Donning red board shorts and a white beard, pro surfer Corey Howell hit the waves and handed out candy to kids ahead of the annual Surfing Santas charity event in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
COCOA BEACH, Fla. — While much of America shivers Christmas Eve, organizers here are hoping for more than 1,000 Surfing Santas to hang 10 in the Atlantic south of Cape Canaveral.
Last year, 772 Christmas-costumed participants brought their surfboards and took to the waves in the largest crowd ever since George Trosset of Rockledge, Fla., went surfing on Dec. 24, 2009, dressed as Santa Claus with his son and daughter-in-law accompanying him as elves.
"There’s bound to be 1,000 Santas this year. The publicity has just been ridiculous up until this point," said Trosset, who will be celebrating his 10th Yuletide year in the sea and his ninth with other Surfing Santas.
Last year, Crescent Head, a coastal community in New South Wales, Australia, had its fifth annual Santa Surf that brought out about 500 Christmas-clad surfers. Temperatures there are forecast to hit 84 degrees with a water temperature of 74 degrees.
► Jan. 13: Lake Michigan surfers hang 10 — with icicles
► December 2016: Florida Santas beat Australian 'Surfing Santa' challengers
► December 2015: Surfing Santas draw thousands to Cocoa Beach
It costs nothing to participate or view the Florida festivities, which start at 7:30 a.m. ET Sunday with bands and a costume contest. At 10 a.m., participants grab a wristband from a special set of volunteers and the official shredding begins.
The forecast for Cocoa Beach, known to the world more for the 1965-70 sitcom I Dream of Jeannie than Santas who surf, calls for mostly sunny skies with a high near 78 and south-southwest wind of 5 to 10 mph.
If you consider that great swimming weather, realize that the water temperature at Cocoa Beach Pier is about 69 degrees, and a comfortable pool temperature for adults is 85 to 89 degrees. Prolonged immersion in waters below 70 degrees can produce hypothermia, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"It looks like waves of 1 to 2 feet along the coast," said Jessie Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Melbourne, Fla. "It's going to be pretty calm conditions, which maybe for Surfing Santas isn't the greatest."
Guinness World Records, the keeper of such superlatives since 1954, has no category for Surfing Santas — yet — but Trosset said he keeps nudging them to create one.
"I've asked Guinness six different times if they'll give us a world record for most Santas surfing, and they keep coming back with single items. Guinness only recognizes a single thing," he said. So they have no category for, say, walking and chewing gum.
"So they’ll recognize the most Santas gathered together," Trosset said. The current record is 18,112 on Dec. 27, 2014, in Thrissur, India, so it will be a while before the Surfing Santas can top that.
"They'll recognize the most people surfing on the same wave for 5 seconds, and that's like 110 people in South Africa," he said. The simultaneous surfing happened Oct. 4, 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Follow Rick Neale on Twitter: @RickNeale1
More on those Surfing Santas
► December 2014: Surfin' Santas hang ten in record numbers
► December 2013: 'Surfin' Santas' draws hundreds in Florida
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