Surfers line up for inaugural Redondo Beach Police surf contest

Golden Donuts awards presented at the Redodo Police In the Lineup Surf Contest. Photo by Peter McMahon

Golden Donuts awards presented at the Redodo Police In the Lineup Surf Contest. Photo by Peter McMahon

Planning for The Line Up, a surf contest sponsored by the Redondo Beach Police Department began last October during the inaugural King of the Harbor Skateboard Championships. The skateboard contestwas also sponsored by the Redondo Police.

“As soon as the skate contest ended, it just clicked in my brain,” Police Chief Keith Kauffman said as he suited up for The Line Up on Saturday at Avenue I.

“At the skate contest, we had multi generations of skaters, just like we have at the surf contest today. These are great ways to bring families together,” he said.

Kauffman’s team, South Bay Surf Kooks, included his 15-year-old son Kade, and Kade’s fellow Redondo High surf team rider Ryan Hughes.

Like Kade, Chief Kauffman was introduced to surfing by his dad Ken, then a Redondo police lieutenant.

“Dad told me he’d buy me a surfboard when I could stand up on my Boogie Board,” Kauffman recalled. He met his dad’s condition when he was 10. His dad bought him a red Rick at a garage sale.

Kauffman took his surf contest idea to Dina Lary, the department’s Community Services Program Manager. Lary had organized the department’s skateboard contest. Her son Greg is a former pro surfer and long time videographer for Body Glove.

To promote The Line Up surf contest Browning produced a video of his son Parker being chased across the Redondo Beach Horseshoe Pier by Redondo motorcycle officer Bill Turner, with sirens screaming and red lights flashing. Parker escapes by jumping off the pier and catching a wave to the beach. It is illegal to jump off the pier and also illegal to surf inside the Horseshoe pier. When Parker reaches the beach, Redondo Patrol officer Pedro Dos Santos hands him a contest flyer, then arrests him for illegal surfing. Do Santos and fellow officer Nolan Bernauk would surf in Saturday’s contest.


Some of the South Bay’s top surfers competed in the contest on six-member teams, in 90 minute heats.

Winners of the Golden Donut Trophy was a stacked team aptly called The Rippers. It included Parker Browning, the Brewer twins Derick and Keith and State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi.

Second place went to Proper Surfboards, whose team members included Proper Surfboards owner and former South High team captain Andy Prunauer and former Body Glove surfer Matt Meistrell.

The South Bay Mutts placed third with a team that included 2018 Hermosa Surfer Walk of Fame inductee Kip Jerger and South Bay Boardriders Club champions Dave Schaefer, Greg McEuen and Troy Campbell.

The contest was free, but donations were accepted for the Redondo Beach Police Foundation, Special Olympics Southern California and Wounded Heroes of America. ER

Photos by Peter McMahon

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