Times Square JumboTron features Cocoa Beach’s Surfing Santas event

[Florida Today]

Cocoa Beach’s Surfing Santas extravaganza made the big time Thursday, popping up on the JumboTron in New York City’s Times Square.

It’s a nice national boost for a local event started by Brevard County resident and surfer George Trosset. And it’s also a boost for Brevard County tourism.

 Thousands came to watch hundreds of surfing Santas his the waves in Cocoa Beach for the annual Surfing Santas event. Video by Malcolm Denemark. Posted Dec. 24, 2016

Mary Eva Tredway, publicity director for Butin Integrated Communications, the agency that works with Brevard County’s Space Coast Office of Tourism, was able to arrange the JumboTron placement for the event, which begins Christmas Eve morning in Cocoa Beach.

“I knew the Space Coast Office of Tourism team was working in the background to promote Surfing Santas, but I had no idea we were shooting this high,” Trosset said. “Can you believe it? Surfing Santas being seen in Times Square, New York City!”

The caption on the Times Square photo, from Surfing Santa from last year’s event, reads:  “Florida’s Space Coast ‘Surfing Santas’ event vying for Guinness World Record on Christmas Eve.”

Trosset is holding out hope Guinness representatives will officially note the number of Santa-themed surfers, which could top 700 this year, and bestow it with a record. It’s a long shot, but, then again, so was a Times Square promo.

Thousands of spectators also show up to watch the spectacle in Cocoa Beach, which takes place at the Minutemen Causeway and State Road A1A, and it draws visitors from all across the United States.

The Surfing Santas photos on the JumboTron’s mention, provided to FLORIDA TODAY, were taken earlier Thursday, so it’s hard to tell how many people might have seen it. But considering it’s Times Square, one of the world’s most popular tourism locations, it had to be more than a few people.

 “This will be great exposure for Cocoa Beach, showing New Yorkers how we celebrate Christmas, Florida-style,” said Eric Garvey, executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

By the way, it was about 30 degrees in Manhattan on Thursday morning. In Cocoa Beach, people were wearing flip-flops on the beach.

Separately, the Brevard County Commission this week honored Surfing Santas by declaring Dec. 24 as Surfing Santa Day in Brevard County.

County Commissioner Jim Barfield — who read the resolution while wearing a red-and-white, Santa-themed sports jacket — said that “this is a fun resolution to do. It always is.”

The resolution noted that Surfing Santas “has grown to an annual gathering with almost 650 Surfing Santas and over 8,000 spectators, contributing over $60,000 to local charities. Santa Claus himself now spends Christmas Eve on the beach in Brevard County, where he can remain anonymous, thanks to all of the other Surfing Santas in town, enjoying his favorite pastime, surfing, and resting before his busiest night of the year.”

“It’s a big honor, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Trosset said, noting that Surfing Santas has “turned into what it needed to be, and that’s a community event with charity side. The community outpouring has been nothing short of amazing.”

Trosset also talked about the extensive national publicity Surfing Santas has generated since its first exposure in a 2009 photo on the front page of FLORIDA TODAY, when he went surfing on Dec. 24 in a Santa suit.

“The growth is just ridiculous,” Trosset said. “We’re all riding the Surfing Santa wave. It’s just been an amazing experience. The people we’ve met. The places we’ve been. It’s been awesome.”

Coastal Living magazine, for example, referred to Surfing Santas as potentially “the most coastal Christmas tradition ever.”

Trosset also noted that there is a Surfing Santas beer, a triple-chocolate stout made by Florida Beer Co.

During his presentation to county commissioners about the event, Trosset said he has a few other long-term goals.

Among them:

• Having Jimmy Buffett write a song about Surfing Santas and perform the song on Cocoa Beach.

• Having the “Google Doodle” on the Google search engine website on Dec. 24 be related to Surfing Santas.

• Getting Elon Musk to put a Surfing Santas doll in the Telsa Roadster electric sports car he wants to send into space on a Falcon Heavy rocket.

“I always wanted Surfing Santas to be an out-of this-world experience,” Trosset said. “It might be.”

“That’ll be quite a wave,” County Commission Chair Rita Pritchett told Trosset.

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