Shaping Room

Art for the Oceans

39 Surfboards were acutioned off by Phillips de Pury raising more than $320,000 for Surfrider Foundations programs and campaigns aimed at protecting our oceans, waves and beaches.

Nearly 700 people including celebrities, New York socialites and a host of East Coast surfers descended upon Milk Studios in New York's Meatpacking District on Saturday October 15 for the Surfrider Foundation's first ever Art for the Oceans Auction.  Master board shaper Al Merrick created 35 6'2" fish surfboards which were sent to artists around the globe.  These artists were asked to paint, sculpt, draw or in some other form turn the boards into art.  The results were simply astounding. In addition, surf pioneer Herbie Fletcher shaped a 12' full-gun which was then painted by world-famous artist Julian Schnabel.  This board fetched the highest price for the evening at a whopping $75,000.  Other highlights included works by Raymond Pettibon, Wolfgang Bloch, John Van Hamersveld and Melinda Morey.  The auction was conducted by Simon de Pury of the Phillips de Pury auction house and the evening's festivities raised over $320,000 for the Surfrider Foundation.  After the auction guests were treated to a musical performance by New York based recording artist Citizen Cope.  Notable sightings during the evening included actress Mena Suvari (American Beauty), director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), models Amy Wesson and Bridget Hall, record industry executive Damon Dash and fashion designer Tracy Feith.  Apart from the money raised, the event signaled the "planting of Surfrider Foundation's flag" in New York City and provided a definitive answer to the age old question "Surfers in New York? Really?"

Read more about the event here.

Fashion designer Tracy Feith stands next to his work. His fabric-based piece was beyond "one of a kind"... it was "once in a lifetime". To the left is Michael Cassidy's work celebrating Polynesian culture.

Peter Harper, normally a sculptor that works in bronze, shows off what happens when he sculpts foam instead. Amazing piece up close.

Auctioneer Simon de Pury moving into gear, to the left turned out to be the highest grossing piece during the fast-paced auction. It's Julian Schnabel's "Blind Girl Surf Club" work.

Event architects; Rassi, Steve Blank, Jim Moriarty, Lance Anderson and Lyman Carter. Missing from this photo but huge contributors were Harold Hofer and Scott Hulet.

Wolfgang Bloch's piece was another stunning work. He cut a 6'2" fish surfboard into small pieces, submerged them into resin rectangles and pieced it all together to create a serious multi-media work that seemed to have more and more detail to it the closer and longer you looked at it. Wolfgang is also in picture, second to the right.

Damon Dash and Rachel Roy.

A packed room, nearly 700 people came to this event.

The event had a backdrop of films, statistics and other educational materials illustrating why Surfrider Foundation exists. All at the event left with an increased awareness of the battles taking place to protect our oceans, waves and beaches.

A subset of the hundreds that came to the "Art for the Oceans" event left with a piece of artwork that will most probably never be replicated.

To be sure, all that came left knowing that Surfrider Foundation's flag is planted in NYC.

 

Being Green

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." - Marshall McLuhan

The whole idea of “green” is a tough one to pin down as each of us has different views on what it means. Yvon Chouinard,  founder of one of the most environmentally conscious businesses out there, is fairly critical of evenPatagonia as not green enough. For me that really frames the issue nicely… you don’t arrive at “green” but rather constantly access how you can operate with more earth-friendly processes.

This month Surfer Magazine’s is guest edited by Jack Johnson and Chris Molloy and is printed on recycled paper. Huge kudos to them and to the crew at Surfer for being open look at this issue and make operational decisions.

 

In a similar vein, The Surfer’s Path has made a commitment to being “the first green surf magazine”, printing all it’s issues from this point forward on 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper with non-GMO soy inks. Nice leadership. Again, kudos to Drew Kampion and the crew there for this big… huge statement.

In an effort to take things another step forward The Surfer’s Path has started a what they are calling the “Green Wave Awards”. The 2005 Green Wave Awards are awards for excellence and achievement in promoting sustainability and environmental consciousness in the surfing world. Nice job!

For me this comes back to the quote at the top of this post... looking at what we do and how we do it. It’s great to see these magazines interest and commitment to more eco-friendly operational processes. After all there is only one earth... and our coastal resources are finite.

 

Jim Moriarty

Executive Director, Surfrider Foundation

East Coast Chapter Conference

Photo: Dotty Manfredonia

This past weekend we had the East Coast Chapter Conference in Montauk, Long Island. It was an amazing weekend of activists coming together, sharing learning and tools, investing in the larger mission of Surfrider and... in the end... protecting beaches like Ellis Landing on Cape Code, Mass (above). I don't have a final count but I'm guessing there were 70 people participating in this weekend-long event.

Kudos to all that participated. One thing is for sure, the east coast is rocking.

