Fleeing The North Pole, Thousands Of Surfing Santas Florida Bound For Christmas Eve
In the surf world, Cocoa Beach is known for one thing and one thing only: the hometown of one Robert Kelly Slater. Local waters for the 11-time world champ and undisputed greatest competitive surfer in history, Slater may be getting a run for his money in his hometown as the annual Surfing Santa gathering is expected to draw thousands this Christmas Eve.
Created in 2009 by Florida's George Trosset, over the years the annual Kris Kringle shred session has grown in popularity with more and more Santas forsaking the North Pole for the Florida sunshine. In 2021, the Surfing Santa event reached new heights when football legend Doug Flutie dropped in on everyone from a helicopter.
But more than just another day at the beach, the Surfing Santa event does a world of good. Proceeds generated go to Grind For Life, which is a non-profit that provides financial assistance to cancer patients and their families who are forced to travel long distances for their treatments, as well as the Florida Surf Museum, which continues to preserve the history, heritage and culture of the Florida surf scene.
Should you find yourself fleeing the cold and snow of other parts of the country and reveling in Cocoa Beach's sunny weather over the Christmas holiday, the Surfing Santas festivities take place on December 24 and run from 7:30am to 12pm. On the itinerary for the days is a costume contest, group photos, live music and Hawaiian dancing. And if you're in town, be sure to stop by and snap a selfie with the bronze Slater statue.
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With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.