Preston Martin’s retro blue Volkswagen van, which he slept in for a year during college, was parked in Malibu just before the Palisades fire reduced homes and cars to rubble and charred metal, so it was scrapped. I thought it had become.
As such, surfboard manufacturers were stunned to learn that the vehicle had survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was widely spread on TV and online, giving viewers a certain amount of joy.
“There’s magic in that van,” Martin, 24, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t understand why this happened. I should have toasted it, but this is it.”
Martin bought a 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 on a whim during his junior year studying mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Martin said his mother, Tracy Martin of Irvine, yelled at him for running out of money, but she told him she could save money on rent by fixing up the room and living there his senior year. He said that and did it. She fell in love with the bus and sewed curtains for the windows.
Last summer, he sold the van to his friend and business partner, Megan Krystle Weinraub, 29. He designs surfboards and skateboards under the Vibrant Boards brand. Martin manufactures carbon fiber surfboards under Starlight.
On January 5th, the friends went surfing in a van. Weinraub calls the van Azul, which means “blue” in Spanish. Later, as Martin was still learning to drive a manual transmission, he parked his car on a flat spot up the hill from his apartment near the Getty Villa.
Two days later, the Palisades fire broke out, and Weinraub fled with his dog Bodhi and dog food in his car. She said she felt sad for Azul, but it felt like a small thing compared to others who lost their homes or even loved ones.
On Thursday, a neighbor sent her a photo. There was still a blue and white bus in the background, completely undamaged.
“I was surprised,” she said. “I was in the bathroom and I screamed.”
She called Martin. Martin was also surprised. he called his mother. Mother was overjoyed. “I’ve never cried for a car,” Tracy Martin texted her son.
They were even more surprised when the Associated Press photo was aired on TV and posted online.
Martin “made news” with Reel on his Instagram page, and Weinraub reached out to the photographer.
Weinraub, whose home survived, has not been able to visit Azul because the area remains off-limits. They are thrilled that Van’s survival touched so many people.
“It’s pretty cool that this has become a beacon of hope,” Martin said. “Everything around it was burned down and just destroyed. And this bright blue shiny van is sitting there.”
