VIRGINIA BEACH — Charlie Pitts doesn’t know when the swimsuit competition first started, but he knows how.
Pitts, the 38-year-old chairman of the Virginia Beach Jaycees’ 55th Annual East Coast Surfing Championships, said it began with an empty performance space.
“They had a stage and they had some time,” he said. “And they literally just grabbed girls off the beach.”
The ECSC, which runs through Sunday, came about as an amateur regional surfing contest in 1962 – a year when John Glenn emerged as the first American to orbit the earth, President John F. Kennedy squared off against the Soviets during the Cuban missile crisis and the United States ramped up its military commitment in Vietnam.
Some highlights of this year’s ECSC, according to Pitts, include a mermaid floating in an in-ground pool, beach volleyball and craft beer from Virginia Beach-based Wasserhund Brewing Co.
“The weather is going to be great,” Pitts said. “We’re going to have a good show.”
ECSC a “huge draw” to the Oceanfront
A Virginia Beach tourism official echoed his view.
“From a tourism perspective, the ECSC and its week-long tribute to the East Coast surfing history and culture is a huge draw for visitors and locals alike,” Teresa Diaz, director of the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, wrote in an email.
The ECSC swimsuit competition, which includes members of the International Bikini Team, is also a marketing opportunity.
The Jaycees’ mission is to teach leadership development to men and women between the ages of 18 and 40; they sponsor community projects such as Christmas shopping for low-income children and the ECSC is a fundraiser, Pitts said.
The Miss ECSC bikini contest, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, will pull in as many as 8,000 spectators, according to Pitts. Judges include representatives from ECSC sponsors, such as 7-Eleven and Monster Energy, he said.
“We haven’t had any serious pushback or resistance,” Pitts said.
The top three Miss ECSC contestants will compete for $5,000 in prize money, according to Michelle Walls, the contest emcee/host and owner of the International Bikini Team.
The first-place finisher will win $3,000, a sash, a crown, a trophy, a spot as Miss August in next year’s International Bikini Team calendar and a trip to the 2018 Sturgis, S.D. Buffalo Chip, a motorcycling and music festival, Walls wrote in an email.
The Miss ECSC runner-up will win $1,250 and the third place finisher gets $750, Walls added.
Not just “thin girls parading around in swimsuits”
Cecili Weber, a 22-year-old graduate of Roanoke’s Hollins University, knows firsthand what swimsuit competitions are like.
As the recently crowned Miss Virginia, she will head to Atlantic City at the end of August to compete in the Miss America pageant – which began in 1921 as a way to spark late summer tourism.
Yes, you are on stage, Weber said, and it’s a little bit about how you look, but it’s not “just a bunch of thin girls parading around in swimsuits.”
For her, the bathing-suit competition is empowering: it showcases her fitness, strength and dedication to health.
Weber, a dancer and communications major, does weight training and yoga. She eats lean protein, vegetables and, occasionally, ice cream. She meditates.
“There’s a lot more to it than what meets the eye to a spectator,” she said.
Still, she did face skepticism from friends at Hollins, an all-women’s institution.
“Definitely, I have received a lot of questions about how swimsuit fits into that,” she said.
Weber, who grew up in an economically depressed Ohio town and considers herself a feminist, sees a link between what she learned at Hollins and what she gets from participating in Miss America.
Both, she says, are about celebrating intelligence and finding a voice as a woman.
Women post photos of themselves on social media, she said, and competitions such as Miss America offer participants a much larger platform.
“We’re all just seeking ways to feel good about ourselves,” she added.
For contestants in ECSC’s bikini contest, Weber had this advice: don’t compare yourself to others, stay focused and be real.
“That’s what the judges care about,” she said.
