The 25th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon was held on Saturday, December 8, once again taking place at the Venice Pier. The contest is a grassroots local tradition that has evolved from a mentorship gathering for youth beset by gang violence to an inter-generational celebration of community. The contest has been a labor of love for it's founder Ger-I Lewis .
Ger-I founded the Venice Surf-A-Thon in 1993 after returning home from military service. "I wished to do something for the children , young adults and the community in general that is fun and has a positive influence on everyone." says Ger-I. "For sure back in the day the contest was edgy as so was I! Instead of handing out trophies at the beach like most contests, I incorporated the awards party to give everyone a chance to shine. Inviting local talent as well the bikini contest was also a strategy to enhance and create a Venice culture showcase. Well times have changed and folks have mellowed, the bikini contest is no longer a part of the event as many of the original contestants are grandfathers now! The event has a generational community expectation and Surf-A-thon has taken on a family atmosphere. Many world class surfers, celebrities, have supported and donated to The Venice Surf-A-Thon including Mimi Miyagi,Peter Destafino, Perry Ferral, C.R. Stecyk , Danny Trejo, Robert Trujillo (of Metallica), Noah Budroe, Chris Ward, Tonan, Tina Cheri, DJ Muggs, Kid Frost, and Beowulf. Moreover the contest has provided a an opportunity for surfers to get a start in competition surfing."


Here's the contest recap/resullts from Ger-I:

The contest started off early with Body surfing. First place went Steve Shop, 2nd to Place Mike Wood, and in Third place was Johnny.

Two Groms Mixed Heats followed. The Groms Mixed Heat #1 winners were Logan in First, Kay got Second, and Third went to Parker.




Groms Mixed #2 winners were Dean Pitari in First, Bradley getting Second, and Kay following with Third.


Girls division was next. First Place going to Mimi Sullivan, Second Place went to Oshi Massey, and Third Place was Kay (again).



Longboards winners were Mr Cortez taking First, Tonan Ruiz placing Second, and Third Place going to Billy Bong.







Continue on Page 2

Here's surf photos from Sunday morning at the Venice Pier shot by Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto









There are a more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - December 2018 Photo Gallery from Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto.

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.

This Saturday streets along Santa Monica and Venice beaches will be closed for the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas Run.

Division 1 Basket Ball player A.J. Lapray puts on a wetsuit and challenges some players to a game.

Here's just a few of the photos from Sunday morning at the Venice Pier. These were shot by Six12 Media. These are just some of the photos from this session. If you were out there, you probably got some surfing shots in the complete photo galleries, check them out, the links are down below.

















You can find over 150 more photos from this session, all full size and in high-resolution, in these photo galleries:

Venice Pier - Saturday 12-8-2018 - Photo Gallery #1
Venice Pier - Saturday 12-8-2018 - Photo Gallery #2


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?
Click Surf Spot Galleries and look for the spot and then the date.

"Why isn't Shacked posting about it?"
"Why aren't you blasting this kook?"

We got posts on Instagram, as well as DMs and emails asking this question. A couple that were insinuating that we are not being supportive of female surfers and black female surfers.

Well, first off, we didn't get news of this till a day after it starting making the internet rounds. We were not tagged in the initial posts on the incident like KooK_of_the_Day , Kookslams, and Inertia were. Which was probably for the best.

Second, if you're reading this, you already know what the incident we are talking about, as it has made the rounds of all the surf related websites and social media.

As we're started gathering info to make a story on the incident, we saw how the friend of the surfer who got her leash pulled and a website that is close to that person's organization were attempting to turn this incident into a racial hate crime of sorts. Now to be clear, what one surfer did by pulling that other surfer's leash was not right, but neither is what this friend and that website are doing.

That website has a very poorly written and factually inaccurate blog post "breaking" this story, stating race was the motivation behind the incident. Any person who points out the writer's errors in facts, or does not fully 100% side with surfer that got her leash pulled automatically gets labeled as "racist white man" by the website.

We politely and respectfully asked the writer some question about her story in a public forum, not only did she back-peddle, constantly lie, and just refuse to answer questions, she attempted to talk down to us, accuse us of harassment (ironic) , and more... As many have stated all over social media, the writer solely used race in order to drum up more clicks to her website.

Even worse comes from the friend who is spear heading this hateful vendetta against the surfer who pulled the leash.

Pretty much all the websites posting on this story are taking their info directly from those two sources. Some are calling it what it is, others are following those two's footsteps and labeling this as a race issue to earn sympathy views and shares (in order to make more money off the ads run on the sites).

The guy was being an arrogant kook, he wasn't being a racist.

We did find a lot of info to run a pretty good story on the incident, but the truth was that neither parties come off looking good. In fact, we are the only website that has actually talked to people that were present during all this, including Wagner Lima himself. We also found proof that all involved have a history of certain behaviors.

That and because we didn't want to give these false claims of a "race motivated assault" anymore attention (since sadly many have their minds made up already , they will accept no facts proving otherwise ). We made the call to not post anything

The only reason we are posting this is because some are trying to say this website is hiding the story because it is run by a "triggered white men" and "a Venice/Lima type". We just want to clear that BS up.

Will we eventually post the story we started writing up and getting screenshots for? To be honest, not sure. Prefer to not bring anymore negativity to our community.

NOTE: We withheld names of all parties involved including the name of that race-baiting website. We don't want to be the "source" of any attacks or harassment made to them by our readers. Looks like they are getting it enough now anyways.

Venice Beach Photographer Josh "Bagel" Klassman will be one of the featured artists at the next Midnite Bazaar.

Bagel will be showing off pieces from his huge collection of photos he took as a surfer/skater growing up in Venice:



Some of his works will also be for sale at his booth.

Venice Surf-A-Thon

The trophies are being made, the t-shirts are being printed, the heats are being bracketed, wax 'em up surfers! It's Venice Surf-A-Thon time!

More waves from the storm, here's photos from Saturdaymorning at the Venice Pier shot by Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto









There are a lot more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - Saturday 12-1-2018 Photo Gallery from Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto.

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.