Help keep a youth surfing tradition alive by supporting the annual Jetty Kid Surf Contest, set this year for Saturday, Oct. 11 at the South Mission Beach Jetty.
The event is sponsored by the South Mission Crew Foundation (SMCF), a former nonprofit group seeking that status again, created solely for putting on the youth surf contest.
“For the last 19 years, there was no entry charge, and all the participants won prizes (surfboards, wetsuits, boardbags, fins, T-shirts and hats) in addition to food,” said event spokesman Gary Katz with Wave of Change Public Relations/Marketing. “The foundation used up the money that supported the contest 19 years ago. The Mission Beach Women’s Club, city lifeguards, FCS, O’Neill and various others have contributed throughout the years.”
Katz said the intent in continuing the surf contest is to “get a new board and get nonprofit status next year so the Jetty Kids Contest can continue forever. In order to continue this year, we need help.”
Katz said the past event budget was about $10,000 for food, six surfboards, 12 wetsuits, prizes, permits and insurance.
“We can do it for less, in the $4,000 range,” Katz said.
The Jetty Kid Surf Contest memorializes noted surfer and Mission Beach native Keith Noel, who owned a vintage Hawaiian shirt shop in the beach community for 17 years and grew up surfing at his home break at the jetty in South Mission Beach. Noel became known to the local surfers up and down the coast as “The Jetty Kid.”
When he died in 1995, Noel wanted to be remembered by providing funding for a yearly surf contest for kids — completely free of charge — which led to the establishment of the SMCF.?The contest, which is open to girls ages 8-16 and boys ages 8 to 15, will feature prizes like surfboards, wetsuits, board bags and trophies for each of the six divisions, according to organizers. Sponsored surfers are not allowed to enter because the event is designed to encourage newer surfers. There is no entry fee. The event runs from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and participants will gather at San Diego Place Beach.?”Please help support this truly local event for kids to just enjoy the love of surfing,” said Katz.
For more information or to contribute, email [email protected].