About SCR

Stemming from his love of the ocean, Jeremy Leonard and his family started Surf City Racing in 2005 in Santa Cruz, CA.

A Love of Water From the Beginning

Jeremy’s love of the Ocean began when he was just a little boy, when he and his family spent virtually every weekend exploring, hiking and surfing along the beaches of Southern California. The speed and surfing capabilities of Hobie Catamarans and small skiffs always fascinated this avid surfer from a very young age. He built his first sailboat, a small wooden skiff, in his late teens and sailed it in the waters off of Santa Cruz, California.

In his early 20s, Jeremy and his then girlfriend, and soon to be wife Sarah, bought a dilapidated Catalina 27 that they rehabbed and sailed every chance that they could get in the waters of the San Francisco Bay, and in the beautiful waters off the California Coast. They both lived aboard their ‘Just Reward’ in Dana Point Harbor while Jeremy pursued a career on Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Careers moved the couple back to Santa Cruz where Jeremy got a job as the Sailing Department Manager for O’Neill Yacht Center. O’Neill closed their harbor doors in 2002, and Jeremy bought the small boat department from them and hung his shingle as Surf City Catamarans.

A California licensed Yacht Broker, Jeremy has become one of the most knowledgeable small Sailboat dealers in the U.S., and his repair tutorial videos are touted across the internet. Jeremy has been organizing and running sailboat races in Northern California for over 10 years, and being an active member of the Brotherhood of Mark Boat Operators has enabled him to assist some of the best race committees all over the U.S. He has raced J Boats, Moore 24s, Santa Cruz 27s, Santa Cruz 50s, and others, in addition to a slew of multihulls, off and on for 20 years.

You can often see Jeremy’s young son with him on photo shoots. This is a family gig, and it is important to Jeremy to include the entire family.

Jeremy has a passion for sharing his love of sailing that stems from his tenure as a member of one of the many race committees he’s been part of. Jeremy remembers, “My love for capturing the sport of sailing stems from the 2005 Tiger Worlds in Santa Barbara. The Santa Annas piped up and the racecourse became chaos. It was like ‘Ride of the Valkyrie’. Almost instantly I had a hundred high performance catamarans with spinnakers blasting around me like angry bees flying in all directions. I was sopping wet, freezing cold and beat tired from helping right 21 boats. On my way to help right one more, in the 10 foot swells and 30 knot breeze, I put the skiff in neutral and took a moment to look around. The setting, the furious conditions, and the boats blasting around at top speed were so incredibly beautiful that I thought right then and there that if the general population could see what I was seeing at that moment, the world would be hooked on sailing. I want people to see it.”  Surf City Racing was born.

Surf City Racing has made some significant advances in their capabilities recently, and has become a member of Santa Cruz Community Television. In addition to still photography, Surf City Racing is now able to live feed video over a 3G network from the water. This cutting edge technology allows the average, low budget sailing event to gain worldwide exposure at a reasonable cost.  Jeremy and his family hope to use Surf City Racing to spread their love of sailing to the world through this new media.