Moto Beach Classic And Surf City Blitz 2018

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he second annual Moto Beach Classic returned to California’s Huntington State Beach this past October. Last year’s event was a huge hit and this year the creators, Roland Sands and crew, teamed up with Surf City Blitz to add an insane punk rock show to the lineup. It was two days of flat-track racing, stunt shows, punk rock, an art show, a motorcycle show with invited builders, an awesome vendor lot, and even a surf competition.

The main shindig was the final two rounds of the Super Hooligan National Championship, but there were many other heats of racing leading up to the finals and even a class that combined Saturday morning’s surf competition with a race for the Surf and Turf Award. The racing included classes for Super Hooligan, Hooligan, Tank Shift, 450 Pro/Am, Women, Minis, “run what ya brung” (in Halloween costumes, no less), Vintage Tank Shift, and Choppers.

The track filled up with race heats beginning each day at noon and went on until six in the evening, which made for a beautiful final race on the beach at sunset. The final race was won by Jordan Baber on day one and Brad Spencer on day two, but the overall points left Andy DiBrino as the series winner for the second time despite his getting into a crash during the final race. He broke his arm and separated his shoulder in the process. So he still went home with a brand-new FTR 1200 from Indian Motorcycle—the big championship-winning prize.

The Architects of Inspiration Art Show was put on by Husqvarna and featured the new awesome-looking Vitpilen. It was surrounded by artwork inspired by surf and motorcycle culture. Artists included former pro skateboarder Steve Caballero, Ornamental Conifer, Heidi Zumbrun, and Ryan Quickfall among many others.

Next door on the sand was the bike show, which featured bike builders from across the country and almost every type of motorcycle. Both of these attractions were located within the main gates of the event and were in the path concertgoers had to take to reach the stage. Roland Sands really did his part to expose an entire new group of people intimately to motorcycle culture.

Even if you weren’t attending the concert and main flat-track event, you could enter The Lot, a vendor village accompanied by a stunt and demo course area which was free and open to the public. Here Indian, Ducati, Yamaha, and BMW had booths displaying their latest models along with merch, and companies like SoCal Supermoto, Burly Brand, Stellar Moto Brand, Mooneyes, and Roland Sands Design were showcased while a show of stunters doing tricks was interspersed with sprint races.

The event served as a brilliant olive branch from the motorcycle world to the world of punk rock and surf, with the concert portion filling a huge section of the beach and bands from the heyday of ’90s punk rock like Social Distortion, The Offspring, Rancid, and Pennywise. The thick crowd full of moshing concertgoers seemed to have been largely made up of those who were teenage fans of the bands and the energy was insane.

The spirit and experience of Moto Beach Classic have been unmatched in the past and brought an exciting weekend to anyone who attended. There was something for everyone, and hopefully Sands even got a few new people stoked on motorcycles.