Shaping Room

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.
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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....