Nice Suprise

I was up to my normal windswell routine, walking down the steps to Scripps around seven this morning when I noticed all these tents, judges, hula dancers and a bunch of guys and gals with lei's around their necks.  I even helped one of the hula girls with her things as I walked to the beach (partly to help and partly for karma for some good waves).  As I walked passed the hut pictured above, I heard "3,2,1!  Let the Luau and Longboard Invitational begin!"  Then three guys with logs charged the lineup.

Being new to the area and an obvious kook, I didn't know what the heck was going on, so I paddled out to the southside of the pier and enjoyed at times head high rights and lefts over the course of two hours. One of the guys in the lineup said he was volunteering at the event and needed to catch one in.  As he explained, this is a yearly event that brings the "Legends of Surfing " together to raise money for cancer research.  According to the website "The Luau and Longboard Invitational" is "Now in its 20th year, we have become one of the most successful surfing fundraisers and has donated approaching $6 million for the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. "  For more information about the event, please click on this link.

Some of the participants included were (according to this link) "Robert August, star of the 1966 surf documentary “The Endless Summer”; Fernando Aguerre, founder of Reef and president of the International Surfing Association; Jericho Poppler, cancer survivor and pioneer of women’s professional surfing; Rusty Preisendorfer, UC San Diego alumnus, San Diego native and founder of Rusty Surfboards; and Kathy “Gidget” Zuckerman, the inspiration for the fictional character of the 1957 novel, “Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas,” which was based on her experiences growing up and surfing in Malibu."

After my session, I got my point and shoot and took a bunch of pictures.  I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of the "Legends" including Rob Machado (who is also a legend, but kind of too young to be a legend...).

Pretty sick log if you ask me.

Rob Machado = Style

Fernando Aguerre, Rob Machado, Shuan Tomson

Rob again.

One of the "Legends".

"The Legends"

Here is video I found from last year's event:


P.S. Please forgive me of my ignorance, I just stumbled upon this event as I surfed my everyday break.  I was learning about this event as I wrote about it.  Next year I plan to volunteer, get more informed, and learn the hula.  Sounds like something I could get behind.