Retro's in as old becomes new again in fashion, music and surfing, where longboards are hot.

Virginia Beach is no stranger to surfing nostalgia, so when a plan to celebrate the history of longboarding in Virginia Beach surfaced, area surfers jumped on board.

The newly formed Virginia Longboard Federation will host the Steel Pier Longboard Classic at the First Street Jetty Saturday and Sunday to raise funds for the Virginia District of the Eastern Surfing Association and surfer Shawn Brown , who was paralyzed in November from a surfing injury. Brown grew up in Virginia Beach.

Longboarders only will compete in more than 14 divisions, including nose riding and retro board, as well as a PRO/AM with a cash purse. Area pros Ryan Gay , Morgan Knight , Wes Laine and others will contend.

Mary Knight , 44, one of the proclaimed "Longboarders from First Street," is heading the contest and the new longboard federation. She has helped organize the Betty Series, an all-women's summer surf event, and has long supported Eastern Surfing Association tourneys.

Knight and a group who surf together at the jetty had been searching for ideas for an event to kick-off the summer season. A Memorial Day weekend longboard contest used to be held in Virginia Beach, but participation dwindled in the mid-1990s.

"The event lost sponsorship and it took this crew to get it fired up again," said local legend Wes Laine. "They have the desire to make it successful."

Knight's friends had an interest in forming a longboarding guild.

"We have daily meetings standing right here," said Mike Clark , standing on the beach in a wet suitClark, 59, is a federation member.

"Mary was the person who took it and ran with it," he said. "She's a great organizer."

The Knights are a surfing family. Mary and her husband, Dean, have ridden waves together for years. Their children, Morgan, 20, and Sean , 16, compete in association events.

Morgan Knight, a junior at Old Dominion University, took first place in the most recent women's Eastern Surfing Association longboard event.

"I'm real proud of my mom taking the initiative," she said.

Plans for the tourney started coming together in March, when the federation held a meeting.

"We started compiling lists of who would give the organization credibility," said Mary Knight. "The next thing I know, we've got a contest together."

The outpouring of support from sponsors and participants has been more than expected, she said.

Delta Air Lines will give away four round-trip tickets to Costa Rica. Two of the tickets will be given to the general public and two to competitors. Area surf shops and national surf brands such as Reef, Hawaiian Tropic, Freestyle and Arnette have donated prizes, including custom-made surfboards.

Surfer's Sanctuary, the group which presented the "Surf Culture" exhibit last summer, will hold a contest kickoff party today at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia.

"There's an enthusiasm down at the beach that you haven't seen in a long time," said Mary Knight.

The Knight family's affinity for longboarding is laying the foundation for future events.

With Morgan and Sean up and coming in the sport, their parents not only support them, but practice alongside them.

The Knights' Red Mill Farms home is adorned with nostalgic surfing photographs of Mary and Dean nose riding, Virginia Beach memorabilia and waxed surfboards.

It's a surfing museum, Mary said.

Creating a "classic" competition, honoring the old steel pier, fit their style.

"We need to be able to share the birth of surfing," said Mary Knight. "The roots, the gathering place."

According to a timeline in www.surfingthemag.com, East Coast surfing began with a "wave shooting" contest in Virginia Beach in 1912, using canoes and dories.

That same year, local James Jordon received a Hawaiian board as a gift.

Between 1913 and 1929, surfing grew in Virginia Beach as lifeguards Hugh Kitchin , Babe Brathwaite , John Smith and Capt. Robert Holland offered demonstrations.

In 1955, future seven-time U.S. Champion Bob Holland Jr. started selling boards out of his garage. By 1962 he opened the town's first surf shop with Pete Smith.

The Virginia Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce launched the first Virginia Beach Surfing Carnival next to the steel pier in 1963. East Coast Surfing Championships were also held at the steel pier, near where Rudee Inlet is today.

In 1969, the contest featured short boards, a smaller board that weighed 10 to 25 pounds less that the big boards that had dominated the sport.

"When we were little, guys used to surf on the big wooden boards," said veteran surfer Clark. "They weighed so much, three or four of us had to carry them down to the water."

Today, local legends and young surfers alike are favoring longboards thanks to advances in technology.

Greg Bennett of Bennett Surfboards described the two styles of today's longboarder on the Australian surfing Web site www.gumbylock.com.au/:

"In one camp are the traditionalists, who are attracted to the aesthetics and traditions of longboarding: walking back and forth on the board, hanging ten and turning helicopters (standing on one end of the board ad rotating it 360 degrees while on a wave). In the other corner are the progressive longboarders, who ride lighter versions of the traditional longboards in much the same way that the short boarders use their boards, executing floaters, sharp-turn re-entries and cutbacks."

Wes Laine, who has been surfing waves in Virginia Beach for 39 years, gives credit to the rebirth of the longboard.

"Longboards have brought a really diverse group of people into the sport who weren't into it before," he said. "They opened up the sport. Technology has made it easier for just about anyone to come out and have fun."

He remembered the steel pier as one of the best places to surf at the Oceanfront.

"It really was the one and only spot in Virginia Beach that really drew a crowd," he said.

Laine bought his first surfboard at a surf shop at the pier.

The upcoming contest is bringing back fond memories for other area surfers, too. Dave Brown , 54, recalled his days as a member of the Virginia Beach Surf Club, when he and friends would longboard underneath the steel pier.

"It was a mecca, man," said Brown. "That's where everybody went."

Brown's son, Shawn, will receive some of the proceeds from this weekend's event.

Shawn Brown, 34, who attended First Colonial High School, was surfing in Mexico when he broke his neck and suffered a severe spinal cord injury. He's in a New Jersey rehabilitative institute and will soon return to Virginia Beach.

Contributions from the contest will help pay for his mounting equipment expenses and modifications for his home care.

"We really appreciate all the generosity," said his father. "It's a great show of community support."