Show Time at Bates Road

Surf’s up: This is why they call it The Classic. Three weeks into a six-week waiting period, Rincon Classic organizer Chris Keet pulled the trigger and held the long-running annual surf contest this past weekend, and things couldn’t have worked out much better. Summer-like sunshine coupled with a solid overhead northwest swell lit up the Queen of the Coast virtually nonstop during the two-day event (save for a brief period of wicked south winds early Sunday morning) as competitors and thousands of spectators from throughout the tri-county area were treated to some of the most picture-perfect surf conditions the world-class wave has seen in recent months. Big winners included Ventura’s Mike McCabe in the Men’s Pro division, Gaviota’s Andrew Bennett in the Men’s Open, Goleta’s Demi Boelsterli in the Women’s Open, Bill Urbany in the Legends, Charlie Dentzel in the Juniors, Montecito’s Lakey Peterson in the Wahines, Vinny Leonelli in the Boys, and Sean Woods in the Gremlins.