San Clemente - Surf, Sun and Racing. Plus Show Up & Blow Up!

The San Clemente Surf Fest has been a tradition since 1976, but this year Victory Koredry joined in on the action with the second event of the 2012 series Surf Race to Victory SUPCross, presented by SUPCo.

Victory’s SUPCross was just one of the activities going on Saturday, bouncing between the SUPCross and other events throughout the day in front of thousands of spectators and racers. In between our heats, competitors got to take a breather and spectators got the chance to witness various surf, SUP and swim events that included a SUP relay and exciting dory boat races, both 1-man and 2-man.

It was a busy day with great weather and good surf, with the beach and narrow pier creating an amphitheater to watch the various events, the grounds packed with people enjoying the great weather. Like in previous SUPCross events racers began in our variation of the Le Mans- style start, lying down with their feet on the end of the board.

There were some small alterations when high tide crept up the shoreline and shrank the starting area to just a few feet of damp and rocky sand, but racers adjusted and the day went smoothly, although the surf was anything but smooth for the competitors as they battled surf to get around the bright orange buoys and caught waves to get back to shore. We had some international racers in our midst, including some of the top men winners. While for the women it was Candice Appleby who has excelled at the SUPCross races, although Brandi Baksic gave her a run for her money (literally) with a frantic footrace to the finish line, with Alison Riddle coming in third.