The 24th Tommy Tant Memorial Surf Classic runs October 23 through 25, 2026, at Beachside A1A and South 7th Street. Heats run from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, according to the City of Flagler Beach event calendar. Locals call it "The Tommy." This year it arrives about three weeks earlier than last year. The heats stay on the beach, but the Friday kickoff and the contest's official page have moved to a studio the Tant family runs on Ocean Shore Boulevard. It's in the same building as the surf shop that ran the contest's early years. The money the contest raises now goes straight back to the surfers who grew up in the lineup in front of it.
The heats, the raffle and the Sunday paddle-out will look familiar. What has changed is who holds the keys to that building and where the money ends up.
The Building on Ocean Shore Has a New Tenant and an Old Job
Craeft Surf Studio's published address is 404 S. Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit B. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported in May 2026 that Will and Clarissa Tant were remodeling the historic building there. It's where Z Wave Surf Shop stood for decades before it closed in 2025.
The address matters because of the contest's own history. The Palm Coast Observer's 2023 coverage says the Flagler Palm Coast High School marketing class started the contest in 1999. Z-Wave Surf Shop ran it for the next three years, and then Tommy's younger brother, Will Tant, took it over. More than two decades later, the family that has led the event since then is throwing its kickoff and hosting its official page from the building where that surf shop operated.
Craeft describes itself as a hub for the surf community, with events, coaching and workshops. Its homepage still lists retail, gear and light food and beverage as "coming soon." For now the studio offers private surf coaching with Will Tant, a former pro, plus soft-top board rentals. The building has hosted public events this fall, including a one-night art exhibition on October 10.
The contest's official page now lives on Craeft's website. The Friday kickoff party is there too, at 7 p.m. on October 23. In 2025 the kickoff was at the Golden Lion Café, according to the Observer's preview of last year's event. This year the weekend opens under the organizers' own roof.
The Money Now Stays in the Lineup
The event site says the contest has raised more than $200,000 over the years. Today those funds go to student scholarships and to a Fellows Program that gives grants to local professional surfers. According to Flagler News Weekly's 2025 coverage, the beneficiaries named in last year's materials included local scholarships, food banks and the Marfan Foundation. The Fellows Program narrows the focus to the surfers in this community.
The Palm Coast Observer reported in June 2026 that the 2025 event raised $20,000, split into $5,000 apiece for four local pros: Robbie Goodwin, Robbie McCormick, Carl Burger and Ryan Huckabee. The fellowship also includes year-round mentorship and a peer cohort. Craeft describes the mentorship as coming from former pros and entrepreneurs, with grants tied to each athlete's own career projects.
Those four names will be familiar to anyone who has watched this contest. At the 2021 edition, Flagler-area surfers swept all three pro divisions: McCormick won Men's Pro and Huckabee won Pro Junior. In 2022, Surf Station's recap recorded Huckabee winning Pro Junior again and McCormick, a pier regular, taking third in Men's Pro. One of Craeft's own photo captions from that year notes that McCormick also won the expression session after the paddle-out. About 30 surfers took part in it.
So the surfers the contest now funds are the ones who have been winning its heats. When you buy a raffle ticket on the sand at South 7th Street, the money goes toward the careers of people who surf the same break.
How the Weekend Runs
Watching is free. The organizers tell spectators to pull up and tailgate, settle in on the sand and bring the family. Heats run from morning to afternoon all three days. The heat schedule comes out the week of the contest, after registration closes.
| Day | What's scheduled | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Oct. 23 | Heats from morning into afternoon, then the kickoff party at 7 p.m. with drinks, snacks, music, and a live and silent auction | Contest site, then Craeft Surf Studio |
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | Heats, children's activity center, merch, the big raffle, and a special in-water session at high noon | The boardwalk and beach at A1A and S. 7th Street |
| Sunday, Oct. 25 | Heats, raffle, memorial paddle-out at midday followed by an expression session, then the closing ceremony and awards | Contest site |
As of the October 7 update to the event page, the details of the Saturday noon session were still listed as "coming soon." The Sunday paddle-out is the part of the weekend the Tant family describes as its center. The event page calls it "a circle in the water to remember loved ones who have gone before us."
In 2023, according to the Observer's coverage, swells from Hurricane Tammy led organizers to replace the paddle-out with a gathering circle and an expression session, and the contest itself went ahead. The 2022 edition opened in rain and a strong north wind. The surf built as the weekend went on, and the pro heats ran until close to sunset on Sunday.
Who Paddles Out
The 2026 contest has 19 divisions. They include four pro classes, the parent-assisted Tadpoles division for the youngest surfers, youth brackets, adult age groups up to 60 and over, open shortboard, longboard and bodyboard, and a two-person team division. Every contestant gets a contestant tee and sun protection from Sun Bum.
Registration is on LiveHeats. Entry costs $125 per pro division and $55 per amateur division. Division sponsors on the 2026 entry page include Craeft Surf Studio, Surf Station, Waffle Cone and Swillerbees. If you'd rather help than compete, the organizers are looking for volunteers for setup, breakdown and ticket sales.
The amateur side is where the event's long memory shows. In 2023, local surfer Jonathan Galbraith won Men's Open Longboard and told the Observer he had been competing at the contest for more than 15 years. FlaglerLive's coverage from 2011 already described the Tadpoles as a crowd favorite and the whole event as a family gathering as much as a competition, with live art, food and music. The kids racing to the Tadpole trophy this October are coming up through the same lineup that produced the four Fellows.
An Earlier Date in a Different-Looking Town
The move from mid-November to late October is the most visible change on the calendar. The 23rd edition ran November 14 through 16, 2025. The 24th runs October 23 through 25. We haven't seen any published explanation for the change.
The new date puts The Tommy in a busy stretch on the city calendar. The Ocean Cardboard Regatta was postponed and now takes place October 17, from 9 a.m. to noon. Trunk or Treat is at Wickline Park on October 30, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The pier is still a construction site. FlaglerLive reported on October 8 that the concrete structure and pile driving were finished and utility installation was underway. Decking was due within days and would be installed over the following weeks. The same report projected substantial completion in January, final completion in February and a spring opening. So this year's contest takes place with the pier still under construction, alongside a surf shop building that has been put back to work.
On the event page, the Tant family says they have shaped The Tommy around the belief that "every human life is irreplaceable," and that each year they "spend the weekend doing what we love with those we love." The scholarship application, the volunteer sign-up and the LiveHeats registration are all linked from the contest's official page.
Coastal Pros follows weekends like this one because they're part of what living on this stretch of A1A is like. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of South 7th Street and the contest, Victoria Simmons and the Coastal Pros team would be glad to talk through it with you. Schedule a private consultation.
