Most people who watch the Cape Kiwanda Longboard Classic from the dune above Pelican Brewing think of it as a weekend of good surfing and better beer. That's fair. It's also incomplete. For most of its history, every dollar raised at this contest went toward one very specific, very concrete thing: the skate park at Pacific City. This year, for the first time in the event's 27 years, the money is going somewhere else entirely.
That shift is worth understanding if you live here, because it says something about how this town actually gets things built. Not through a bond measure or a county budget line. Through a beach contest run mostly by volunteers, a brewery patio, and a beer garden tab.
Twenty-Seven Years, One Beach, Two Founders
The Cape Kiwanda Longboard Classic started in 1998, founded by Bob and Michelle Ledbetter. It has grown since then into what organizers now call the Pacific Northwest's longest-running longboard surf competition, and this year's 27th annual event, set for September 18 through 20, will bring in more than 240 surfers. Competitors are expected from up and down the Pacific Northwest along with California, Hawaii, and Canada, all converging on the waves beneath Cape Kiwanda for three days of heats.
It's still hosted by two local businesses: Moment Surf Company and Pelican Brewing Company, the brewery whose original location sits steps from the sand where the contest takes place. Despite the growth in competitors and reputation, the event remains largely volunteer-run. That detail matters more than it sounds like it should. A contest that pulls surfers from four countries and still relies on community members and local partners to make it happen isn't corporate. It's homegrown, and it has stayed that way on purpose.
What the Skate Park Money Actually Bought
For years, the stated goal of the Longboard Classic was straightforward: raise enough to build a local skate park. It worked. Contest proceeds helped fund and build the Pacific City Skate Park, a project that exists today because surfers paid an entry fee and spectators bought beer at a brewery on Cape Kiwanda Drive.
That's the part of the story most visitors never hear, and it's the part residents should hold onto. This event isn't atmosphere. It's infrastructure, funded one heat and one pint at a time.
As Jeff Mollencop, owner of Moment Surf Company, put it:
"For nearly three decades, the Classic has been about bringing people together around surfing and community. Each year it is incredible to see the community come out to support the surfers and this event."
That sentiment is easy to write off as boilerplate until you look at what it's actually produced. A skate park is not an abstraction. It's a place kids in Pacific City ride their boards right now, and it exists because a surf contest decided to build it.
Why Water Rescue, Why Now
This year marks the beginning of a new fundraising initiative, and it's a meaningful pivot. Instead of continuing to direct proceeds toward recreation, organizers are now channeling contest funds toward equipment and training for water rescue personnel at Nestucca Rural Fire Protection District and North Lincoln Fire & Rescue. The stated goal is to strengthen rescue resources along the South Tillamook and North Lincoln County coast, covering everyone who spends time in the water here: surfers, dory fishermen, beachgoers, and visitors alike.
It's a shift from building something new to reinforcing something that already exists but needs more behind it. Tyler Cunningham, the event's announcer, framed it this way:
"Strong water rescue programs are vital in coastal communities. Supporting the training and equipment needed for these teams is an investment in the safety of residents and visitors alike."
If you've ever watched a dory launch through the surf at Cape Kiwanda, or pulled a kid back from a sneaker wave near the boat launch, that investment isn't hypothetical. The two fire districts named in this initiative are the ones who show up when the ocean here does what it sometimes does. A surf contest funding their equipment is a small-town version of a community deciding its own priorities, without waiting for a larger agency to decide for it.
The Weekend Itself
For anyone planning to show up rather than just read about it, the contest runs Friday through Sunday, September 18 to 20, at Cape Kiwanda, 33180 Cape Kiwanda Drive. The three-day format builds toward finals heats on the final day, followed by an awards ceremony, with Pelican Brewing supplying the beverages. Past contest days have run roughly 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., though exact heat schedules shift with tide and swell.
Parking at the Cape Kiwanda Day Use Area and the Pacific City Boat Launch runs $10 for a daily pass, payable by credit card at the on-site kiosks. If you're coming from elsewhere in town, plan for the lot to fill.
This year's event poster was designed by Taylor Blackman, a Pacific City local and longtime competitor in the Classic. That's part of a tradition organizers started after the 25th annual event: a rotating cast of artists from the local Pacific Northwest surf community gets the commission each year, a run that continues until the 30th annual event, when longtime artist Todd Fisher is set to return. It's a small detail, but it's the kind of continuity that tells you this contest was built by the people who show up to it, not imported for them.
A Town That Funds Itself One Wave at a Time
Here's the thing worth sitting with if you live in Pacific City: this event has quietly functioned as the town's own capital fund for almost three decades. No ballot measure built the skate park. No grant cycle is funding the next round of rescue equipment. It's surf registrations, brewery tabs, and a weekend of people showing up because they always have.
That's not a small thing in a coastal town this size. It means the next time you're at Pelican Brewing during the Classic, ordering a beer while watching heats run beneath Haystack Rock, you're not just spending money on a good afternoon. You're funding the same kind of local decision-making that put a skate park in this town in the first place, and this year, you're helping put better equipment in the hands of the people who pull swimmers out of the water when the coast asks for it.
If you want to catch it, September 18 through 20 at Cape Kiwanda is the window. Bring layers, bring cash for parking, and know that the money you spend on a beer garden ticket is going somewhere specific this year, not just somewhere fun.
For more on the Longboard Classic's history, registration details, and this year's fundraising efforts, the event's own site at capekiwandalongboardclassic.com has the full rundown.
If you're thinking about what it means to put down roots in a town where a surf contest builds skate parks and funds rescue equipment, Vanessa Corder knows this stretch of the Oregon Coast from the inside. Let's Connect.
