Watch Surfers Ride the Waves at the Annual Dempsey Holder Surf Contest

Surf’s up! It’s time again for the Annual

The contest, which is in its eighth year, is the largest surf contest in south San Diego County. There are ten different divisions and more than 120 competitors will ride the waves on Sunday. Partnering in the event will be the United Athletes of the Pacific Ocean (UAPO), a binational non‐profit organization whose mission is to provide surfing youths in Mexico and the United States opportunities in competitive surfing and cultural exchange. Surfers from Ensenada that are members of UAPO will be competing on Sunday.

The started with an Imperial Beach resident, Allen “Dempsey” Holder. Holder served as a legendary surfing patriarch for many San Diego‐based surfers, including co-founder and Patch contributor .

This year, Dempsey’s son Peter Holder will act as the honorary event chairman. Politicians, like California State Assembly member Ben Hueso, Port Commissioner Dan Malcolm and City of Imperial Beach Councilmember Jim King, will be a part of the awards ceremony.

Bring a beach chair and plant yourself in the sand and watch all different ages hang ten. Local bands, like High Tide and The Morphs, will keep your ears entertained throughout the day, an outdoor demonstration area provided by REI will challenge you physically and a recycling center from One Earth Recycling will be on site to promote clean beaches and to recycle your e-waste.

Kids will be kept busy with ’s hands-on activities and games and various prizes, including two plane tickets, can be won at the raffle. Proceeds from the event will benefit WiLDCOAST.

The sand and surf fun begins at 7 a.m., Sunday and goes until 3 p.m. at our beach near . The event is free to watch, so bring the family down and spend your Sunday at the beach.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named UAPO as the benefitting organization. Patch regrets the error.