The Cold Water Classic was held in Santa Cruz from Oct. 26-30. The tournament attracts surfers from all over the world. Photo by Marielena Verdugo.

Photo by Marielena Verdugo.

Dozens of black wetsuits appeared along West Cliff Drive over the weekend. Surfers stretched their limbs, waxed their boards and fearlessly jumped off the cliffs, all for their love of surfing waves.

The surfers came to Santa Cruz with the O’Neill Cold Water Classic. It was hard to miss, located along Steamer Lane with bleachers set up for spectators, as large red banners bearing the O’Neill wave flew and music blasted over the ocean.

The O’Neill Cold Water Classic has been Northern California’s largest professional surf event in Santa Cruz for over two decades. Locals and visiting surfers compete for the title of Cold Water Classic Champion. A $250,000 prize purse is awarded at the event, as well as an extra $50,000 for the series’ crowned winner.

In the past two years, the prize money has gone to Australians. The event is sponsored by Philips O’Neill Headphones, Sierra Nevada, Dream Inn Hotel & Aquarius Restaurant.

Nineteen-year-old Brazilian Miguel Pupo not only won the O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Santa Cruz, but won the overall Cold Water Classic title and $90,000. There was a great sense of community and respect when Pupo was announced champion.

Sitting on the bleachers, spectators commented on the event.

“They tend to have bad luck around this time of the year,” a man said to his son. “They should do the contest deeper into winter when the waves are bigger.”

Professional and amateur surfers competed in hopes of winning the champion title and a grand prize of $40,000. Between Oct. 26 and 30, spectators gathered around along the cliffs to watch the show, many with cameras or binoculars.

It was a diverse crowd, ranging from older spectators and young families with babies to high school kids. In spite of the beautiful weather, there was one important problem on everyone’s mind: lack of waves.

Early Thursday morning there were no waves, so the competition changed locations to Waddell Creek, just up Highway 1 North.

Josh Kerr, a professional surfer from Australia who currently resides in San Diego, prepared for his heat by watching his buddies surf at Waddell Creek.

“It’s a bummer we had to move from Steamer Lane to Waddell Creek,” Kerr said, “but there were no waves. It’s just not the same vibe here. It’s been a really fun event regardless. There’s been a lot of excitement around it — it’s something we all look forward to.”

Kerr has been surfing his entire life, but became professional 10 years ago when he was 16. He is currently sponsored by Rusty.

“Friggin’ sets going off! This is the best set of waves we’ve seen in about two weeks,” the announcer yells.

At the surf competition, the announcer used words like “barrel,” “stoked,” “sick,” “dude,” “whoa,” “gnarly,” “ripping” and “beat.” For someone not involved in the surf community, it may sound like another language.

Early Wednesday morning, local boys dove into frigid water at 7:30 a.m. in the hopes of being chosen to compete in the contest. Whoever won was named the “wild card” player. Two local boys won the wild card and competed yesterday, but were out of the competition. One left with $750 while the other left with $1,000.

Although the title “Cold Water Classic” is appropriate for Santa Cruz water temperatures, UC Santa Cruz student and surfer Brett Hardy said, “The water actually tends to get a little warmer in the winter months due to an upwelling. It’s pretty strange.”

Professional surfer Kerr said surfing at Steamer Lane is a special treat because everyone gets to stand along the cliff and watch the surfers. It’s rare a crowd can be that close to the action.

Each surfer had a heat, a designated time slot where a few surfers compete to get the best waves and scores given by judges.

Thursday’s, Friday’s and Saturday’s heats were surfed at Waddell.

“The boys were going nuts out there, just crazy,” the announcer said. “It was a really last-minute decision to move locations, but it had to be done.”

Zach Schank, a local high school surfer, watched the heat with a look of inspiration in his eyes.

“It’s incredible seeing the pros surf,” Schank said. “I wanna see a local win. Rat Boy (Jason Collins) is my favorite. He’s a real Santa Cruz pro.”

