Photo: Surfing Santas // YouTube
Cocoa Beach’s most indelible mark on surfing might be as the birthplace of Kelly Slater, but the city has one more claim to fame: Surfing Santas. Every year, on Christmas Eve, hundreds of revelers costumed as Saint Nick horde the Space Coast beach, and this year will be no different.
The event started off as a simple family outing. Way back in 2009, organizer George Trosset went out for a surf at Cocoa Beach dressed as Santa, accompanied by his son and daughter in law, dressed as elves. The stunt caught the attention of local papers, and snowballed from there. “It’s amazing how this thing has grown over the past 12 years into one of the biggest holiday events in Brevard County,” Trosset told Space Coast Daily, later on adding, ““Each year, we look forward to more people joining our Christmas Eve celebration – who knows, we might draw over a thousand Surfing Santas to Cocoa Beach this time because there’s a no better place for St. Nick to hang loose before his busiest night of the year.”
The event also collects money through charitable donations and t-shirt sales to benefit two local organizations: Grind for Life and the Florida Surf Museum. Grind for Life is a cancer support group that provides financial assistance to cancer patients and their families when traveling long distances to doctors and hospitals. The Florida Surf Museum is dedicated to preserving Florida’s surfing history through exhibits, articles, research and social media. So Santa is definitely getting pitted for a couple of good causes!
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