Dates: March 29,30 2008

Time: 8 a.m. - 4p.m. on the beach (both days)

Location: Rincon

Rules and Guidelines

Schedule

List of Invitees

Boarding House Mentors (LA) Doheny Longboard Association Surf Happens Surf School (SB) Richard Schmidt Surf School (Santa Cruz) Sunset Cliffs Surfing Association Surf Happens Surf School Surfers Healing Mary Setterholm/L.A. Surf Bus*	Turf 2 Surf Youth Program (SB) Pacific Beach Surf Club Santa Barbara Seals Surf School San Diego Surfing Ladies Surf Divas (La Jolla) Surfclass (Ventura) WILDCOAST/CostaSalvaje Surfers Healing (Orange County)*
*unable to attend but will receive a commendation

Purpose: To recognize and honor surfing organizations, schools, and individuals for their public service record towards enriching the surfing experience of tomorrow’s waveriders.

Format: Team Surfing

• Invited organizations will be represented by teams of 10 to 20 surfers.
• At least five surfers should be under 16 years old; there should be as many wahines (of all ages) as possible; additional surfers as necessary.
• Each team will have the event surf zone to themselves for one hour.
• Six teams will surf on Saturday, and the remaining six teams will surf on Sunday
• A team competition will be based on most waves ridden, most waves shared by two or more surfers, and total surfers on shared waves
• Separate awards will be presented for each day's surfing.
• All participants will receive commemorative poster and t-shirt.

Other Info: There is no entry fee. Contributions to the event's operating expense fund are appreciated. Make checks payable to the Groundswell Society and mail to Glenn Hening, 5212 Moonstone Way, Oxnard Shores, CA 93035

Background Information

One of the most important responsibilities of veteran surfers is to create a positive legacy of stewardship for future generations, and over the years we've seen a number of initiatives begun by people worried about the impacts of pollution and development on the world of riding waves.

For example, the Rincon Clean Water Classic was an event started in 1997 to resolve the pollution issues threatening one of the world's best waves. Using a unique team surfing format, we were able to invite hundreds of surfers from up and down the coast to surf great waves and help us raise funds. And over the course of running the event year after year, we were happy to see that our fundraising efforts were paying off thanks to Heal the Ocean's work and the eventual approval of a septics-to-sewers project that we believe will help clean up the surf zone at Rincon. In 2006 we were able to conclude the Clean Water Classic as a fundraising event with a sense that our job was done.

Now we are ready to take on a new project at Rincon that is not about surfers getting sick from the ocean so much as it is about surfers getting sick of each other.

Crowding in surfing is not new, and indeed it affects surfers just as much as pollution does. However, the way to combat the problem is simple: sharing waves in a true spirit of the original meaning of the word "aloha": give away everything you don't need. This ancient Polynesian precept has found ready acceptance by many surfers and a number of organizations who are going out of their way to share surfing with many who are not fortunate enough to be out there getting great waves all the time or who can't compete with the crowds in many surfing areas.

The Groundswell Society's "Sharing the Stoke Invitational", to be held this coming March 29 and 30, is a community-based event that will bring together those surfers and organizations from up and down the coast for a weekend of sharing waves at one of the world's best surf spots. The event will involve literally hundreds of participants as part of the Society's efforts to promote a friendly and welcoming atmosphere throughout the surfing community. Sixteen organizations that have made significant efforts to "share the stoke" of surfing with tomorrow's surfers will be the invited guests of the Society and the Rincon surfing community. And each team will get the famed wave to themselves for an hour as part of the event's activities in recognition of the good work they've done.