11/10/2026
In November 1968, a quiet town on Puerto Rico's west coast hosted surfers from around the world.
Rincón staged the fourth World Surfing Championships, held November 8 to 14, 1968, with sixteen nations competing. Most of the heats took place at the breaks known as Domes and Maria's, and ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcast the event. Fred Hemmings of Hawaii won the men's title, and Margo Godfrey of California won the women's. The competitors' list included surfers from Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Japan, Panama and India.
The week did not go perfectly for the waves. The surf was small and weak for the first six days, and only on the final day did it reach around six feet. That did not stop the contest from putting Rincón on the map. The town had been a quiet fishing and farming community, and its beaches soon became well known to surfers worldwide.
There is also a bit of local lore about a name. According to the history page of Maria's Beach, that stretch of coast had been called Rincon Point, and surfers began calling it Maria's after Maria Garcia, who sold sodas from a Coke machine beside her house during the tournament. It is a charming story, but it comes from the beach's own telling, so we offer it as local history rather than a documented record.
Have you ever caught a wave in Rincón, or watched the winter swell roll in?
