RfaC Open and Heroes Beach Preview

by Socks Clawtooth, Senior Furry Correspondent

On July 11th, surfers gathered for the "Riders for a Cure Open" at Tsunami beach. The format was simple. For a 250L donation to Relay for Life, surfers had three minutes of time on the water to show their stuff. The judge, Lissa Pinion, was open to donation bribes for a higher score. It was an open water format meaning literally anything was legal. Any surfboard, windsurfer, boat, jetski, or in fact anything that floated, was legal!

The event had a lot of interesting water craft out there, including a sailboat and some interesting hovercraft. The winner of the event was Abel Halderman. Second went to Sunrize Mornington. And third, based solely on bribery alone, went to WickedV Carver who had a special benefactor behind her who wished to remain anonymous. Mostly.

The big winner was, in fact, Relay for Life. RfaC raised over 40,000L during the event, pushing the team total to above 110,000L over the last few months. In real world terms, the surfing community has raised $450 USD thru a few events and kiosks on several beaches.

This has all been leading up to the real "Relay for Life" event. Since March of this year, teams have been fundraising and have raised (at this typing) 43,909,435L (Source: http://www.integratingsl.com/teamtotals.php). That's over $220,000 USD from the online community! Every fundraising record has been not only broken, but shattered and rewritten. And this is all before the actual event has taken place.

The RfLSL event is taking place on its own dedicated cluster of 37 sims. Theme builds include Mars, a metropolis, a dedicated sailing sim, and for the first year ever, there is a dedicated surfing area. RfL is no stranger to surfers, but this is the first time its a featured activity on the route. There will be an estimated 3,000 walkers this year passing by every campsite for the 24 hours the event will be held.

What follows is a quick photo tour of the beach, enough to get you ready for the weekend. We would still like to find volunteers to help man the beach to help new riders, greet people, and have some fun showing people in Second Life what surfing is all about.

The entrance to Heroes Beach. The sign is right along the sim border and it's actually not ON the route. It's a slight detour. But as you're walking, just follow the boardwalk! We're easy to find, just off one of the main hubs.

This is the boardwalk area where we will have stuff for sale to benefit Relay for Life. We already have some swimwear items for men and women as well as more casual apparel. There's also some simboard items out there, too! We would love to stock this spot with dozens of swimwear choices, so if you own a shop and would be interested in donating apparel, contact Socks Clawtooth in world. Behind that you can see the pyramid that belongs to our neighbors, the "Ministry of Dance".


These huts serve a special purpose. This one is the "Learn to surf" hut. Next to it is a small msueum of surf history in SL. The third hut will have some photos from the RfaC events from the last few months and be a nice chill-out area.





Lifeguards may be on duty if needed. Probably not, tho - we like to surf, too!

The bonfire is big! It's also next to a dance ball, so people can hang out here and dance if they'd like. We're not the Ministry of Dance, but we're not so bad.

Our "Freebie shack" has some stuff from surf places as well as some RFL logo wear people can puck up and wear instantly. Grab a t-shirt! You can also see the halfpipe, too. Why is it somewhat transparent? When you ride, you'll understand.

Our site even features camping! Just not what you think it is in SL.

Here is where the pier is a nightmare for surfers! The wave is a dual pipeline with a fluffy down the middle. And the pipeline straddles the pier! Yes, you can surf between poles, and yes, you can hit them, too. It won't stop your wave, but it'll give you a headache, that's for sure!

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