Friday, October 14, 2011

No Rain Delay for Surfrider - Kohl’s “Hacktoberfest” Golf Classic

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to the following copyrighted material. For permission to reprint or excerpt it and/or link it to another website, contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com

“The gods were with us,” said Tony Soriano, Chairman of the Surfrider Foundation Huntington Beach/Seal Beach Chapter. By the Thursday, October 6th tee-off of its Kohl’s “Hacktoberfest” 2nd Annual Golf Classic at Meadowlark Golf Club the skies were clear after two days of heavy rain.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel were excited about being able to help the HB/SB Chapter with this fundraiser for Huntington Beach Coastal Preservation.

Setting their surf boards aside, Surfrider members got out their golf clubs and welcomed guests to a day of golf, contests, a barbecue dinner, and prizes.




There were prizes for the top three golfing teams, longest drive, and closest to the pin.

First Place Team Winners were the surf celebrity team consisting of Jeff Deffenbaugh, Sam August, Byron August and Robb Havassy.

The Second Place Team Winners were Robert Montenegro, Jay Reed, Davey Obade, and Marc Belmonte.

The Third Place Team Winners were Huntington Beach City Councilman Keith Bohr, Greg Kishel (Patti’s husband), Gary Sahagen and Bob Barry.



Surf artist Robb Havassy won both the longest drive and closest to the pin contests. 

Volunteer Associates from Title Sponsor Kohl’s specialty stores were on hand and did an outstanding job. You could see them helping with registration and the event’s activities around the golf course in bright green “Hacktoberfest” Kohl’s T-Shirts.

Lifestyle apparel sponsor Volcom gave out hats, DVDs and stickers to everyone who brought a pair of used denim jeans to donate to its “Give Jeans a Chance” program to help the homeless.

Primo beer had a tent on the course and supplied the golfers with its own Hawaii’s Original Beer and soft drinks. When SurfWriter Girls pulled up to the tent in our golf cart we could see that everyone was making a pit stop there.



Devin Ryan, Primo’s Field Marketing Representative for Orange County, stopped to tell us about his company’s beer and why it tastes so great.

Other sponsors provided gifts and prizes. RipCurl donated a precision "Tide" watch. The Wyland Foundation gave a personally signed, lithograph print titled “Hawaii in Paradise.”


Surf City Art Co. contributed the Sean Davey Collection. Matson Graphics and Rob Havassy Art donated their artworks.

Whole Foods put together an amazing gift bag filled with coffee, olive oil and pasta, cookies, chocolates and more.


Fred’s Mexican Café donated “Burrito Bucks” and The River’s End Café gave gift certificates. The Huntington Beach Waterfront Hilton contributed a night for two at their beautiful hotel and Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency gave a dinner for two at their Signature restaurant.

Superior Communications donated Jawbone Bluetooth headsets and smart phone support systems. Vans, Dixon Golf, Shorebreak Hotel, Farmers and Merchants Bank, and Rainbow Disposal also showed their support.
Jeff Deffenbaugh, the Surfrider HB/SB Chapter’s Community Outreach Ambassador, added the “Hacktoberfest” First Place Golf Trophy to his many surfing awards.



He mentioned to SurfWriter Girls that he appreciates the opportunity his role as the Chapter’s Ambasador gives him to help “spread the word about cleaning up the ocean…especially to the younger surfers.” 

Huntington Beach City Councilman Bohr said he had just come from a council meeting that approved an Environmental Impact Report on banning plastic bags. A supporter of the ban, he emphasized “In the long run we’ll be glad to get rid of the plastic that’s littering our ocean.”   

    
Gary Sahagen, the Director of the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, was pleased to be at the “Hacktoberfest.” A longtime supporter of the Surfrider Foundation, he joked that “It’s a way for me to give back after stealing all those waves.”
Robert Montenegro, one of the golfers from Volcom, emphasized that his company feels strongly about protecting the environment. He said, “We do a plastic water bottle initiative at our work. Everything that Surfrider does is something we want to support.” 

Event/MPA Outreach Coordinator Gene Rascon said, “The HB/SB Surfrider ‘Hacktobertfest’ Golf Classic was a success because of the involvement of both the surfing and non-surfing community and their strong interest in maintaining and protecting our exceptional coastline."



"Additionally, the bridge between the two was built by the hard work of the HB/SB Surfrider Executive & Core Volunteer Committee.”
Rascon told SurfWriter Girls that he was confident all along that the weather would be perfect for a day of golf and that he was excited to see everyone show up and have such a good time.

After a day on the Meadowlark golf course everyone was ready for the barbecue dinner and raffle contest.



In addition to steak and chicken, there was salad, coleslaw, baked beans, scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob, muffins, and more.



SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti put a little bit of everything on our plates. When the event is for charity the calories don't count.
The raffle had us all checking our tickets. Patti won a gift certificate for The River's End Cafe - Surfrider HB/SB Chapter member Mike Balchin's popular Seal Beach eatery that's just steps from the wave break.


All in all, it was a great day...even the Meadowlark ducks were enjoying it.


SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel – http://www.surfwritergirls.blogspot.com/




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