The fate of the Venice Surf-A-Thon is now unknown.

Contest founder & organizer, Ger-I Lewis, made two announcements this morning via his social media accounts. Both announcements statimng he has decided not to produce the contest anymore, and the second announcement was the same as the first but he added in a sentence about gifting the contest to "the Venice neighborhood" , which he called aa "a strong and responsible group".

This news comes just 12 days after Ger-I had announced the 2022 Venice Surf-A-Thon date.

His full announcement:



"Family, friends and supporters of Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest, I have decided to not to produce the Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest any longer. Thank you for the support and a wonderful 28 years of fun and surfing! I decided to gift the contest to the Venice neighborhood and a strong and responsible group that is considering keeping the 'Thon going into the next 3 decades.
Sincerely, Ger-I"

Is the Venice Surfing Association the group Gert-I is talking about?

And does that mean the 2022 contest is still on?

From Santa Monica Close Up:

"City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works sanitation workers in white hazardous materials suits, with Clean Harbors Hazardous Waste Management and Action Cleanup Environmental Services clean-up homeless encampments at Venice Beach on Friday, October 21, 2022."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

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Here's our photo coverage of the surfing from the Breakwater Open.

This set of surf photos was shot by Six12 Media and brought to you by XCEL Wetsuits.

These are just a few of the 1200+ photos from the contest. If you surfed in it, you probably got some surfing shots, probably multiple photos, they will be in the complete contest photo gallery, check them out, the link to the complete gallery is down below.





















You can find all the photos from the contest, all full size and in high-resolution, in this photo gallery:

Breakwater Open Photo Gallery


If you were out there, we probably got some cool surfing shots of you, go check them out!

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other local surf spots from this photographer?
Click Surf Spot Galleries and look for the spot and then the date.

Strange summers in Malibu. Surfing from Highway Ones easiest stop, from Grant Hilling:

A perfect day in Malibu...again! Start off the day with a morning surf. Then, Kyle, Brian, Brandon, and I get rowdy at first point. We end the evening with full on Golden Hour at third point. Author Patrick presents the history of George Freeth who brought surfing to Venice Beach and all of Southern California. In the early 1900s, Freeth taught surfing and swimming, including coaching legendary waterman and Olympian Duke Kahanamoku. While working for visionary Abbot Kinney in Venice, and at beaches and bath houses in San Diego, Long Beach, Redondo, and Santa Monica, Freeth established modern lifeguarding practices still in use today. He transformed the beach into a destination for fun, sport, and excitement.

The book is currently avaliable on Amazon:

"When you take some of the best longboarders in the world and let them surf Malibu with nobody out, some incredible rides are bound to go down. These were some of our favorites from the final day of the event. Congrats to Harrison and Soliel on your well deserved victories" - Log Rap

The 2022 Longboard World Champs Errico and Roach were crowned in flawless First Point, Malibu. Here is the highlight reel to prove it.

Malibu is the most iconic, relevant, and revered break in all of longboard surfing. Housed in history and home to timeless style, it’s the perfect spot to host the deciding event on tour - the Cuervo Classic Malibu Longboard Championship. With the title on the line, the top surfers descend on First Point to end the year in style and decide the 2022 Longboard World Champions

Congratulations Soleil Errico on your 2nd World Title, winning the 2022 World Title plus winning the Cuervo Classic Malibu Longboard Championship.

Malibu is the most iconic, relevant, and revered break in all of longboard surfing. Housed in history and home to timeless style, it’s the perfect spot to host the deciding event on tour - the Cuervo Classic Malibu Longboard Championship. With the title on the line, the top surfers descend on First Point to end the year in style and decide the 2022 Longboard World Champions

Malibu is the most iconic, relevant, and revered break in all of longboard surfing. Housed in history and home to timeless style, it’s the perfect spot to host the deciding event on tour - the Cuervo Classic Malibu Longboard Championship. With the title on the line, the top surfers descend on First Point to end the year in style and decide the 2022 Longboard World Champions

Malibu is the most iconic, relevant, and revered break in all of longboard surfing. Housed in history and home to timeless style, it’s the perfect spot to host the deciding event on tour - the Cuervo Classic Malibu Longboard Championship. With the title on the line, the top surfers descend on First Point to end the year in style and decide the 2022 Longboard World Champions

Homeless squatting in a house that was under construction set a fire that burnt down that house along with the house next door, as well as badly damaging other houses. Here is the aftermath, homeowners talk about what happened, a politician visits, etc...​APparently according to the residents speaking to the politician, their reports about the homeless setting fires were going unheard.

Log Rap's new video "Heat Waves".

The legendary Allen Sarlo recently came across previously unseen Super 8 surfing footage from the 1970s (including Venice, POP, and the North Shore). Working with an editor, he cut it all together beautifully . He screened the film with a Q & A session at Venice Beach. .

Gary Adler of the Venice Surfing Association gives an update on the Breakwater Open during the screening of Allen Sarlo's new film.

"Breakline" is short documentary film about the history of African American surfers in Venice. "Breakline" was an official selection of the All American High School Film Festival 2018.

Made in 2016-2017 by the Direct This class, students ages 12-16

Last Saturday 4,583 Heal the Bay volunteers removed 11,298 lbs trash and 313 lbs recyclables from 65+ miles of California beaches, streets, neighborhoods, and waterways for Heal the Bay’s 33rd Annual Coastal Cleanup Day.