Surfing Santa sets sights on space but first he needs a ride

[Florida Today]

Over the past 11 years, the Christmas Eve tradition of locals dressing up as Santa Claus and going surfing evolved from a word-of-mouth activity into a bonafide event drawing thousands of tourists to Cocoa Beach and garnering national media coverage.

This year, Surfing Santas is cancelled due to COVID but references to last year’s event were viewed online4.4 billion times, according to the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

“We’ve conquered the Earth with Surfing Santas, there’s nowhere else to go but up,” founder George Trosset told FLORIDA TODAY.

Thousands turned out to watch hundreds of Surfing Santas catch waves in Cocoa Beach for the 10th Annual event in 2019. MALCOLM DENEMAR/FLORIDA TODAY

248 miles up to be exact.

Trosset thinks it’s time for Santa to head to the International Space Station to spread joy across the universe.

“Surfing Santa makes people smile. When you see a surfing Santa, you smile. When you talk about surfing Santa, you smile. We made 4.4 billion media impressions but I say we made 4.4 billion smiles.”

His proposal is to send a plush toy of a surfing santa to space to get even more exposure. The idea came to him after the four astronauts on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission chose to take a ‘Baby Yoda’ doll as a zero-G indicator to the space station.

“Surfing Santa is the holiday mascot of the Space Coast, what better place for him to go than the space station? It just makes sense,” said Charity Stewart, Marketing Director of Space Coast Office of Tourism.

The tradition of astronauts taking a small object with them to space goes all the way back to the first launch of a human into space in 1961. Russian astronaut Yuri Gargarin took a small doll with him to watch it float. Ever since then a variety of “zero-G indicators” from baseballs to Buzz Lightyear have hitched a ride to space.

But persuading an astronaut to take a Surfing Santa doll won’t be easy.

“You’re not just going up individually. You’re going up as a crew so even those decisions are made as a team. You’d have to convince the crew to decide that this is the one we want to use,” NASA astronaut Frank Rubio explained.

Rubio, who grew up in Miami, was recently selected for the Artemis program to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2024. Could Surfing Santa catch a zero-G wave with Rubio?

“For me personally, unfortunately, he’d have to get in line because my kids have already called dibs on that one,” Rubio said.

Rubio’s four kids made him promise that when it’s his turn to head to space that he recommend the small stuffed animal they played with as children to the crew.

“But Surfing Santa can be second after that.”

The Surfing Santas event takes place at the Cocoa Beach Pier on Christmas Even morning. Provided; Amada Stratford

The majority of cargo that launches to the space station for resupply missions are crew supplies and science experiments. Even though there’s a bit of physics to catching a wave, the chances of Surfing Santa qualifying as a science experiment are slim.

“In order for it to go through the National Laboratory there has to operational feasibility. There has to be scientific merit. And then, what is that tangible benefit or value that we bring back to the nation?” asked Patrick O’Neill, spokesperson for the International Space Station U.S. National Lab

“So while I would argue Surfing Santa is very, very cool, it might not necessarily pass the smell test, so to speak, to be able to fly up leveraging tax payer allocated dollars,” he said.

O’Neill recommended checking out NASA’s fairly new directive that allows companies to conduct commercial activities onboard the space station for a price.  Out of their overall research allocation NASA will allow 5% to represent commercial interests such as marketing.

Earlier this year the makeup brand Estee Lauder took advantage of the program. For the tune of $128,000 the company sent five kilograms of product to be photographed in space.

So how much would it cost to send Surfing Santa? NASA charges by the kilogram so the trip to there would come to $3,000 but the return is double — $6,000 – because room is scarce on the SpaceX Dragon capsule when it returns. That puts the round trip at a cool $9,000.

But if there isn’t a picture, then did it really happen? To get the money-shot of Surfing Santa floating in zero gravity in the cupola of the space station requires a specially trained astronaut photographer. At $17,500 an hour the price tag can go space-high fast.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy prepares to take a photo while inside the Cupola on the space station in 2013. NASA

NASA spokesperson Stephanie Shierholz thinks it might be possible to do the photoshoot in an hour which puts the grand total at: $26,500.

“Well, that would be the most expensive photo I’ve ever been involved in,” Trosset said “As fas as I’m concerned they can release Santa into the universe if it’ll save a buck.”

Turns out it would only save $3,000 bucks because NASA would charge $3k to destroy the item in space. So, it might be worth returning Surfing Santa to Earth because then he could be auctioned for charity.

Over the year profits from Surfing Santas merchandise sales have benefited Florida Surf Museum and Grind for Life, a Cocoa Beach nonprofit that helps cancer patients commute to and from their medical treatments.

Trosset said they don’t have the budget to pull off the space stunt but thinks maybe they could partner with a brand or sponsor that believed in his vision.

“Anything is possible. I mean who’d ever think we’d have 10,000 people show up to watch Santas surfing and that this would become a global phenomenon? If we could get Surfing Santa to the space station maybe we’d reach billions more people.”

And just maybe make a billion more smiles.

Contact Rachael Joy at 321-242-3577. Follow her on Twitter @Rachael_Joy.