Photo: Brendan Simmons
This summer the Young and Brave Foundation will host the 4th annual Surfing 4a Cure on a small stretch of beach just outside Los Angeles. Here, surfers will be sharing waves and hoots to raise awareness for pediatric cancer research.
It all started back in 2011 when my friend, Adele Luttrell approached me with with an idea to get surfers involved in raising funds for pediatric cancer research. So we brainstormed an idea to use the Relay for Life format as a foundation for the event that applied to surfing. The rules were simple. A team captain gathers surfers from around the world to partake in a surfing relay with two surfers from each twelve person team spending at least an hour in the water. Everything we’d raise from surfers pledging to get in their hour and all the people that sponsored them would go toward supporting research and awareness of pediatric cancer. It started out small, with a few local Southbay surfers getting together for the day, and in the three years since Surfing 4a Cure managed to attract more than just the RAT Beach crowd. One of our very own, Alex Grey caught his first wave at the exact same beach, so he joins in on the party whenever he’s home. We’ve traded waves at Surfing 4a Cure with Reef McIntosh and even Malibu longboard legend Carla Rowland Zamora, each there to take part in the event and help us raise just over $48,000. Every penny the surfing community’s helped us raise have gone directly to Children’s Hospital of LA research department.
What makes this event such a success isn’t the surfing but the support from the local surf community. We have a team captain who helps us organize and host an after party each year. We have several team captains that donate their time to reach out to the local community, to businesses, anybody willing to contribute for raffles and auctions we hold. Just two years ago, a young surfer by the name of Matt Patman raised over $3,000 alone for his Bar Mitzvah to donate to Surfing 4a Cure. It’s young people like Matt, a little creativity, and the support of an entire community that can remind us how awesome of a gift surfing can be.
To find Surfing4aCure online or to get involved visit their Instagram or Facebook. Donations can be made through the Surfing4aCure GoFundMe
Alex Grey and Reef McCintosh with the crew at the 2013 Surfing4aCure relay.