Jim Moriarty
Executive Director

Sewage Threat Stops Surf Contest

Surfersvillage Global Surf News reported that the Northeast Surfing Championships, scheduled to be held over the October 15-16 weekend, had to be postponed, in part because of polluted water. On Sunday, the beach was closed due to the possibility of exceptionally high bacteria counts in the surf zone. This was the first time in the history of New England surfing competition that a beach had to be closed on the day of a contest, due to pollution.

ESA Grandmaster’s competitor, Mike Salvadore of Narragansett, was happy with the postponement. “The ocean water had taken on a dirty brown color tone earlier this week. It was very noticeable when we surfed both here and at K-39. The heavy rains caused quite a bit of sewerage and road runoff to overflow back into Narragansett Bay. The easiest way to get sick is to go surfing and swallow some of the ocean water.”

Jim Ceasrine, Chief Engineer for the Town of Narragansett, said that the beach was closed because; “The state told us that there had been a surcharge (or shutdown of water treatment) that had occurred at the sewerage pump station near Scarborough State Beach, on Saturday. This meant that the station could not handle the excessive volume of wastewater, and had to temporarily shut down.”

Several local surfers had complained earlier during the week, about feeling ill after surfing at Monahan’s Dock and K-39. ESA Competition Director Mario Frade summed up the situation with these remarks. “It’s kind of like having your toilet back up on you…and not having a plunger. Just on a much larger scale.”

It was a general consensus by area surfers, that street runoff pipes were the cause of the pollution at Monahan’s Dock and the surfing end of the town beach. Thousands of bird droppings on the outer breakwater barriers off of K-39, washed in with the big storm swells, seemed the most logical reason for the foul waters at that surfing spot.

By early Saturday morning, Surfrider Foundation volunteers were out collecting samples. “The water tests don’t lie,” said Mario Frade. “The results should be interesting.”

Well, here are the results from October 15. For fecal coliform, many jurisdictions use a standard of 400 and the daily enterococci standard is 104.

Surfrider Monitoring
Monitoring Location	Fecal Coliform, cfu/100 ml	Enterococci, cfu/100 ml
Misquam DEM Surf Area	40	30
Weekapaug Breechway	3380	113
Conant Ave.	180	87
Scarboro South	38	77
Scarboro DEM Surf Area	80	57
Narr. Pier Beach Steps	760	373
Narr. Estuary Monitoring
Monitoring Location		Enterococci, cfu/100 ml
Middle Ground Buoy		460
Sally Rock		280
The Brothers		1720
Little Rhody Boat Club		6500
Warwick Cove Marina		4960
Greenwich Bay N. Marina		6100
EG Town Dock		900
Wharf Cove		6100

Snippets from a world tour

Environmental concerns and surfing have already collided this year when a planned WCT event, the Billabong Pro at Mundaka, Spain, had to be cancelled after a government sponsored dredging project resulted in the loss of critical sedimentation necessary for the break to produce its legendary left.

"The Surfrider Foundation is the watchdog for our oceans, waves and beaches," says Damien Hobgood. "Anyone who enjoys or has anything to do with our oceans should support Surfrider."
Read the larger press release

Eroding Bluffs Make Beaches

Two recent studies from San Diego demonstrate that eroding bluffs contribute up to half the sand on local beaches. Seawalls negatively impact beaches in a number of ways and this ups the ante of their destructive nature. For years robbing beaches of sand through "impoundment loss" has been discounted as insignificant. No longer can this impact be ignored!

The Surfrider Foundation's Beach Preservation Initiative is focused on protecting beaches, which are unique coastal environments with ecological, recreational and economic value.

Some Experts Say It's Time to Evacuate the Coast (for Good)

Some Experts Say It's Time to Evacuate the Coast (for Good)
By Cornelia Dean

PENSACOLA, Fla. - As the Gulf Coast reels from two catastrophic storms in a month, and the Carolinas and Florida deal with damage and debris from hurricanes this year and last, even some supporters of coastal development are starting to ask a previously unthinkable question: is it time to consider retreat from the coast?

MORE

Arnold & Ed photo opp

I know, we already blogged on this. I finally got my hands on this amazing picture by Brian Alper and had to post it. South Orange County Chapter activist Ed Schlegel presenting a surfboard with hundreds of signatures to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He did this to urge him to protect San Onofre State Beach and Trestles Beach from the proposed Foothill-South Toll Road.
Jim Moriarty
Executive Director

Trashy Billboard Draws Attention To Beach

Trashy Billboard Draws Attention To Beach

By Kurt Helin, Editor

A huge pile of trash right in the middle of Second Street is drawing a lot of attention.

And that’s just way the Surfrider Foundation wants it.

Gazette photo, Kurt Helin

A billboard filled with trash collected from the Long Beach shore on one day in August sits above the corner of Second Street and Glendora Avenue (the billboard above the Belmont Station).

The only words on the board are “Collected in Long Beach on August 20.” The message is simple and clear, said Beth Barnes, president of the Long Beach Chapter of Surfrider.

“We thought it is a great way to get people’s attention on what’s going on at the beach,” Barnes said.

It is working. The billboard is drawing plenty of attention, Barnes said. MORE

Deconstructing a dam

ENTIRE STORY AND GRAPHICS

By Laura Mecoy -- Bee Los Angeles Bureau

LOS ANGELES - A recent vote to provide $2 million in state funds to develop final plans for tearing down the Matilija Dam moved this long-awaited ecological restoration program one step closer to reality.

Art for the Oceans / Julian Schnabel

A milestone many artists never reach is being part of the permanent collection in such prestigious museums as Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles or the Tate in London. Julian's work goes much further… check out the 30 works in museum collections.

We’re thrilled that Julian did a work for the upcoming “Art of the Oceans” auction in New York City on October 15th. Below is the bottom... the board is a 12’ gun shaped by Herbie Fletcher and the work speaks for itself. Certainly one of the amazing pieces in the collection.

Come one. Come all. Oct 15th is going to rock.

Jim Moriarty
Executive Director

A line in the sand

(We love it when worlds align)

A line in the sand
By:   North County Times Editorial Staff -                  

Our view: North County must resist concrete solutions for its eroding shoreline.

We like sand. We'll take rocks, even. But we don't want any more concrete on North County's beaches.

More

Eco-experts want Jersey to help heal the oceans

Thursday, September 29, 2005
BY ALEXANDER LANEStar-Ledger Staff

A year after two prestigious national commissions declared the oceans in crisis, a dozen environmental groups pointed out what they believe New Jersey should do to change that.
Their 15 recommendations, announced yesterday, include appointing fewer fishermen to the bodies that set fishing policy, cutting back on coastal development and making the state's two nuclear power plants stop withdrawing billions of gallons of water a day to cool their reactors.
More...

The power of one / Rick Wilson

There is a saying “still waters run deep”. That saying paints a picture of a person with a calm exterior yet with great depths of character. That saying applies to Rick Wilson.

Rick is engaged, on top of things yet in a calm almost silent way. He has been a member of Surfrider Foundation since 1985, longer than just about anyone. Unlike most, his interest and participation seems to be increasing over time.

To start off, he has local cred, he’s the Chairman and Treasurer of the Surfrider Foundation Laguna Beach Chapter. He also has national cred as he’s a member of our National staff. At our National office Rick is responsible for data collection, creation and maintenance of the State of the Beach Report.  He is our resident water quality expert, managing the Blue Water Task Force, and has a background in chemical engineering (we call him “Dr. Rick” due to his wealth of knowledge). In fact he’s the only person in Surfrider to straddle positions at the national level and hold a formal leadership position at the local level. In my mind this makes him uniquely qualified to understand how Surfrider Foundation, as a local and national entity, should grow and thrive in the years ahead.

If all that isn’t enough, check out the below. He’s got street cred! He was hitting Pendleton before some of us were even born.

Rick Wilson has a posse.

Rick Wilson embodies what we mean when we say “the power of one” making a difference.

Jim Moriarty
Executive Director, Surfrider Foundation

Surfrider Foundation's Beach Manifesto

The State of the Beach Report documents the conditions of our nation's beaches and what can be done to make them better. Explore the state reports, the "Bad and the Rad" and the "Perspectives" sections to learn about what we know and what we should be doing to improve beach health. But we want to do more than that. We want to provide a vision of how things could be, of how things would be if Surfrider Foundation's guiding principles were adopted by all levels of government.

• Beach access would be free and uninterrupted. You could get to the beach to check the surf or stick your toes in the sand at least every half-mile in urban areas. There would be adequate parking, restrooms, and other amenities. Money would be budgeted for the acquisition of coastal open space.

• You could surf or swim after it rains without the fear of getting sick, or at least know where it's safe because a notice would be posted if the water quality were bad. You would know the locations of storm drains and sewer outfalls.
• Sand would flow freely to form surf breaks and beaches, and not be captured by dams, blocked by groins, or walled up behind seawalls and riprap. People would live far enough away from the shoreline that beach erosion would not be a problem. Beaches would be where and what they were naturally meant to be. As a result, we would not need to rely on beach fill and we would not need shoreline structures. It would be widely appreciated that beach ecology is as important as the ecology of the oceans. Sandy beaches would be recognized as diverse and productive systems, which serve as a critical link between marine and terrestrial environments.
• There would be no net loss of surfing areas, and all coastal recreation opportunities would be protected.
• Advances in technology would be used to make information readily available to the public, government officials, and scientists alike. Information would be presented in a way that is easily understood. All of us, not just a select few, would be able to participate in the decision-making process regarding our precious coastal resources.
• Beach access sites would be inventoried, surf zone water quality monitored, and beach erosion measured. Keeping track of these things would help to ensure that our Mother Ocean's bounty is preserved for future generations.