Schank said he surfs all the time, every chance he gets. He enjoys attending surf competitions because he gets to see the best of the best compete.

Standing at the score board, local Ardon Lockyer reviewed the results from this heats this week.

“It’s a great event, anything that brings people together helps the community,” said Lockyer, who lives down the street from Steamer Lane.

Drew Kampion, a former editor of Surfer, as well as Surfing Magazine, was signing his latest book at the event. The book, “Jack O’Neill: It’s Always Summer on the Inside,” documents the life of Jack O’Neill, owner of O’Neill Surf Company and inventor of the modern surfing wetsuit.

“Without O’Neill you wouldn’t have globalization of action and water sports,” Kampion said. “The invention of the wetsuit opened up 90 percent of the world to surfing. Before it could only be done in specific locations by a small niche of people, but the wetsuit changed all that.”

Surfers of all ages and abilities enjoy the waves at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, where the Cold Water Classic will take place starting November 2. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Steamer Lane, simply “The Lane” to many locals, is one of Santa Cruz’s most visited surf spots. And for this reason, it comes as no surprise that this will be where the world-renowned O’Neill Cold Water Classic and accompanying Oakley Pro Junior’s competition will kick off on Nov. 2.

Over 170 surfers, many of whom are top-rated, will be competing in the week long event. Mark Prefontaine, who is the marketing manager for O’Neill Inc. and helped run the competition from 2001 to 2008, says that this year’s competitions will feature even more talented participants than in past years. He said the increase in talented participiants is due to the Cold Water Classic becoming a six-star prime event, the highest level of competition in the World Qualifying Series (WQS).

“Up until this year the Coldwater Classic had a four-star rating,” Prefontaine said. “But the six-star rating is the highest possible and allows for the best of the best to come out and surf because it gives more incentives to the surfers by awarding them with more points for the circuit.”

The Cold Water Classic started in Santa Cruz in 1987 and has since grown steadily to become one of Northern California’s most premier annual surf competitions. This year the competition went global, making stops in Australia, Scotland, South Africa and Canada.

“What we wanted to do was to take the idea of surfing in cold water, much like in Santa Cruz, and apply it globally,” Prefontaine said. “People have heard of the endless summer; surfing in warm water has been done. We wanted to flip that idea and chase winter instead.”

Santa Cruz is the final stop for the event, and is the place where the winner from all the stops overall will be crowned and awarded the $50,000 prize. Prefontaine believes it is fitting that the competition will end where it originally began and where O’Neill first began operating.

“We wanted to bring the event back to its roots at the end and award the winner there where the event originally began,” Prefontaine said.

The competition this year is thick with big names like Jordy Smith, Tim Reyes and Cory Lopez. Many locals, however, seem especially excited to see last year’s Cold Water Classic winner and local golden boy Nat Young compete in the tournament.

“It’s an awesome tournament! [I’m] really hoping to see Nat Young go home the winner again, too,” said Max Tom, a local, UC Santa Cruz alum and surfing fan.

Prefontaine said that Young definitely has a chance of repeating his success from last year.

“Nat is phenomenal, he has the skills to win this thing again,” Prefontaine said. “The Lane has such a weird wave and it takes time to pick up on its subtleties, but Nat has the edge in the fact that he is local and is able to surf there whenever.”

Los Gatos resident Brandon Balance went to the tournament last year and is looking forward to watching surfers ride the waves in ample company.

“It’s a huge tournament. The spot is filled with people. It’s really great and exciting to watch,” Balance said. “I’m definitely planning on going again this year.”

Prefontaine also believes that without the backing of Santa Cruz and the many Cold Water Classic fans, the tournament wouldn’t be what it is today.

“The Lane only hosts four contests a year, and it’s been really great to have the backing of the city to allow us to become consistently one of those contests,” Prefontaine said. “It’s important for us to have the relationship we have with the city because without it we couldn’t put on this event.”