VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Surf's up for the 58th annual Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championship as plans for the event to take place August 23 through August 30 are still going strong.
It's an event that usually takes up 10 city blocks at the Oceanfront. It'll be five this go-around as organizers are downsizing this year and primarily focusing on the surfing competition.
While some vendors will still be out and about this year, they will all have increased guidelines says ECSC General Manager George Alcaraz.
“They will be providing COVID necessities that might be needed for everyone that is going to be visiting. We're going to have directional signs; one way in, one way out and we'll have sanitation stations," Alcaraz said. "We're going to the extreme to make sure this event happens and that our guests are safe."
All staff and volunteers working for ECSC this year are also required to wear face masks.
Skate, BMX and volleyball tournaments will still be going on, but live entertainment will not.
"There will be no concert this year. With 1,000-max limit on people within the whole event, we will have zones with a 250-person limit,” said Alcaraz.
The “World Surf League” ECSC's pro-event that brings in hundreds of international surf riders from all over the world is also canceled this year. It's usually one of the biggest draws to the event.
Alcaraz is also aware that at any time Governor Northam could pull the plug and mandate a cancellation so, as of now, they are just taking it one day at a time.
ECSC will issue refunds to the vendors if a cancellation occurs.