2025 Rincon Classic
The Queen Of The Coast Delivered Valentine's Day Weekend Love For Surf Happens' 25th year Producing The Annual Surfing Competition.
Saturday and Sunday February 15/16, 2025 the sun was shining, a summer like 70 degrees in the middle of winter, with glassy to light offshore wind puffing under 5 knots from the north west to grace the annual Rincon Classic.
The cove at Rincon set the perfect stage for the best wave riders in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties to showcase their skills and enjoy a weekend of perfect 4-6' surf while catching up with friends and family. The community gathered to celebrate the legacy of our region and gather as a tribe and put on display of wave riding mastery.
Each year the community eagerly awaits the start of the waiting period and the anticipating builds the further into the period the event goes. It came down to the wire in 2025 with the event called on for the last waiting weekend in the regular waiting period. Like a football game in the fourth quarter event director Chris Keet and his crew made a hail Mary pass that landed in a perfect touch down on Valentines Day weekend.
Two weeks before the weekend the swell models were calling for little to now surf and south winds, but one week out it was clear there would be a significant storm with heavy rainfall followed by a solid combination of swells. Like a cliff hanger the variables that could not be controlled all had to allign in order to create a Classic weekend.
2024 Rincon Classic
Third time is a charm as the Rincon Classic scores stellar conditions on the third waiting weekend of the event.
With a series of west swells on the rise, a high pressure system that would bring the warmest weather to the region since July, and optimal wind conditions projected it was an easy decision to call on the 2024 Channel Islands Surfboards Rincon Classic presented by Merrick Lager for the third waiting weekend of the period. Well, relatively easy. With an El Nino season everyone is hoping for large conditions, but the Rincon Classic is more than a surfing contest, it is a community gathering that celebrates the local surfing heritage providing the forum for everyone to gather, talk story, and enjoy the glory of the Queen. The conditions didn't disappoint with buttery 3-6' surf all weekend long…
Everything runs in patterns and this season has been two weeks on and two weeks off. When Surfline forecasters projected fun waves with great conditions for the weekend and unstable weather patterns with rain and wind developing for the remainder of the waiting period we made the call and it proved to offer the perfect weekend for the event.
There are always story lines within the fabric of the contest in every division. The Rincon Classic is the National Championship of SB and Ventura county as a surf contest, and throwing in that it is held at Rincon Point, the Queen of the coast, the best right hand point break in North America, when the waves are good, you have a storied event in a storied community. Highlights included "Be Green To The Queen" the daily beach clean ups supported by Hydroflask and the beach ended up cleaner than before the event. The Dream Cast Media group Live Webcast gave friends and family and online viewers the incredible opportunity to watch from around the world. The raffle raised funds for local Haden Garfield supporting his fight against cancer and showcased how our tribe supports one another.
The Rincon Brewery Pro division featured some of the most prolific surfers in the sport from our region going head to head for a $5,000 cash purse, the passion of surfing empty Rincon, and the pride of holding the Queen's crown for an entire year…
