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Paying for Surf Festival is harder than it looks
By Jason Dietrich
The International Surf Festival has been a South Bay tradition for more than 35 years, but funding the annual $50,000 event has occasionally been as tough as running pier-to-pier on loose sand.
For the past five years, the Beach Cities Health District has stepped into the shoes formerly worn by sponsors like Los Angeles County and the Daily Breeze, which funded the event in years past. As part of the deal, the festival was renamed the Beach Cities Health District International Surf and Health Festival and a health fair was added, featuring more than 100 advice-dispensing health care professionals.
This year the health district chipped in $15,000 for the surf festival, and spent another $17,500 on the health fair. The fair gives the district an opportunity to reach Beach Cities residents who don't make it to the doctor's office as often as they should, said Charlotte Lesser, Community Education Administrator for the Beach Cities Health District.
"The average citizen only goes to the doctor when something is wrong. But we found people whose glucose was off the wall, whose cholesterol was very high, or who haven't been wearing sunscreen and are beginning to develop skin cancer. We're able to reach a lot of people we wouldn't otherwise see until their problems became much more serious," she said.
The Nissan Corporation donated $10,000 to the festival and sprang for a $2,500 dinner on the final night. Washington Mutual Bank also made a $5,000 deposit into the festival account and Evian Water donated 150 cases of water, but no other liquid assets. The balance necessary to keep the festival afloat came from competition entrance fees.
The festival costs about $50,000 to put on each year. Last year the total bill came to $47,427 and the event took in $47,765.
"We try to come as close as possible to breaking even," said Ken Johnson of the Department of Beaches and Harbors.
Each of the individual events is basically self-supporting under the framework of the larger festival, said Ron Crawford, festival director. Coordinating events for thousands of runners, swimmers, paddlers and volleyers takes the efforts of legions of support staff, not all of whom are volunteers. The lifeguard bills alone runs about $11,000, covering overtime, and marker placing for the swimming and paddling events and extra coverage. The festival supports the lifeguard competitions and free events like the sandcastle building contest and opening the museum at the end of the Manhattan Beach Pier. After renting stages, bleachers, and paying to set it all up, the event usually ends up in the black, barely. A full accounting won't be completed for another week or two.
"We'll probably end up with about $2,000 in the bank by the time we've paid all our bills," Johnson said.
The biggest event all weekend is the 6-player beach volleyball tournament. The contest brings in about $17,500 from entry fees paid by the 140 competing teams. But by the time officials are paid, equipment is rented and T-shirts and medals for the winners are bought, the profits are a fraction of that.
"Last year the event cost us between $12,000 and $13,000," said Charlie Saikley, Sports Supervisor for Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation, who has run the tournament for 37 years. Whatever money is left over from the tournament goes back into the Manhattan Beach Recreation Department to fund programs like youth volleyball and youth surfing.
"With events like this, you have some winners and some losers. You hope that the winners offset the losers.
For instance, we had a youth surf contest in July that didn't quite break even," Saikley said.
Money left over from the Dick Fitzgerald 2-mile Beach Run goes to benefit the Mira Costa cross-country team, which volunteers to set up and work during the event. The Mustangs expect to be able to hold on to about $900 of the $2,300 they brought in, after promotion, shirts and prizes are paid for. ER