Surf's up, and so is wow factor at Beach championships

VIRGINIA BEACH

The Virginia Beach Jaycees have enlisted a former event chairman to help energize the East Coast Surfing Championships.

Resort Management, headed by George Alcaraz, has been contracted for at least three years to help promote, sell and run the event.

Alcaraz is a developer and former Jaycee who chaired the 1996 ECSC and served as its vice president and president the following two years.

This year's 47th ECSC is scheduled for Aug. 27-30 at the southern-most end of Virginia Beach's resort strip.

"We want to make sure that the ECSC is viable in the future for the benefit of our projects and as a service learning project for the community," ECSC president Shannon Kane said. "And with the economy the way it is, it just makes sense to bring George on to let him take us to the next level.

"He's has deep ties to this event and feels strongly about keeping it strong for the future."

Kane said the ECSC now has a charitable organization status, which opens the doors for other charity organizations to volunteer at the event and gives sponsors the ability to write it off as a charitable donation.

It takes 300 to 400 people to run the event, but the Virginia Beach Jaycees' membership is below 40, Kane said.

"This is a community event, and quite a few groups help out each year," Kane said. "There's no way 30 or 40 people can run this thing."

While the Jaycees - a national leadership development organization - still owns the ECSC and will use it to fund its community projects, Alcaraz has brought in several big players in the surf and skate community to ramp up an event known locally as the "end of the summer beach party."

"There's a new vibe with the ECSC," said Alcaraz, who has been involved 18 years. "There was a trend with the event that was kind of going south... even before the economy did. Sponsorships were half what they used to be, and people weren't coming in the same numbers.

"We're bringing back the old spirit and the enthusiasm."

Deepak Nachnani of Coastal Edge, the event's main sponsor, has enlisted the help of many of the country's biggest surf and skate shop companies.

"I just felt like the ECSC would be a great way for the companies that make money off the surf and skate community to show their appreciation and give back to that community," Nachnani said. "We've asked them to come and participate, and they are coming."

One thing that won't change at the ECSC is the outdoor sports and party atmosphere.

"It will be even bigger this year," Alcaraz said.

The music, beer tents, bikini contests, surfing, volleyball, sand soccer, flag football and skimboarding will be enhanced by a cornhole tournament, a beach-flavored triathlon with run, bike and paddle events, and nightly movies shown on a blow-up screen.

Surf and skate company vendors will corral their 18-wheel display trucks around a skateboard vert ramp and street skate park.

U.S. Surfing Federation president Paul West, who has been involved with the ECSC for 31 years and runs the professional and amateur contests, is excited about the changes.

"From a management issue, this change is no doubt the biggest internal thing that's ever happened to the ECSC," West said. "It was a smart move for the Jaycees to sub this out like this.

"It's such a huge event and has always been on the cutting edge. To continue that, it needed new ideas and new vision."

West, who runs surfing contests worldwide, said that while some events might have bigger competitor names and larger swells, they pale in comparison with the ECSC.

"It's known all over the world," West said. "People in the surfing community that come to it for the first time are blown away with what we do."

Alcaraz wants to build on that reputation.

"The ECSC is Virginia Beach and people want to get involved," Alcaraz said. "Nothing is going to change drastically. I'm just trying to think outside the usual box and change the landscape a little.

"I think people who have been involved with this for years are really going to notice a return of the old spirit mixed with lots of new energy."

Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com