Big Corona - Corona del Mar State Beach

At noon on Sunday August 7, 1928, the Corona del Mar Surf Board Association sponsored the first Pacific Coast Surf Board Championship and Sparr Bathhouse manager, T. W. Sheffield, organized the event. This was one of the first major surfing competitions on the West Coast.

The competitions included a paddling contest from Corona del Mar beach to the west jetty and back, canoe tilting, a demonstration of the use of surfboards for life saving, and finally a "rough water" surfboard race from the bell buoy off the harbor entrance to the channel nearest the east jetty.

Had Duke Kahanamoku been at the race, he would have been the favorite to win. Kahanamoku, however, could not attend, because he was filming a movie The Rescue. The contestants included Tom Blake, who later would write the first book on surfing and revolutionize board designs, and Gerard Vultee, a pioneer in the airspace industry. Blake took home silver trophies for first place in both the paddleboard and surfing competitions.

When the surf competition took place, Corona del Mar was not yet part of Newport Beach and the beach itself was private property. It was initially intended to be developed, yet one woman, Mary Burton, thought it should be a public beach, and it was largely through her efforts that the City of Newport Beach eventually took action to acquire the land. In 1931 the city filed a suit again the ned the beach, to clarify the title on the beach lands. The suit lasted for five years before the city and the bank negotiated an agreement that gave the city title to the beach in return for other land in Corona del Mar. Then in 1947 the city agreed to deed the land to the State of California in return for the State acquiring additional parcels on the bluffs and declaring the site as Corona del Mar State Park. In 1963, it was re-designated Corona del Mar State Beach.