Woodies on the Wharf 2021

The annual Woodies on the Wharf – or as this year was called, “It’s Knot a WOW” – took place on Saturday June 26, 2021. 

The weekend began with the traditional memorial paddle out and breakfast buffet at the Ferdinand’s on Friday morning. This is when we gather to remember all of our O’hana we have lost over the years.  Later that evening we assembled informally, poolside at our host hotel, the Ocean Pacific Lodge, for another chance to reconnect with those we haven’t had a chance to socialize with over the past year.

Planning for one of the largest woodie shows in the country starts in February every year. In March of this year with the COVID virus raging, the officers and the executive Board of Directors of Santa Cruz Woodies along with our partners at the City of Santa Cruz made the difficult decision, for the second time, to postpone WOW until June of 2022. We couldn’t absorb the financial risk of potentially heavy financial losses given the long lead time necessary to plan the event, only to find out we could not hold it when scheduled. Fast forward to June, The State of California’s COVID rates of infection have dropped by 95%, businesses are opening, masks are coming off and people are venturing out. What to do? Hold an un-advertised, much abbreviated, lightweight version of WOW that the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department dubbed a “Woodies on the Wharf Pop Up”. So, with none of the usually large number of volunteers, no merchandise booth or posters, no charity raffles, DJ, bike corral, exit off the wharf, or any of the usual parties, but with the support of the City’s Parks and Recreation Department, Santa Cruz Woodies got back to its original founding roots and held a much-pared down wharf gathering.

Fifty woodies from all over California and the Pacific Northwest showed up bright and early on Saturday morning to overcast and foggy skies which turned into a beautiful sunny, cloudless day by early afternoon.

The very first Woodies on the Wharf held in 1995 attracted forty-nine (49) Woodies so we beat that number by one!  The joy of this event was that many of the woodie owners and usual volunteers had not seen each other in over a year and by not having to work the event, got to spend much needed time catching up with old friends.

We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday morning when thirty-one woodies gathered for our cruise on West Cliff Drive and over to the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor where the club enjoyed no-host coffee and pastries at Java Junction.  Along the way our official West Cliff Boosters, hosted by Cheri Lippman, asked each Woodie to pause in front of her house to present them with a thank you memento, a cute little Woodie toy car with a surfboard on top.

Mark your calendars for next year (Saturday, June 25, 2022) when we will hold the 26^th annual Woodies on the Wharf. In conjunction with Woodies on the Wharf the Santa Cruz Woodies Club will also be hosting the Fifth Annual National Woodie Club Meet, so expect some cool, wooden cars from all over the country to come to Santa Cruz to enjoy our beautiful weather, great Pacific Ocean views from the Municipal Wharf and the wonderful Aloha spirit from all of us in the Santa Cruz Woodies Club.