All Hail the Queen

It sounds corny, but the Rincon Classic is “like a box of chocolates,” as Forrest Gump said. “You never know what you’re going to get.” It starts with the location itself: Rincon, sweet Rincon, and our personal and communal relationship with her and one another. The Queen’s bottom may shift, the sand may build, the water sometimes may be green and blue and other times a kaleidoscope of brown, yet riding her brings us together, creating memories that last a lifetime.

Then there is the rich legacy of surfing in Santa Barbara and how tightly knit and special our community is. My mentors — Steve Bigler, Davey Smith and his Surf Academy, Jerry Dow and the Christian Surfers, Tom Curren, Chris Brown, Josh Bradbury, Kim Mearig, and the countless underground surfers who I learned from watching — nourished my own surfing.

As I grew older and wiser, more experienced surfers who were business-people mentored me, guiding me toward resurrecting the Rincon Classic. Roger Nance passed on the torch of the Classic, and Chris Nancarrow, Clyde Beatty, and many others helped to finance the birth of the dream.

This marks the 10th anniversary that my company Surf Happens has produced the Rincon Classic, and the 27th annual since its inception back in 1979. In celebration of our 10-year anniversary, we are dedicating the event to the environment, promoting awareness and sustainability and bringing like-minded environmental organizations together in an effort to preserve the ocean for current and future generations.

One of the biggest problems plaguing our oceans today is the combined effects of a century of plastic usage, overconsumption, and waste. Our goal is to eliminate single-usage plastic items such as bags, bottles, cups, and food and product packaging from the Rincon Classic.

Ten stands for strength, courage, a coming of age, and rebirth. It is our great honor at Surf Happens to carry on the Rincon Classic tradition for our community. Only through your support and that of participating sponsors may we accomplish this.

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The 2010 Surf Happens Rincon Classic takes place Saturday, February 6, and Sunday, February 7, at Rincon Point, the Queen of the Coast. For more information, call 451-7568 or visit rinconclassic.com.