Surfing Santa in space on display; Caroline Marks wins in Jacksonville; GromFest returns

Boldly going where few, er, plush toys have gone before, George Trosset Sr.'s small "Surfing Santa" soared into the Final Frontier late this summer, bringing back an official Blue Origin "Certificate of Flight" and inspiration for this year's Cocoa Beach event.

The 14th edition of the ultra popular Surfing Santas exhibition takes place on Christmas Eve morning at the end of Minutemen Causeway and features some 400-500 holiday-attired surfers and thousands of spectators.

The plush toy, now encased in glass and recently displayed during a public reception at the Florida Surf Museum, traveled with Pineapples restaurant owner Steve Young some 63 miles up on the NS-22 (New Shepard) flight that launched from Texas.

"My dream was to let Santa float around in the capsule, but they never let him out of the suitcase. That's why we call him 'Stowaway Santa' now," Trosset said. "But it inspired me, that if he went on New Shepard, why couldn't he go on SpaceX, or Virgin Galactic, or why not to the Space Station or maybe even to the moon with Artemis? After all, he doesn't use the bathroom, and he doesn't talk back."

Santa's new route: Astronaut! Brevard's Steve Young flies into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket

Toys such as Snoopy (on Artemis I); Smokey Bear (with astronaut Joe Acaba, once a teacher at Melbourne High); Magellan T. Bear; Buzz Lightyear; Tremor the Dinosaur; and Buddy, known as "Little Earth," have floated in zero-gravity space.

This year, Surfing Santas will have its first raffle, thanks to the donation of a 1996 Toyota Hilux "Surf" diesel-powered SUV from Mike Erdman's Auto Expo 95 collection in Cocoa. Tickets are $20, or six for $100, and can be obtained at https://surfingsantas.org/raffleraffle or at various locations in the city.

Marks wins Super Girl Pro

Melbourne Beach native Caroline Marks won the recent Air Force Super Girl Surf Pro Jax surfing championship, becoming the first woman to win a Super Girl contest on both the East and West coasts.

Marks, 20, who placed fourth at the Olympics, won every round on the way to the final at the Jacksonville Beach Pier, where she scored 13.84 points (including a 7.17 ride on her second wave, to defeat Bella Kenworthy (11.50) from California.

"It's so special to win at home, and this event is so rad ... it just feels really good and it's just been such a fun day," she said. "All my friends from home who I don't ever get to see are here. There's no better feeling, really."

Walker skates to Fame

Longtime surfer and skateboarder Bruce Walker from Brevard County was recently inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame at the the Vans headquarters ceremony in Costa Mesa, Calif. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWnfgirD_6Y).

Walker, a 2002 inductee into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame, was the mastermind behind Ocean Avenue Surfboards in Indialantic and Walker Skateboards in Satellite Beach. Now living in Hawaii, Walker said he's been riding since 1963.

"This might be something that sounds kind of weird coming from a 70-year-old, but I'd like to thank my sponsors," he said, pointing primarily to Volcom and Globe, as the audience erupted in laughter and applause.

"Now with a heart monitor, I can't go surfing because I can't go in the water, but I can still skate!"

GromFest at Pelican Park

The Space Coast Boardriders Club presents its second edition of the Space Coast GromFest, this time at Satellite Beach's Pelican Beach Park on Dec. 17 for youth surfers.

Six divisions include the $500 18-under Jr. Boys and Girls Pro events; Mini Grom (8-under push-in); Super Grom (10-under self-paddle); and both under-14 divisions.

Register at LiveHeats.com (LiveHeats | Live Scoring and Competition Management Platform for Sports).

Last year's event was held in sweltering August heat in Cocoa Beach.

Benedetto wins at Santa Cruz

Treasure Coast surfing standout Zoe Benedetto of Palm City defeated California's Bella Kenworthy 14.83-12.74 to win the popular O'Neill Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz. Calif., claiming her first Qualifying Series win in three years.

To see video of her, click here.

Benedetto, 17, who won last year's Space Coast GromFest, moved into third place in the North America Women's QS rankings, behind Sawyer Lindblad and Kenworthy.

Surfriders, sea oats pay off

The City of Cape Canaveral recently praised the efforts of the Cocoa Beach (now Space Coast) Surfrider Foundation for its efforts going back two decades in planting and preserving sea oats along the Cocoa Beach-Cape Canaveral beaches.

It was one reason the recent hurricanes, Ian and, especially, Nicole, did not cause the severe damage felt in other coastal areas.

"They (environmentally conscious surfers) came up with a plan to do sea oats," said John Hughes, Executive Director of the Florida Surf Museum. "Everyone else said it wouldn't work ... all these years, sea oats allowed other vegetation to grow. While everybody's beaches are falling (back into the ocean), Cocoa Beach is actually gaining sand."

Tony Sasso, a former Cocoa Beach city commissioner and state legislator who was the past director of Keep Brevard Beautiful, recalls being on that sea oats startup team.

"We planted them, probably after 2004, 2005, but probably five years in a row (the first time)," Sasso said. "We'd put ropes and stakes, so people wouldn't walk through them. That, and the beach renourishment (additional sand pumped in after a 1992 lawsuit, resulting in 50 years of beach protection by the federal government after the jetty was dredged in 1954, blocking the north-to-south flow of sand) made it an effective barrier.

"I had a big ... smile (after Nicole) because the dunes were still up there, even with water in the pockets, but it didn't wash them away," Sasso said.

Sea oats, not to be confused with the larger-leaf sea grape plants behind the dunes, look like stalks that actually fortify the sand.

"It's a native plant; there used to be a lot more in the late '70's, but people picked them for floral arrangements. It's now a state law that prohibits picking (or standing on) sea oats," Hughes said.

Board shorts ...

Melbourne's Corey Howell won the recent Red Bull Foam Wreckers competition on Cocoa Beach, fun-filled soft board event that attracted veterans such as Kyle Garson and Skippy Slater, and contemporary surfers Caroline Marks, Luke Marks, Chauncey Robinson (who finished second), Chris Duff, Zoe Benedetto and Shane Konrad. ... Cocoa Beach's Kelly Slater, 50, who once was coached by Bruce Walker as a youngster, was spotted catching some hurricane-stirred waves in Brevard County, perhaps tuning up for yet another season on the World Surf League.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County surfing: Santa went to space, Caroline Marks, Zoe Benedetto