Santa Barbara Children Win International Wetsuit Design Contest

Santa Barbara Children Win International Wetsuit Design Contest

  • Three Santa Barbara children are winners in the 2017 Airtime Watertime® International Design Contest
  • Their original designs will be produced by Airtime Watertime®

SANTA BARBARA, California, June 12, 2017. — Three children from Santa Barbara were among seven worldwide winners in the 2017 Airtime Watertime International Design contest. Their winning designs will go on to be produced by local Santa Barbara startup Airtime Watertime®.

“We had a 150 kids from all over the world—in Europe, in Asia, the Pacific Rim—and the United States enter with some great and creative designs,” said Ruth Wishengrad, Director of Operations for Airtime Watertime. “It was so hard to choose that we opened the decision to public voting and received thousands of votes. It was very competitive. In the end, the seven suits with the highest vote counts were chosen as winners.”

Three Santa Barbara locals were among the seven highest vote totals. Local winner Adelina Kelley won with an anime inspired design. Adelina explained, “I want to be an animator when I grow up because I enjoy drawing and it would be cool to see my characters move like living, breathing, people.”

Adelina's Winning Design

Santa Barbara Children Win International Wetsuit Design Contest

 

The other two local contest winners, Jenna and Sadie LaMonica, are twin sisters and soccer champions. Their mother, Gina LaMonica said, “They are on a club soccer team that just won the Cal South State Cup Championship.” While they both love to play soccer, “Jenna enjoys the arts and is often drawing, painting or collaging. Her artwork is displayed throughout our house,” said their mother, Gina LaMonica.

Jenna's Winning Design

Santa Barbara Children Win International Wetsuit Design Contest

 

The four other winners hailed from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Arizona, and each will also receive a Floater™ suit made from their original winning design.

The Airtime Watertime® Floater™ is a new kind of wetsuit that adds buoyancy to a swimmer and allows people to swim faster with half the effort, or to easily float or tread water. "It helps kids and adults have the confidence in swimming while also reducing our environmental impact on the reefs of the world,” added surfer-turned inventor and owner of Airtime Watertime® Mark Okrusko.

Sadie's Winning Design

Santa Barbara Children Win International Wetsuit Design Contest

 

To see all the winning designs and learn more about the designers, go to AirtimeWatertime.com/contest