LOS ANGELES — With the Pacific Ocean as his backdrop, Nick Suriano walked along the coast line squeezing a stress ball in his right hand. Before insatiable wildfires would turn the city into a piles of ashes and debris, he stood beside one of the great venues for strong men — Muscle Beach. But the barbells painted on the cement walls and the weights inside the famed fitness spot don’t mean as much to him anymore.
Suriano’s former buzzed-cut hair is long and wavy now. Wispy facial hair falls over his upper lip. The design of his black T-shirt mirrors the psychedelic artwork being hustled up and down the ocean front in Venice. There are street performers howling, sleeping bags sprawled across wide stretches of grass and chaos playing out in front of the shops with graffiti and murals sprawled across their walls