Lazy Leonard Loser Duck

This duck is a loser!

He participated in the San Clemente Ocean Festival Great Rubber Duck Race in San Clemente, CA.
This is an annual event that takes place every July and draws massive crowds to the beach to enjoy surfing competitions, fishing derbies, sand castle building art, and many other family friendly activities.
This rubber duck race is one of the highlights of the event, and is a fundraiser/contest with prizes for the “winning” ducks....ducks that float to shore first after being released into the surf. People buy these ducks for $5.00 and can paint them however they like, so that’s why it is decorated. The purchased ducks go into a huge net and then are taken out into the ocean next to the San Clemente pier and dumped in. And then they are off…the owners hope their duck wins the race. Previous prizes have been a new surf board, golf foursomes, gym memberships and gift certificates to local restaurants.

Well, only about 50 ducks are winners, the rest of them get scooped up by kids big and small, and that is a contest in itself… to see who can round up the most ducks! (makes it an environmentally friendly task too!)
It was always a blast for me and my son to go to when we lived in San Clemente, and we miss it, we now being residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This duck is one of the athletes. He paddled diligently to reach the sea shore after being dumped with his brethren into the surf. Alas he didn’t make the cut and was scooped up by me and my son.
Now we look at a pile of painted ducks and wonder what do with them. They are precious to someone, and seem to belong to the Ocean Festival. So, his goal is to make it back to San Clemente and attend the event again! Perhaps a local geocacher can plan an event cache for it and see them all rounded up into a reunion!
For more information visit:
www.oceanfestival.org