Taylor Erdman
In Motion Staff Writer
Daytona State is home to spontaneous and peculiar events, but by far the kookiest and most student-engaging might be the NCRA, the National Crab Racing Association.
Owned and operated by Jim Morgan, the NCRA comes to campus once a year and can be found in Building 130, also known as the Lenholdt Student Center. This year it was tucked away in the corner by the Veterans Center. Armed with his microphone, catchy blood-pumping music and 100 hermit crabs, Morgan offered up a chance at a $100 cash prize to the contestant with the fastest hermit crab.
Crab races consist of three rounds. The first round is anyone’s game. Pick a hermit crab (hopefully a spunky one!) give it name and hand it over. But only the top 10 make it to the second round.
The second race is composed of the energetic top 10 intending to supersede their opponents to the top three spots, where only the first-place winner has a chance at the cash prize. The third and final round of the NCRA races is by far the most heart-pounding of all. Three crabs race as energetically as their little bodies will let them for their human to claim the glory.
“I thought it was fun!” says Kaila Armstrong, the first place winner for 2016. “I was really happy beating my team mates.”
Armstrong also refers to her fellow Daytona State soccer pals who raced alongside her award winning Beyoncé crab.
“I was scared to pick up a crab. It was pretty crabby. Get it? It was pretty crabby that I lost,” Naomi Gurrola says with a giggle.
Win or lose, the NCRA event is always memorable and evokes a sense of merry pride when to be able to say, “I raced in the National Crab Association!”
Owning and operating his tiny racers for 37 years, Morgan is all over the place, be it in DeLand, Daytona State or entertaining sick children in the hospital. He was supposed to visit a children’s hospital in Jacksonville just before Hurricane Mathew, but “They called me up and I said I may not make it cause of the storm. And the chairman said, ‘Jim, you gotta, the kids need you.’”
Pausing and looking thoughtful, Morgan adds that “Then I knew I had to go, for the kids.”
Despite a continuing hard economy, and traveling from place to place all over the state, he says he does it because he loves it. He does it for the kids because it brings a smile to their face, not to mention the occasional college scholar that need a change and laugh from their stressful schedule.