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Four days of wild weather resulted in a week of snow, hail, rain, wind, and somehow really great contestable waves. In the end, Canadian surfer Mathea Dempfle-Olin won the Women's Division against her own sister Sanoa Dempfle-Olin. Siblings have not met in a North American WSL event since 2006, and this was the first time ever for two sisters to meet in a final.
SLO CAL OPEN AT PISMO BEACH
January 23rd to 29th, 2023 @ Pismo Beach Pier
Big upgrades came to the 2023 SLO CAL Open at Pismo Beach. Both the Men's and Women's divisions were upgraded to a Qualification Series 3000, meaning triple the points and prize purse. Also added was a Boys and Girls Pro Junior Division making this years contest a 7 day event.
We are happy to announce that Surfing For Hope will be hosting the 2023 SLO CAL Open at Pismo Beach. This will be a Men's and Women's World Surf League event featuring the best surfers from the WSL's North American region. For the first time ever, this event will be a Qualifying Series 3000 point event, upgraded from a 1000 point event. This means triple the points and triple the prize purse! Also for the first time, we will be hosting a WSL Pro Junior event featuring the best 20 years old and under surfers from the North American region.
Below are the winners from our Amateur Longboard Contest that took place on Sunday, October 2nd, 2022. This part of the event ran in conjunction with our WSL event on September 30th & October 2nd. Congrats to everyone that competed and all of our champions!
Kirra Silver - Masters Women
Mia McMahon - Junior Women
Kyle Metcalf - Masters Men
Sean Louis - Junior Men
Eric Jenssen - Grandmasters Men
Thomas Kunz - Legends Men
Wyatt Hoover - Retro Heat
Ammon Walters - Bodyboard
This World Surf League sanctioned longboard contest took place on September 30th & October 1st, 2022 at the Pismo Beach Pier. Epic glassy conditions and sunny afternoons let the best longboarders in the world display their talents. Congratulations to our four finalists. Hope to see everyone again next year!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS
Women's Champion - Sophia Culane
Women's Runner-up - Haley Otto
Men's Champion - Kai Sallas
Men's Runner-up - Richie Cravey
2022 is going to be a BIG year for Surfing for Hope’s Annual Contest and Benefit weekend. Partnering with WSL we are going to have more heats, more riders, and more stoke than ever before.
February 24th to 27th, 2022 @ Morro Rock
When Surfing For Hope hosts a World Surf League Qualifying Series surf contest, young California athletes are able to compete at the most important and recognizable events in their sport without having to leave the state or travel great distances.
January 27th to 30th, 2022 @ Pismo Beach Pier
When Surfing For Hope hosts a World Surf League Qualifying Series surf contest, young California athletes are able to compete at the most important and recognizable events in their sport without having to leave the state or travel great distances.
Zoom conversations about HPV related cancers and conversation with survivor Bob Voglin and Tom Spillane, M.D.
We recently received some sad news about one of our volunteers to our Pure Stoke kids camps. Kevin Honeman recently passed away from his own battle with cancer. Kevin was a big fan of what we do and we really connected with him even though we did not get to spend a lot of time with him. Below is Kevin’s obituary where, at Kevin’s request, he asked people to donate to Surfing For Hope in lieu of flowers at his funeral. Through our website, we received over two dozen donations from Kevin’s family and friends. Thank you Kevin!
What another remarkable and beautiful year for the Surfing for Hope Foundation.
We started our Pure Stoke Youth Program in May and have had camps every month and will have our final one on Oct. 17. These camps have become essential for our veteran campers as well as very beneficial to our new ones. Seeing these children bond to each other at the beach and share "salt water smiles" is exactly what we envisioned for our camp at the beginning.
Whoa it's been quite a year. Surfing for Hope was all set for our 9th year of helping people challenged by cancer by sharing the positive energy of surfing. Like dealing with a three wave hold down we kept paddling out and got back into the lineup. Our Pure Stoke Surf program will hold its 3rd camp this coming Saturday and we 're working on our October event. More info to come.
Once a month we hold our Pure Stoke Youth Surf Camp for kids and relatives of current cancer patients. With help from the awesome folks at Shell Beach Surf Shop we give the kids a day at the beach that includes beach yoga, surf lessons, marine biology lessons in the tide pools, and lunch on the beach. All of this is free to the participating families made possible by generous grants from the Sharkey Foundation, French Hospital, the Wheeler Foundation, and individual donations.
