Here in Socal, I would say it's all about visibility. When I kept my boat on the beach, along with many others, there wasn't one weekend when someone didn't come up and say "how do I get one of those?" The problem is that we had to battle to get the County of L.A. to allow beach launching, what with safety and liability issues. Makes sense, of course.

So, most cats end up taking off from public ramps in Marinas in L.A.

San Diego has a much better turnout because of Mission Bay; easy lauching, grass areas, etc. I wish we had that!

Sheldon
P-18