On Hwy-101/Hwy-l, 12 miles East of Santa Barbara. A pleasant but thoroughly unexciting community, Carpinteria has little to suggest that it was once a Chumash native American village, renamed by Spanish explorers impressed by the canoe-making skills of the natives. Modern visitors tend to be keener to swim than to learn about local history. At Carpinteria State Beach, three miles away, an offshore reef keeps the water free of rip tides, enabling bathers to enjoy some of the safest swimming anywhere on the Central Coast.