Last week I got a wonderful surprise when I found I had a note of Thanks from the Shell Beach Elementary School written by the principal, Dr. Cervantez.
On the front of the card it read "All you need is Love and the beach". How very appropriate and cool. The inside read “Dear Surfing for Hope, The Shell Beach Elementary School staff and community recently lost a beloved a beloved Dad, Tom Adamski. We wanted to honor him in a small way. Please except this small donation. We know Tom would have loved us supporting your organization, May the surf continue."
The Surfing for Hope Foundation is proud to announce that our fourth annual benefit presented a check for $27,696.00 to the Hearst Cancer Resource Center. Alan Iftinuk, the CEO of the French Hospital, sent us a beautiful letter of appreciation.
Surfing for Hope is bringing back the popular "one hundred wines for one hundred dollars" wine raffle. This popular raffle offers one lucky individual the opportunity to take home one hundred bottles of Central Coast wine for only one hundred dollars. Only one hundred raffle tickets will be sold and we sell out quickly.
Tickets will be sold at this years Benefit Reception on November 6th, or can be purchased prior to the event by contacting Brian Metcalf at 805-458-7888.
This year’s Surfing for Hope Benefit on Friday, November 6, 2015, will honor Cathy Henderson Martin who lost her life to cancer on November 12, 2014. She was one of the most courageous and strongest individuals I have known.
Happy New Years to all of our supporters of Surfing for Hope. We are very thankful for everyone’s efforts in 2014! Our efforts over the last three years have increased cancer awareness, raised more than $150,000 for the Hearst Cancer Resource Center, and our Surfing for Hope Longboard Contest Weekend is becoming a central coast tradition. I am very proud of our past success and I’m sure that 2015 will be no different!
The Surfing for Hope committee has set the final details for our Benefit Reception and Dinner on Friday October 3 at the Avila Beach Golf Resort.
Sunday, September 21st from 1-4pm the Sea Venture will be hosting their third annual Bloody Mary Showdown with 20% of ticket proceeds benefiting Surfing for Hope. Come on down and join us for a great time and join us in helping to inspire people challenged by cancer through the positive energy of surfing. Tickets will be available at the door, online or by calling 805-773-4994.
This Years Surfing for Hope Benefit on Friday Oct. 3 will honor the father of Surfing for Life, Tom Brown. Tom does so much in both the cancer community and the surfing world to help people going through cancer. His wrist bands can be found in so many surf shops throughout California, the East Coast and even in Europe. His wonderful Foundation has touched and helped many people.
Surfing for Hope would to extend a very special thank you to the Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach. The Cliffs and the Marisol chose a local nonprofit each quarter to honor with their Karmic Pizza Happy Hour and we are this quarter’s recipient. Every Thursday night from 4-7pm until the end of September, Pastry chef Hannah Ingham serves up an assortment of free gourmet pizzas with a drink purchase.
Were getting closer to the Surfing for Hope Benefit and I'm getting stoked and excited. In last years longboard contest we added a new division called Pure Stoke. This heat added fun, silliness as well Pure Stoke to our surf contest. The premise of it is to have teams of 2-5 surfers who surf together and just have some fun. We encourage costumes, funny maneuvers and complete levity. The teams our judged by there originality, fun factor, and overall stoke. It's a lot of fun and was one of the fans favorites last year. Come on out and surf for a cause.
I don't think our forefathers would have ever considered the right to surf to be one of the many amazing freedoms we have in our wonderful country. We are so lucky to have the freedom to express ourselves in the ocean and to be a free nation.
I just got off the water at St. Annes. While I was sitting in the lineup with four amazing women I marveled at the way glassy conditions, beautiful weather (and a tiny swell), can inspire such beautiful impromptu meet ups with no planning required.
The Surfing for Hope Benefit and Surf Competition was founded on September 22, 2011. Our program visionary Bob Voglin recalls, “The idea first came to me at a swim meet at Arroyo Grande High School where I was volunteering at a booth for the Hearst Cancer Resource Center (HCRC) at French Hospital Medical Center. Every year the Puma Swim Team has a swim meet and they give some of their proceeds to the wonderful HCRC. HCRC provides a free service in the San Luis Obispo, California comm