COCOA BEACH, Fla. (CBS) — Yes, Virginia, there are surfing Santas in Florida.
Hundreds of surfers in Santa costumes and thousands of spectators descended Saturday on Cocoa Beach for the eighth annual Christmas Eve Surfing Santas extravaganza.
The Santas surfed the waves all morning to raise money for two charities by selling T-shirts.
Scenes from @CocoaBeachFL‘s #surfingsanta event!!! pic.twitter.com/ZI5u16EuID
— @Serena (@Serena) December 24, 2016
One charity is the Florida Surf Museum. The other charity provides financial assistance for cancer patients needing to travel for their treatment.
The first surfing Santas event started in 2009 when George Trosset, his son and daughter-in-law thought it would be funny to dress up as Santa Claus and his elves and go surfing.
A photo of them hit the front page of the local newspaper, and a Cocoa Beach tradition was born.