On Saturday, December 11th, the 28th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon took place at the Venice Pier. This is Socal's longest running surf contest.
The Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest was founded in 1993 by Ger-I Lewis after returning home from military service. He had the idea to do something for the children, young adults and the community in general that is fun and has a positive influence on everyone. Funds raised by Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest go to Casa Del Padre in San Vincinte Baja Norte Mexico and to MLD Christian Charity School in Mucas Mindanao. Both of these schools serve children and women who have been trafficked and abused.
The Surf-A-Thon is also made possible by the many volunteers, such as Norm Antonio and Brock Mayeux (pictured above) who create the unique custom trophies every year.
Now here's the Shacked Mag recap of the 28th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon.
We were orginially going to wait to find out the official results before publishing this recap, but Ger-I misplaced the the list of winners after the awards ceremony, and those we contacted who attended the awards ceremony don't remember much. So this recap will be from the memory of our photographer Six12 Media and our Venice Beach correspondent Venice's O.G.Peck.
The contest kicked off surprisingly on time, with the groms hitting the water at 7AM.
Then a couple guys competed in the body surfing heat.
The Jr. Mens divisionwas next, Eitan Gobi got 2nd in it.
During the Women's Open Division, Julianna in the yellow jersey caught and surfed the most waves in our eyes.
Later we found out tht she placed 3rd, behind Nicole Lynchie (2nd) and Stephanie Wise (1st). "Judging surf contests is highly subjective. The difference was .5 points between 1st and 2nd place", stated Ger-I.
Beck Adler took his division, beating Cole Sweeney.
"Cole Sweeny, always a threat to win it all! He took home 2nd place being edged out by Beck Adler." Ger-I said, "They were going at back to back and a young guy named Ben kept the heat on too!"
Peck thought Tonan won the Longboard division because he saw him do a coffin, but the judges gave 1st to Norm Antonio and gave 2nd place to Brock Mayeux. The dude that did the handstand through the pier got 4th.
This set of contest surf photos was shot by Six12media and brought to you by XCEL Wetsuits.
These are just a few of the 600+ photos from this contest. If you were out there surfing, you probably got some surfing shots, probably multiple photos, they will be in the complete photo galleries for this event, check them out, the link to the complete galleries is down below.
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