Sports

Water Sports, Food and Music on Tap for Ocean Festival Extravaganza

San Clemente Ocean Festival hosts competitions for water amateurs and top athletes alike, and food and music will be available at the city's biggest summer celebration.

San Clemente Ocean Festival's California Waterman and Waterwoman Championships will be this weekend, July 16 and 17, at the San Clemente Pier.

Some of the nation’s top ocean athletes, surf lifesavers and stand-up paddle boarders will be at the pier this Saturday and Sunday to show off their skills.

The ocean athletes will be competing for $2,600 in cash, prizes and Southern California bragging rights.

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Saturday events include a biathlon (a 1-kilometer swim and 5-kilometer run), stand-up paddleboard, paddleboard, surf-ski, dory and championship ocean Ironman-style races.

Top athletes to watch are former United States Olympians and San Clemente residents Mitch Kahn and Rob Pelky and stand-up paddleboard racer Brandi Baksic of Dana Point, according to Ocean Festival organizers.

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An all-star Hawaiian lifeguard team will also be racing in all of the events.

The San Clemente Ocean Festival last year added new events to Saturday's competitions: "The Dash for Cash," a hotly contested swim race through the surf to officials holding cash notes at the finish line; a stand-up paddleboard sprint Race; and a stand-up paddleboard surf relay.

The "Dolphin Dash"–a beach run for kids ages 7 to 12–will take place Saturday morning.

Sunday, the Waterman and Waterwoman event offers fun-filled ocean swims, beach runs, stand-up paddleboard races and run-swim-run races for everyone.

The new "Aloha Challenge Relay" will pit Hawaii’s best ocean athletes against Southern California’s top watermen in a four-person relay combining swimming, stan-up paddleboarding, running and paddleboard.

Returning races include the 3.5-mile stand-up paddleboard race and the San Clemente Waterman (run-swim-stand-up paddleboard).

The premiere event is the 1-mile ocean swim at noon, in which more than 200 swimmers participated last summer.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Ocean Festival will host a 5K beach run at 8 a.m.

Other activities planned at this year’s event include Grom’s Rule Surf Contest, Southern California bodysurfing championships, stand-up paddleboarding surfing championships, the Ocean Art Show, Woody Car Show, fishing derby, pancake breakfast, a children’s pavilion and a free Saturday night beach concert.

Events are open to everyone. In addition to cash prizes, there will be medals to top age-group finishers, as well as special awards from event sponsors. Participants will receive a competitor’s kit including an Ocean Festival Commemorative T shirt and swim cap.

Money raised from the Ocean Festival help fund many worthwhile organizations. Scholarships are also provided annually to local high school students.

For more info and to sign up for the events, visit www.oceanfestival.org.


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