First Annual Encinitas Surf Festival

Sunday April 30, 2006, the shores of Moonlight Beach welcomed the First Annual Encinitas Surf Festival to town, bringing with it sunny skies and relatively clean, peaky, waves in the 2-3’ range. The Firefighter Association & SurfinFire.com hosted the inaugural event in conjunction with the Downtown Encinitas Merchant Association’s (D.E.M.A) annual street fair. The Encinitas Surf Festival was unique in the fact that there were essentially two separate contests going on simultaneously. The Open Junior Division was comprised of 110 boys and girls, ranging anywhere from under 7 to age 18. (A few of the contestants were as young as FIVE!) There were some exceptional surfing performances given throughout the day in most of the divisions. Even as the conditions diminished toward the end of the day (during the finals nonetheless), the surfers still gave it all they had, as they pulled one floater after another trying to make the critical section of the wave. One of the most entertaining heats of the contest had to be the under 7 coed division. It is hard to imagine that some of these children have no fear whatsoever. A five year old girl was pulling switch-stance and walking the nose on an 8’6” Dewey Weber , while one of the boys was going tandem on dad’s back! It truly is amazing to watch the menehunes progress into some of tomorrow’s top groms. The Rescue Division was open to firefighters, police, lifeguards, and EMS. Bragging rights were on the line for the 60 surfers that participated in the individual and team categories. Firefighters, EMS, and lifeguards from the Carlsbad, Encinitas, Vista, San Marcos, Del Mar and Solana Beach all battled it out for top honors. For complete contest results, log onto www.surfinfire.com