Labor Day Weekend - Surf contest and Cardboard Boat Races

We had a busy weekend!

On Sunday we went up to Cocoa Beach to go see a surf contest.  It was super crowded but such a nice day out. 

We didn't see a whole lot of surfing- I guess a big part of surfing is waiting for the right wave.   We did see a guy lift a lady over his head while on the surfboard, that was pretty cool.  And then a kid did a headstand

A bi-plane flew over too.

Then Levi got in the water.   He is sometimes hard to spot, luckily he is a really good swimmer.


There is a little curly head!  

And the rest of him. 

What an odd face!  

Still watching surfers as he gets out. 

There were venders on the beach as well, one selling rashguards for a great price, so we picked one up thats easier to see in the water!   Levi had to try it on right away, and then he did some beach gymnastics.

And then he got hot and headed back out to the water.

Slightly easier to see him maybe?    Maybe he needs a neon colored hat.


We went up to the pier to see the view too.   There are so many people compared to the beach by our house. 

And then, he went home, changed his clothes and headed out to a glow-in-the-dark Pump-it-up, crazy bouncy castle birthday party!

On Monday, there was a cardboard boat race at the Yacht Club.  We spent all morning building Levi's whale boat named "Ursalia".  Ursalia (Err- saal- eee- uh) is what he calls all of his boats, he named a cardboard boat box Ursalia and the name stuck for subsequent boats.  

For "pre-built" boats, you could only use cardboard, masking tape, latex paint and elmers glue.  Nothing else!

The building process:

Please excuse the pj's and goofy face! 

The inside

Now this thing I think was the coolest part of the whale boat.   We rigged up a cardboard stand for a spray bottle, which made it spout water!   

Tail! 

Then we taped the heck out of it.  

When we got there, instead of checking out his competition, he decided to get in the water with the other boys.   They require lifejackets off the dock, which Levi wore begrudgingly.   As soon as he hit the water he was happy though!   They had the paddleboards out. 

Then we put his finished boat on display.

The dog ate her purple tennis ball, so I cut in half for eyes.   The eyebrows are made from the empty tape roll. 

We made fin-shape paddles too. 

Here is the finished sprayer mount.  

Next came the races!   This was round 1 of the pre-built boats for the kids (12 and under).   The boat out front that looks like a kayak was the star of the day, it ended up racing 3 times, once with 2 people in it.  It was a Gators boat called "T-Boat".  

Then it was Levi's round.  I didn't even get a picture before he went over.  The lifeguard jumped in to help him back into his boat, but it was tippy and sinking and so he had to swim instead! 

One of the other boats was down too, Levi is off and swimming though! 

It was a loong swim, they had lifeguards to swim along the kids who's boats weren't working.  This one gave Levi a tow for the last bit.  

Part of the race: 

And Levi at the finish line: 

Then came a round of adult pre-built boats.   There is "T-Boat" out front again!   The white boat on the right had a speaker installed in it.   The pink one is the aptly named "SS Tipsy" complete with beer holders and a beer filled paddler, who couldn't get that thing moving much at all.  It was pretty funny to watch.    Near the end of the dock was the spot where you had to go around a marker and head back, it was a long ways for those boats that were sucking up water and falling apart.

SS Tipsy

Speaker boat. 

Next, was the round for kids "last minute" boats.  These were built on-site.  Each participants got a small roll of duck tape, a roll of masking tape, wood glue (elmers), a little tiny exacto knife and as much cardboard as they needed.    Levi wanted to build a surfboard, so he drew it out and I cut it out, 4 layers of cardboard with lots of glue in the middle, then tape around the edges and to hold it all together.  Then a coat of glue, which you can see was not quite dry as we made this in the last 30min before time was up for building.  

And he was off!   

He ignored the other boats (which were kind of going in all directions) and just kept kicking and scooping water.  

Even when he nearly got a paddle to the face.  

On the way back - the judges boat made sure everyone went around the marker.   The other kids in the water now had their boats dismantle on them! 

Still focused on kicking away.

And here he is, after he had crossed the finish line.  He got a tow from the finish line back to the dock.  

Levi was the smallest kid there, and he ended up winning FIRST PLACE!  

My boat, which I didn't even get pictures of, sunk the second I got into it!   I had to tow the entire boat through the whole course, that was tiring!     It was such a great event, lots of people showed up, lots of creativity and it was interesting to see what floated and what didn't!