Shaping Room

Long Beach, NY Follows Surfrider's Lead

There was an awesome showing of organized community support at a

Long Beach

,

NY

public hearing last week.  This meeting was packed with 500 people and most were opposed to the Army Corps’ massive dredge and fill beach replenishment project.  Not all of them were Surfrider Foundation members, but many were there because Surfrider made this an issue in the community.  Read more here.

Jeff Kupferman of

Long Beach

,

NY

speaks out against an Army Corp project.

Jeff Kupferman, a lifelong resident of

Long Beach

who has been leading the community against this project was one of dozens who spoke out against it. “We don’t want anyone to think we are against this project just so we can ride a bunch of waves.”  Jeff pointed out that concerns about swimming safety, bayside flooding, altering and degrading the beach and marine environment, and the loss of fishing habitat all played a role in people’s opposition to the project.  While Jeff lead the way the last few months, activist Ericka D’Avanzo did a superb job in organizing support outside of the typical surfer circles early on.  The New York City Chapter leaders like Cat Began and Joel Banslaben have spent years working on this and Chris Manthey provided invaluable technical support and advice.

 

A Packed house in

Long Beach

,

NY

New Surfrider Website and Blog

The new Surfrider Foundation website launched last week.  www.surfrider.org  Please be sure to check it out.  We've incorporated many new features to make finding information much easier.  On the site is our new integrated blog system.  There's a headline feed right on the front page.  Please change your links to that new location as we won't be updating this Typepad blog any longer. 

See this entry for a complete description of the new site.  Thanks to everyone for their continuing support.

The Suits Are All Wet at These Board Meetings

Forget golf, biotech executives and scientists go surfing to network and strike deals.

By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times

DEL MAR, Calif. — Rising before dawn, the head of Pfizer Inc.'s research lab in San Diego fills her thermos with coffee and follows the headlights of her Honda Element to the foot of 15th Street, where a beach parking lot is already filling up.
more

Save Trestles Update

 

Friends,

We just wanted to give everyone a quick update on the Surfrider Foundation’s Save Trestles campaign.

On January 5, the Surfrider Foundation’s Save Trestles campaign got a big shot in the arm when the Oceanside City Council voted to oppose the TCA plan for the 241 Foothill South extension.  Activists from both the Surfrider Foundation’s South Orange County and San Diego Chapters were on hand to provide public comment before the Council.  As a result of this community outcry, as well as the hard work of Oceanside Mayor Shari Mackin, the Council ended up voting 3-2 to support a measure to oppose the project. (See press release)

As many of you know, traffic throughout Oceanside and other North San Diego cities will be greatly impacted should the 241 extension go in (and bring with it a glut of incremental east/west traffic).  This is yet just another reason to oppose this ill-conceived plan – which among other things will adversely impact the quality of both the water and shape of the surf breaks at and around Trestles.

In other news, preliminary findings from an independent engineering study commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council indicate that the TCA’s assertion that the widening of the I-5 corridor would result in the displacement of “over a hundred homes and businesses” was greatly exaggerated.  In actuality, the maximum number is somewhere between 10 to 20.

More lies on behalf of the TCA…

We will be keeping you all up to date as we approach the January 12^th deadline for CEQA comments on the TCA’s EIR, and look forward to being able to share some BIG NEWS on efforts undertaken by the Foundation to prepare for the upcoming battle.

Until then, please continue to visit www.savetrestles.org for updates and information and above all, SPREAD THE WORD.  We need all the support we can get!

Best,

The Surfrider Foundation

Laguna Beach High... Real World

In order to affect change on a grand scale Surfrider Foundation needs to work locally to influence coastal societies in ways that cause them to protect local resources. Large-scale change happens when a society as a whole acts... in many ways Laguna Beach is a petri dish for such programs, coastal protection and... postive change.

Watching TV one could be led to believe that Southern California beaches and high schools are filled MTV-inspired storylines. That's television... here's the real world.

Laguna Beach High School has it's very own Surfrider Club (subset of the local Laguna Beach chapter). They test water quality and post results throughout the village. As a piece of Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force they contribute to driving local awareness on water quality and related issues. There are 30 members in the high school group that monitor beaches and water quality every week. I knew about them but happened to have a meeting in the area, stopped in for a tea and saw their water quality results posted in the coffee house and a front page story profiling thier leadership featured in the local newspaper.

This is change. This is grassroots. This is Laguna Beach.

Kudos to Marshall Thomas, Max Hilburn, Sanik Patel and the rest of the local crew.

Read the story...

Jim Moriarty
Executive Director

A few Washington and B.C. Accomplishments

One of the great pleasures of being field staff for Surfrider is watching as people make things happen for this organization and mission.  I just recently sat down to put together my reccomendations for 2006 for Surfrider up north.  Part of that project was tallying our accomplishments.  Here are a few...

• Grew Washingon State membership by 17%
• Ratified one new chapter (Olympic Peninsula) and the creation of two new organizing committees (in Victoria and Vancouver B.C.)
• Collected and analyzed over 300 water samples from all over Washington State
• Organized or partnered on at least 12 beach clean-ups, collectin over 32 tons of debris and involving over 700 people
• Established two new water quality monitoring labs - one in Port Townsend and one in Bellingham
• Each Washington Chapter implemented some form of the Respect the Beach Curriculum, with Frank Crippen of the Olympic Peninsula Chapter leading a full course for his daughter's class
• Partnered with Publicis to launch a major public education campaign about Surfrider and the importance of our coasts (www.protectnwcoasts.org) that featured billboard placement in Seattle, WA.  And its only just beginning!
• Achieved small victories in on-going campaigns to improve access and poorly planned development on our coast. 

We are continually inspired by all of the great stories that we hear from all over the country regarding Surfrider projects and successes.  We hope that you enjoy a few of ours!

Ian Miller
Washington Field Coordinator

The people making it happen - our regional retreat training in June 05, Westport, WA

Why we do what we do...

Blacks. 12/20/05. Photos: Sam Iacobellis

(click photos for larger images)

SIMA/Surfrider Joint Letter to Florida's Governor Bush

Link:
On September 7th, Florida's Governor Bush published Executive Order 05-178 to create a 19 member Coastal High Hazard Committee . This committee was commissioned to study and formulate recommendations for managing growth in Coastal High Hazard Areas, which are defined as the Category 1 hurricane evacuation zones.

However, this committee did not include a single recreational delegate even though a large portion of Florida's revenue is from recreational tourism. The new Treasure Coast Chapter on September 21, 2005, received great support with a little pioneer activism from both Surfrider National and SIMA Environmental Fund President Paul Naude, Billabong CEO (Surf Industry Manufacturers Association). A portion of the joint letter sent stated:

The preservation of surf breaks and surfing’s cultural heritage is synonymous with Florida coastal resources. We find the Committee to discuss Florida’s coastal management policies to be skewed. This is a serious concern, economically, recreationally and ecologically. It would be in the best interest of the State to amend this committee to include a delegate from the surfing community. Currently, Florida is at the top of the charts in the pro-surfing circuit, producing Kelly Slater, a 6 time world champion, CJ Hobgood, the 2001 World Champion, and Floridians hold 5 spots on the Top 30 International circuit, and recently were the X-Games Champions defeating Hawaii and California.

While the response letter from Bush's office was less than helpful, the Florida chapters have taken matters into their own hands. Chapters are working together to ensure that each of the 5 public hearing meetings across the state, over a 3 month period, have chapter executives and members present to voice concerns as stakeholders in the coastal management process.

The committee's reccomendations will be presented to the Governor in February.

Anyone wishing to get involved or receive more info please email the Treasure Coast Chapter.

Stay tuned....

Protege Tu Arrecife

Protect Your Reef

This mantra is gaining momentum in Rincón, Puerto Rico and elsewhere on the island. Check out the website to learn more about Coralino, his inspiration and his message: http://www.surfrider.org/coralino/

Super-activist Annette Blasini has been working with local school children to create this beautiful mosaic in Rincón to spread the message while also recycling tiles donated from local businesses. Each week the children come by and learn about the art of creating a mosiac, learn about the special Elkhorn reefs found in Rincón and help spread the word about protecting coral reefs.

Click here to learn more about the Salva Tres Palmas campaign

Peter Cole: Power of One

I’ve never been impressed by famous people or celebrities. Tom Hanks could sit next to me and I seriously wouldn’t care. That said, in the days before I came on as Executive Director some names were mentioned that did matter to me. People that pioneered the sport of surfing hold a very special place in my value system. Peter Cole is one of those people.

On my recent trip to Oahu to work with our local chapter as well as assist with the North Shore Land Trust efforts with Pupukea I met with Peter. Meeting and talking with pioneers is an honor and a privilege but what I’ve found more times than not is that they are people just like you or I. The difference is that they were around at a time before things we’re as “mature” (or commercialized) as they are now. Much more importantly is the fact that the pioneers “acted” on opportunities. They didn’t sit around and talk… they went. They did things that hadn’t been done before. They paved the way for the rest of us. For me the crème of this crop are those that continue to be involved, continue to make an impact… continue to care and… act. It’s much easier to be a one-trick pony, make a mark in one area and rest on your laurels… Those that continue to make marks are the true leaders. Peter Cole is one of those people.

- He was one of the original crews to charge the North Shore, starting in 1958
- He had Gerry Lopez in his class at Punahou school
- Has surfed the North Shore, continuously, for almost 50 years
- He still surfs Sunset Beach… without a leash
- Won the 1958 Makaha International Surfing Contest

More than any of those single points Peter is still involved. He still gives a damn about what’s happening to the world around him and goes one better… he acts. Peter leads the Surfrider Foundation’s Oahu chapter through the many mine fields involved in paying attention to key issues such as the proposed Sharks Cove mall on the North Shore, the development of large condos at Point Panic in Kaka’ako, the preservation or Pupukea – Paumalu, the John Kelly awards and paying close attention to the possible future development of Waimea Valley (link).

Peter Cole is not only aware of what’s happening around him but he’s leading the way for others to follow.
Thanks Peter.

Jim Moriarty
Executive Director