Rincon Classic Wraps With Winners and Warm Weather

Suspiciously summer-like weather combined with vintage wintertime surf conditions this past weekend for the 31st Annual Rincon Classic surf competition. The two-day event, held at world famous Rincon Point at the southernmost edge of Santa Barbara County, gave both spectators and wave riders exactly what they were looking for—perfect beach weather and waves that were always contestable and, at least for much of Sunday during the comp’s final day, darn near perfect. “I am looking at pictures right now from the finals on Sunday, and some of them are so perfect it’s actually scary,” said contest director Chris Keet.

Thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors mobbed the beach for much of the holiday weekend as the contest unfolded, timed perfectly as this season’s first real solid surfing swell approached the coast. Though wave riders on Day 1 of the contest certainly were faced with inconsistent waist- to chest-high wave conditions, when the good sets came—and they came with an ever-increasing consistency throughout the day—you were hard-pressed to find even one drop of water out of place. Sunday, however, was a different story wave wise as overall sizes jumped a couple of feet and the sets pumped into the point for much of the afternoon.

Winners included Demi Boelsterli in the Women’s Division (the win marked Demi’s record-setting 10th Rincon Classic title), Matt Maheri in the always hotly contested Men’s Open Division, Kellen Ellison in the Pro Division, Bronson Wheelen in the Juniors Final, Eithan Osborne in the Boys Final, Evan Trauntvein in the Longboard Division, Tony de Groot in the Grandmasters, Steve McComb in the Legends, and Abby Brown in the Wahine Division.

For complete results and video highlights, go to rinconclassic.com.