On July 1st 2010, Manny Vargas (www.mannyvphoto.com) was out shooting water photos and I was catching some waves. We got to talking about the groms and how cool it would be to organize free grom surf competitions. Manny V being a well-known and respected waterman, photographer and wave rider... and the fact that he ran 13 annual grom comps through the 90's was enough to agree to making this happen. The Katy's Cafe Grom comp was born.
Manny said to me just get me a panel of reliable judges and I will orchestrate the rest of the contest. We created a poster that was a water shot from that July morning and within 2 weeks had 45 sign ups for the first contest. It was on!
We put a panel of local judges who all grew up and learned surfing in IB, keeping it to its grass roots, and thanks to Mother Nature for some really good surf and judges and sponsors. We had a success on our hands . And I thank Manny for running a flawless contest. We had hand painted trophies by Greg Broadfoot , Electric Sunglasses and Katy's donated a surf board for the Grand prize. Followed by a BBQ for all the kids and families. What a good time.
So next year the "Katy's Endless Summer Grom Surf Classic" was very much anticipated. We had a poster with 2011 winner Josh Johnson created and had 45 sign ups before the poster was up. Wow the groms were ready! We had participation from the Surf team from Coronado all the way out to Eastlake. The hype had spread and we had to cap the entrants at 75 kids. We had a 16 girl division which was the biggest group. Way to come out girls!
Once again we had Mother nature provide us with some great surf and an even better pannel of local judges. Including some "Seacoast Celebrities". More sponsors this year, including a custom board by Natural Selection's Bret Bender, Electric sunglasses, Surf Hut, TNT, Seven Mile t shirts, KPasta , Spooners, Oakley sunglasses and so much more.
Once again hand Painted trophies by Greg Brodfoot were presented at the trophy presentation. Everyone was stoked with the BBQ that went along with the presentation.
So stand by the 3rd annual "Katys Endless Grom Surf Contest" 2012 will be here before we know it. And my thanks go out to Manny Vargas and everyone in our tight knit surfing community,
"Katy's Endless Summer Grom Surf Contest" is a free contest provided for the love of surfing and kids in our community. Hope to see you all next year.....Thanks for your support." -Katy
