HISTORY OF SEMANA NAUTICA

The Semana Nautica Summer Sports Festival is a Santa Barbara tradition dating back to 1933 when the local populace challenged the crew of five U.S. Navy battleships, moored outside the harbor, to a series of contests along the beach. Dubbed Fleet Week, the resulting enthusiasm inspired the City Council to charter the event on a permanent basis the following year and change the name to Semana Nautica in honor of the town’s Spanish heritage.

Over the years, the sports festival has incorporated hundreds of various events, from the extremely physically challenging to those that welcome participants of all ages and abilities. Santa Barbara’s annual sports festival changes every year but has included activities such as ocean swimming, age group and masters swimming, water polo, volleyball, beach biathlon, running races, cycling, fishing, sailing, lawn bowling, adaptive paddling, tennis, water polo, inline hockey, basketball, gymnastics, softball, semipro baseball, tug-of-war and the popular Crazy Kardboard Kayak Race!

SEMANA NAUTICA ASSOCIATION

The Santa Barbara Semana Nautica Association is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote athletic and recreational activity in Santa Barbara by organizing a summer sports festival featuring over a dozen different events around the 4th of July holiday.

Participants of all ages and abilities are welcome and admission is always free for spectators.