Many people know about one of the world’s oldest sports: wrestling. 

Those first wrestlers on land wrestled on the beach. However, the sport of beach wrestling didn’t become an official sport until 2004, long after it was sanctioned as one of the original sports of the Greek Olympics.

There is no one style of wrestling. 

In addition to Olympic Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, there are hundreds of other styles from Mongolian to Chinese, Cornish, and even American Folkstyle wrestling, which is what most American school kids learn in high school and compete in college, which was the direct predecessor to Olympic Freestyle wrestling first introduced in St. Louis in 1904.

Beach wrestling is one of the newest but one of the fastest growing sports. 

It is a dynamic sport, different from regular wrestling in not just that it is fought on sand but in what wrestlers wear, the length of periods, and how it is scored. It is similar to sumo in that wrestlers score by throwing the opponent onto their back or out of the ring. Unlike sumo, wrestlers can attack the legs but not completing an attack does get penalized.

Beach wrestling is a natural fit for San Diego. 

One of the first U.S. medalists in the sport is the Palomar College head wrestling coach, Timmy Box. 

Box is also the U.S. National Beach Wrestling coach. Given the strong tie of San Diego to beach culture and beach wrestling, it is shocking that San Diego has not yet hosted a beach wrestling tournament. 

This July, that is about to change.

Patrick Henry High School Wrestling Club has conducted beach wrestling as part of its annual back-to-school BBQ at the beach. Last year they opened up their beach wrestling event to non-Patrick Henry wrestlers as part of their San Diego Wrestling Champ Camp. This year, they are joining the California Beach Wrestling Association and USA Wrestling, the official body of the USA Wrestling Team to hold San Diego’s first Beach Wrestling tournament (July 26).

The tournament is called Beach Battle at Belmont Park as it will be situated next to the iconic Belmont Park roller coaster in Mission Beach. It is sanctioned by USA Wrestling and it will be open to all ages and all genders. One of the organizers and head officials for wrestling in California, Sergio Cortez, says “We want to have it open to everyone, girls and boys, and the growing Jiu-Jitsu Community as well.”

The cost to enter is $20 with a USA Wrestling Card pre-registration done on the TrackWrestling.com website. The tournament will begin on Friday, July 26 with weigh-ins at 9 a.m., wrestling to start at 11 a.m., held inside four rings. 

Those who want a clinic with Box can sign up with the coach before the start of the tournament.

For more information, contact Patrick Henry Wrestling Club head coach Sam Litvin at [email protected].