Today marks the fourth anniver­sary of the pass­ing of one of the Surfing’s most leg­endary char­ac­ters. Dale Velzy was much more than a surfer or shaper. He was a cow­boy, a hot-rodder, a crafts­man, he was “The Hawk”. Dale’s been cred­ited with being the first surfer ever to hang ten, he opened the first surf­shop, Velzy Surf­boards in Her­mosa Beach and was the first to put a name on a surf­board. Velzy essen­tially started what we now know as the surf­board industry.

Another impor­tant first came in the early 1990’s when Velzy became the first surf­board shaper to sign on with Randy French and Surftech. It was a bold move at that time which con­tin­ues to pay off as his mas­ter­ful shapes are still being repro­duced and surfed by surfers all around the world.

We’d like to take a moment to express our sin­cere grat­i­tude to Dale for his will­ing­ness to open his mind about a new way to build a surf­board almost 20 years ago. With­out his atten­tion to detail and high qual­ity stan­dards, Surftech may not be where we are today. Thank you Velzy for help­ing to lay Surftech’s foundation.

You may be gone but you will always be in the hearts of every­one here at Surftech.

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Surftech is proud to announce it’s part­ner­ship with the Velauno Sum­mer SUP Series for 2009.
This Race Series con­sists of a col­lec­tion of SUP Rac­ing events held through­out Puerto Rico dur­ing the sum­mer. The events may be put together by one of sev­eral orga­ni­za­tions but they all share a con­sis­tent race for­mat and divi­sions. Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the events along with series reg­is­tra­tion earns com­peti­tors points towards a series ranking.

Next Event: San Juan SUP Run — Sun­day May 24, 2009

This event is run along with the Kayak Club of PR’s lagoon com­pe­ti­tion and is the first event of the Velauno SUMMER SUP SERIES spon­sored by Dakine and Surftech. The 7.75 mile race starts in the Con­dado and takes the Elite divi­sion rac­ers out into the Atlantic Ocean by El Perro and then con­tin­ues down along the north coast of San Juan. The pad­dlers come into San Juan Bay by beau­ti­ful el Morro, past la Pun­tilla and con­tinue to pad­dle up through the San Anto­nio Chan­nel. The fin­ish is back inside the Con­dado Lagoon. The Week­end War­rior divi­sion will have a two-lap race inside the spec­tac­u­lar Con­dado Lagoon.

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Lake San Anto­nio, Ca. – Blis­ter­ing heat together with tor­ren­tial down­pours greeted the more than 7,000 triath­letes at the 2009 Avia Wild­flower Triathlon the first week­end of May. The Wildflower’s fes­ti­val like atmos­phere and out­door camp­ing accom­mo­da­tions are why it’s become known as the “Wood­stock” of triathlons. But make no mis­take, the hilly bike course and on and off road run legs are con­sid­ered some of the most chal­leng­ing courses in North America.

Surftech was there pro­vid­ing water safety, stand up pad­dle demos for ath­letes and spec­ta­tors and uti­lized Surftech Triath­lete team mem­ber Meghan Browne (2009 Iron­man World Cham­pi­onship qual­i­fier) to lead the pro men’s wave and Surftech pad­dle­sports man­ager, George Phiripes to lead the pro women’s waves of the swim course. “This year’s event marked the first time that we’ve had Surftech’s stand up pad­dlers lead­ing the swim legs of the race,” said triathlon Hall-of-Famer & lead Wild­flower announcer, Julie Moss. “Meghan looked so regal stand­ing tall on her Surftech board out in front of our pro ath­letes. It was a huge ben­e­fit to the swim­mers hav­ing the abil­ity to site off of the Surftech paddlers.”

This year’s Wild­flower race kicked off a full cal­en­dar of mul­ti­sport events that Surftech will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in this sum­mer. Not only will they be hold­ing on water demos, staffing expo booths, lend­ing water sup­port and lead­ing the swim legs of var­i­ous races through­out the coun­try, but they’ll also be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the events as competitors.

