Surfing Santas take to a Florida beach for fun and a good cause

Cocoa Beach, with its sand, dunes and palm trees, bears little resemblance to the North Pole. But this December 24, thousands of Santa Claus They came to this beach in eastern Florida to have fun, celebrate and collaborate with a good cause.

From early in the morning, the beach fills with men, women and children dressed as Santa Claus, elves or reindeer in a new edition of “Surfing Santas”, a festival that is celebrated every year in this town on the so-called Space Coast, south of Cape Canaveral.

The day is cloudy and 20 degrees Celsius is considered almost cold in Florida, but a handful of participants surf small waves in their Santa Claus attire. Some come out of the water shivering, as if it were really the North Pole.

Others watch from the beach, drink bloody marys or enjoy costume contests and a Hawaiian dance performance on stage.

Under a tent, dozens of volunteers sell T-shirts and raffle tickets to raise funds.

The objective of the event, apart from having a good time, is to support two local associations: Grind for Life, which financially helps cancer patients who need to travel far away to receive treatment, and the Florida Surf Museum, a space dedicated to this sport.

“Make smile”

“Surfing Santas” was born in 2009 from a crazy vision of George Trosset. That year, this Cocoa Beach resident saw a car advertisement on television where several people dressed as Santa Claus took surfboards out of their trunks and jumped into the sea.

Inspired by that image, he went to a thrift store with his wife, bought an old red coat, tailored it to look like Santa Claus, and went surfing. Next to him were his son, dressed as an elf, and his three-year-old grandson, who was watching them from the shore.

A local photographer captured that moment and published the image in the press.

“The second year there were 19 Santas. The third, 80. And now look at this, there are thousands of people here,” says Trosset, 70. “It’s exciting to see what this absurd little thing has become.”

Teresa Dell’Oglio-Garrett, an Italian who lives about 15 km from Cocoa Beach, attends the party for the second time to enjoy “the camaraderie and happiness.”

The first, in 2017, there were few people, nothing like the crowd gathered this morning on the beach, he remembers.

Trosset still can’t understand how a little joke with his son and grandson turned into this celebration.

When hundreds of people started joining the party, he thought maybe he could use the momentum to do something good, and that’s how the charitable part of the event was born.

“I am very grateful that many people like what we do,” says this retiree. “Surfer Santas make people smile. I’m told we get millions of media impressions each year. And if that’s true, then we create millions of smiles every year. And that makes my heart happy.”