Livestrong /Walden Surfboard Nets Record $27.5K

This years annual UCSD Cancer Center Luau and Longboard Invitational, benefiting the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, broke records and continued a 12 year streak of successful fundraising.

The highlight of this years event, whose attendance list reads like a surf legend VIP list, was the sale of a yellow Livestrong/ Walden Longboard for an astounding $27,500. It is only one of three boards like it, each one shaped by Walden and signed by Lance Armstrong. The board was won by Paul Grayson, a venture capitalist from La Jolla, Ca, whose wife is currently fighting brain cancer. The woman’s request of her husband before the event was “Honey, I don’t care what happens, bring that board home!” And bring it home he did! In a display of valiant commitment to fighting cancer, a bidding war erupted along with cheers from the audience as the price continued to soar for the board, eventually surpassing $27,000. As shocked as anyone else in the audience Walden himself said “I was just hoping we could get $3000 to $5000 for the board, this was just awesome.” And with excitement still in the air from the last bid, Wingnut and John Moores himself duked it out in a show battle for a blow up Pink Uli board, which fetched a $40,000 donation from Moores.

In the surf, the longboard “competition”, places teams of surf legends, scientists, and other donors together to perform in the surf for this heroic cause.

Surf legends Herbie Fletcher, Mike Hynson, Robert August, Mike Doyle, Skip Frye and many others were all in attendance, still surfing incredibly, with every wave caught worth thousands of dollars in donations. The event ultimately raised about $250,000 for cancer research, and represented the compassion and dedication of the surfing community in the fight against cancer.