Beer & Wine Festival
Next stop: West Beach, Santa Barbara · August 22, 2026
Each year's checkpoint is marked with a beach festival featuring local California craft beer and wine. The race finishes eventually. The beer is available now.
The Festival
At the conclusion of each race leg, a Beach Beer Festival is held at the finish city. Attendees gather on the shore to mark the conclusion of each race leg, enjoy local craft beers from regional producers, and monitor conditions in the channel. The platforms are visible from the beach, weather permitting.
The race begins at Newport Beach. Platforms staged south from the Santa Barbara Channel before the starting gun — a journey that itself took three weeks and is not counted toward official race time. The Checkpoint 1 Beach Beer Festival drew an estimated 400 attendees, none of whom witnessed any platform movement.
Checkpoint 2 brings competitors north to the city that inspired the race. The finish line at West Beach is expected by late June 2026. Race officials have described progress as 'consistent with prior estimates, which were zero.'
The third leg rounds Point Conception — the defining turn of the California coast, where the shoreline pivots from northwest to due west before swinging north again toward Morro Bay.
The grand finale. Competitors must navigate the full stretch of Big Sur coastline — 90 miles of dramatic cliffs and open ocean — to reach the finish at Monterey Bay.
Festival attendance is free and open to the public. Platform attendance remains subject to tow scheduling and prevailing sea conditions.