll for long rides. The waves are almost of machine-like consistency. In surfer jargon, it's a right point break, perfect in summer through fall and only slightly diminished by tidal fluctuations. Surfers have fine-tuned the water traffic pattern by dividing the area into First Point, Second Point and Third Point, third being the farthest out and least crowded where the zipper tubes are smokin'.

The sand at Malibu is about one mile long, faces southeast and has a drama of its own. Everyone under age 30 wanders along the flesh belt to ogle the male and female hard bodies. There are the usual lifeguard and visitor facilities, including a few tidepools and an attraction for scuba or skin-diving. Visitors can watch some of this sporting life from the Malibu pier, especially with binoculars. The historic wooden pier is at the edge of the highway a little east of the swimming and surfing beach.

There are some detractions too, at Malibu. Beach parking often is inadequate to handle summer weekend crowds. Get there early. And water quality is sometimes bad because of drainage from algae-laden Malibu Lagoon, which environmentalists say has become a receptacle for a variety of pollutants flowing down from the Santa Monica Mountains.