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When:
Sat­ur­day, June 13, 2009 @ 6:00 AM

Where:
New Brighton State Beach
1500 Park Avenue Capi­tola, CA

Reg­is­tra­tion fees:
12 mile race $35.00 ($40.00 race day)
2 mile race $20.00 ($25.00 race day)
Kids races free.

To reg­is­ter go to: www.active.com

Reg­is­tra­tion Clos­ing Date:
Sat­ur­day, June 13, 2009

Race info:
Fri­day, June 12^th: 4 to 7 pm is pre-race check-in at the Crow’s Nest / Har­bor Beach. Get your goodie bag, tee shirt and look over the course map. You can also reg­is­ter for the race if you haven’t yet done so online.
Sat­ur­day, June 13^th: Race Day!
6am Check-in for both the 12 mile and 2 mile pad­dle.
8:00 am Jay Cer­e­mony.
8:30 am 12 mile Pad­dle­board start.
8:40 am 12 mile Stand Up start.
9:00 am 2 mile start.
11:15 am Lunch, awards and kids races.
12:00 pm Raf­fle.
5pm Post-Race Party at the Crow’s Nest.

New for 2009:
Age divi­sions for the 12 mile Race.
12 mile Men Stock and Unlim­ited boards: 17 and under, 18–39, 40–49, 50+.…..
12 mile SUP: stock, unlim­ited, and women.

Why should you do the Jay race?
Pro­ceeds go to the Santa Cruz County Junior Life­guard Pro­grams to pur­chase pad­dle­boards for the kids and to pro­vide schol­ar­ships in Jay’s name. Every entrant gets a goodie bag, tee-shirt, fresh Peet’s cof­fee, snacks from Newman’s Own Organ­ics and Clif Bar. And.….you get a Hawai­ian plate lunch form Aloha Island Grill. Par­tic­i­pants enjoy a chal­leng­ing course, a family-friendly atmos­phere, and a great raffle.

Pre-Registration Gath­er­ing
Date: Fri­day, June 12^th from 4 pm to 7 pm at the Santa Cruz Har­bor Beach near the Crow’s Nest Restau­rant. You can still reg­is­ter for the race for a dis­counted price. Pick up your goodie bag, tee shirt, and look over the course map. This is a great time to meet other pad­dlers, dis­cuss race tac­tics, and pon­der the Mon­terey Bay currents.

Race Day Reg­is­tra­tion
6:30 am: reg­is­tra­tion opens for both the 12 and 2 mile races.

Race Day Entry Fees on 6÷13÷09
12 mile is $40.00
2 mile is $25.00
The No Frills 2 mile (no lunch or tee) is $5.00
Kids races are free (we pro­vide the soft paddleboards).

Jay Cer­e­mony
At 8:00am we will have a cer­e­mony to honor the great Santa Cruz Water­man Jay Moriarity.

12 mile Course (Pad­dle­boards)
Water start at 8:30 sharp.

12 mile Course (Stand Ups)
Water Start at 8:40 sharp.

2 mile Course
Water start for all pad­dle­board­ers and stand-ups at 9:00. The course par­al­lels the beach toward the Cement Ship. It is an out-and-back course. There will be plenty of Cal­i­for­nia State Life­guards patrolling the course. The winds are usu­ally calm and the swell small. This is a great course for begin­ners. Sorry… we can no longer pro­vide loaner boards. Start look­ing for one now!!

2 mile Cat­e­gories
Pad­dle any type of board! We will make up divi­sions based on participants.

Lunch
A Hawai­ian Plate lunch will be pro­vided by the Aloha Island Grill.

Kids Races
Kids races will begin around 11:15 am. We will pro­vide kids age 12 and under with Nip­per or Soft pad­dle­boards to use. Courses are age appro­pri­ate. They are out and back around a marker off the beach. There will be plenty of Life­guards on hand to keep the kids safe.

After Race Party
We will meet at the Crow’s Nest, at the the Santa Cruz Har­bor, for a after race party at 5pm.
More to come about this soon.….

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