The Hottest Summer Sporting Event in the U.S. - the East Coast Surfing Championships

The oldest running surfing competition in North America, and the second oldest in the world after the Bell's Beach Classic in Australia, is the East Coast Surfing Championship in Virginia Beach, which brings in more than one hundred of the top professional surfers from around the world. Roughly five hundred amateurs join them annually to compete for a total prize purse of $40,000, in surf, skateboarding, and beach volleyball competitions, and much more.

Scheduled to coincide with the height of the Atlantic's hurricane season, the waves these surfers gather to ride are created by the madcap activity of the ocean thousands of miles to the south, making for storm-like swells, while leaving beautiful weather overhead. It is in this arena where contestants, divided into divisions by sex and age, take part in surfing, bodyboarding, longboarding, and skimboarding.

On shore, two hundred contestants will compete in The Mahi Mah's Beach Volleyball Tournament, divided by skill level, and into single or team categories. Those who don't bump, set or spike, will take park in the 5k race that runs along the oceanfront from the 5^th Street and Atlantic Avenue. The divisions are military, with three to five runners, and coed, with two men and two women. Competitors are also divided by sex and there is a separate category for the handicapped.

Bridging the gap between the land and sea events, the Meyer Skimboarding Contest, draws one hundred pros and amateurs to compete. Skimboarding, which consists of a dash to shoreline and a leap into the shallow breaking waves and onto a tear-shaped board, is the surfing equivalent of bull-riding. How long a contestant stays on his or her board, how well he or she keeps his/her balance, and how imaginative his or her tricks are all earn points with the on-shore judges.

As if watching over five hundred athletes face some of the tallest, fiercest waves in the world isn't enough, there is also plenty of entertainment offered on shore. Live music comes to the stage, with different popular bands and artist each night, and the Pucker Swimsuit Contest is open to competitors who don't want to get their suits wet.

The water contests start at 7 a.m., and the food and drink flow until late in the evening. If you can, get to Virginia Beach, the competition runs from August 22^nd through August 26^th this year for this amazing sporting event. Or, if you would like to participate, sign up at http://www.surfusa.org/