Before Santa delivers toys and gifts, he's been breaking away to catch some waves on Christmas Eve morning.

COCOA BEACH, Fla., Dec. 22, 2023 -Surfing Santas (surfingsantas.org) returns for its 15th year in front of Coconuts on the Beach in Main Street Cocoa Beach, at 3 Minutemen Causeway. The free event includes live music, hula dancers, a costume contest, and hundreds of Santas hitting the waves. The event begins at 7:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning, with the costume contest in the morning, and the official start of Santas running to the surf at 10 a.m. Other live entertainment and raffle drawings will take place throughout the duration of the event until it concludes at noon.

Surfing Santas started in 2009 with George Trosset and his family dressing up like Santa and his elves to hit the waves Christmas morning and has become a local tradition and viral sensation with hundreds of surfers and thousands of spectators participating every year.

All proceeds from Surfing Santas T-shirts and merch support the event's charitable partners: Florida Surf Museum, a non-profit 501c3 organization that works to preserve the unique history and culture of Florida surfing, and non-profit Grind for Life, which provides financial and travel assistance, counseling, and support for cancer patients. Surfing Santas also supports local high school surf teams. Since 2013, Surfing Santas has raised more than $250,000 through donations and sales of Surfing Santas merchandise.

In 2022, Auto Expo donated a 1996 Toyota Hilux SSR X (Surf), a right-hand drive SUV complete with a surfboard roof rack for a raffle. This year's big-ticket raffle is an autographed surfboard, donated by The King Center, with signatures from celebrity performers including The Beach Boys, Earth Wind & Fire, John Stamos, Nate Bargatze and more. Last year, Surfing Santas also received a $1,000 donation to the Florida Surf Museum from "The Kelly Clarkson Show" with season-long partner Pilot Pens, makers of FriXion, the go-to erasable pen of "The Kelly Clarkson Show" to "celebrate those creating fearlessly just like you."

For more information and event details, see https://surfingsantas.org/.

SOURCE Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism