Groundswell Society

Surfing competitions are often won by the lone surfer on the wave who does the gnarliest tricks while riding a board festooned with stickers from the dozens of companies that sponsored him.

So call the surf event this weekend the “anti-competition.”

At the Rincon Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, riders aren’t competing for the biggest wave. Instead of a lone rider on one wave, the idea is to get as many surfers on one wave as possible. And sponsorship is taboo, said the event’s founder, Glenn Hening, because it feeds into the corporate mentality that is taking away from the purity of the sport.

Event participants are invited because they have helped the surfing community through philanthropy.

“The whole idea is to eliminate the ‘me, mine, I,’ ” said Hening, executive director of the Groundswell Society, which is focused on sharing the “stoke” of surfing. “Excitement and generosity and sharing are more important than getting air or getting ‘shacked’ or getting your picture in a magazine.”

via Surfing event just for fun in Ventura County » Ventura County Star.

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Updated 3/18/10

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Twenty surfing organizations, clubs, and businesses have been invited this year in recognition for the public service they have contributed towards a better future for surfing. Each team will have the main surfing area at Rincon to themselves for an hour. There will be no judging of surfing performance. Rather, the “competition” between teams will be based on total number of waves caught; total number of waves shared; and total number of surfers on shared waves. Full press release after the jump…
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