The Tom Morey Invitational 2015 Golden Jubilee will be held from November 6th-8th, in Ventura, California.
The 50th anniversary of the Tom Morey Invitational will celebrate the success of surfing as a liberating world influence, and it will also highlight innovation and surfing's pioneers.
The event will be attended by Randy Rarick, Linda Benson, Bill Hamilton, Mickey Munoz, Mike Doyle, Mike Hynson, Gidget, Paul Strauch, Steve Pezman, Robert "Wingnut" Weaver, Gary Linden, and many more.
"We need to rectify a wrongness from way back. Certain self-elevators started driving wedges of elitism between themselves and the rest of the surfers. As a result, a typical skateboarder, for example, has no idea that what he does came from surfers," Tom Morey tells SurferToday.com.
"So, instead of thinking as short boarders, snowboarders, skateboarders, longboarders, boogieboarders, wake surfers, kitesurfers, windsurfers, tanker surfers, etc, we might put all the little ego builders aside and realize that circling the globe, we hundreds of millions who love the same kinda kicks, outnumber the population of almost any nation in the world."
The inventor of bodyboarding gives the example of Andy Irons. His death affected all of us far more that the death of any president of any nation. Morey wants to highlight that "we are a nation without borders. We are surfers!"
"I am neither white, black, red, brown, American nor Russian at heart. I Tom Morey, I am a surfer, first and foremost! How about you?"
The first ever Tom Morey Invitational - also known as Tom Morey Noseriding Contest - was held on the 4th of July, 1965, in Ventura. It has been considered "surfing's original prize-money competition."
The event featured a $1,500 prize money, and an innovative scoring system, in which judges awarded a 1-to-10 score for each ride. Mickey Muñoz won the 1965 Tom Morey Invitational.