International Cat Day! Surfing Kitten

Check out Malia Ward's surfing kitten, Sushi.

Ocean Park Surf Contest

The Ocean Park 26 Clothing Company held their fifth annual Ocean Park Surf Contest this past weekend. Once again held at Lifeguard Tower 26 in Santa Monica's historic Ocean Park section of the beach.

With hopes that Hurricane Delores would be bringing a good size swell, the contest was set to go off at 6:30 in the morning. Starting off with what has become the largest division in the contest, the bodysurfing, then onto the Girls Heat followed by the Boys Heat, then the Mens and Womens Divisions would each have two heats followed by the Finals for each. Then three heats for the Mens Masters with the Finals right after, and finishing off the competition with one Heat for the Juniors Division. Then it would be over to the grass field for a concert by Ocean Park Sound System and the awards ceremony. That was the plan, unfortunately, mother nature had her own plan, which would eventually turn this one day contest into a two day contest.


As the bodysurfing heats were going on, the lifeguard pulls up and clears everyone out of the water because of the threat of lightning. The contest would need to be on hold till the storm passed.

Photo by Ocean Park Surf Contest Judge Jonas Matz So while the contest was on stand-by, everyone watched as lightning hit the ocean a few times.

After a couple hours, the lifeguards deemed it safe to restart the contest. With the Girls taking to the waves.





A lot more photos of the Girls Heat in Girls Heat Photo Gallery. Up next the Boys Heat.




There's a bunch more shots of these groms in the Boys Heat Photo Gallery. Up next was the Mens Division.






Check out the Mens Division Photo Gallery for all the photos from the Mens two Heats and the Final.


The trophies for the contest are always unique, this year's trophies were made from these waterproof ukuleles by BugsGear.







There's a lot more photos of the Womens Heat in the Womens Heat Photo Gallery.



More shots like this in the Ocean Park Surf Contest Randomness Photo Gallery.
One of the sponsors of the contest is REI , they sell all that outdoor gear stuff you need for hiking, cycling, running, climbing, or just sitting on the couch, check them out at REI.com

Curt, Surfing's Oldest Grom doing his signature move sparked the start of the Masters Division.


It was during this heat that a storm started to roll in and lifeguard warned everyone that the threat of lightning has returned, so contest director Kevin Osborne called all competitor out of the water and made the decision the reschedule the Masters and Juniors Divisions for Sunday. As the rain began to pour, there was a quick awards ceremony for all the other divisions.



More photos from the awards ceremony in the Ocean Park Surf Contest Randomness Photo Gallery. The next day, there was clear skies for the Masters and Juniors Divisons.
More photos from both days of the Masters Division are in the Masters Photo Gallery.



Check out the Juniors Photo Gallery for all the photos of the Juniors Division. With the Masters and Juniors Divisions completed, the final scores were tallied up and the last of the awards were given out.


There are close to 600 photos from the contest, way too many for this blog post, but they can all be viewed in the photo galleries linked below:



There is also some Snapchat footage of the contest: Snapchat Story: Ocean Park Surf Contest

Remember to check out REI , they are a sponsor, show them some love!