Guest blogger Dashiell Dunkell lays out the importance of the upcoming Cold Water Classic. Thanks for the article and  photo!

The O’Neill Cold Water Classic is always the biggest surf contest of the year in Santa Cruz, but this time around it promises to be even bigger. Local legend Jack O’Neill started his wetsuit and surf business 60 years ago and the company is celebrating by upgrading the 2012 Coldwater to a World Title event.

Santa Cruz surf fans will be stoked as this means the top 34 surfers in the world will be showing up for a ten-day period this fall. Currently, SC doesn’t have a surfer on the World Tour, but O’Neill will surely be hoping one of their sponsored surfers, including John John Florence and Jordy Smith, will win the Cold Water.

Even if you’re not an avid follower of the “Dream Tour”, odds are high that 11-time world champion and perennial world’s sexiest person nominee Kelly Slater will be attending.

Steamer Lane is an amazing place to watch a surf contest. Standing on the cliffs provides a perfect view of the waves, contestants and the beautiful Monterey Bay.

For those people who are housebound or have to work on days the contest is running, O’Neill will be streaming the contest live on the internet. The waiting period for the contest is Nov. 1-11, hopefully just in time for some of our famous winter swells.