Oceans, Waves and Beaches

If there is a category for the thinking man’s activist, Pete Stauffer is smack dab in the middle of it.
He’s Surfrider DNA through and through; he’s volunteered for three different chapters (on three different coasts), interned for Washington State Senator Kevin Ranker (when Kevin was still Wookie) and is usually just out of the water [...]

Yesterday President Obama moved forward in the area of ocean and waterways protection. Specifically the White House announced the release of the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. This is a step that many of us in the ocean and coastal protection area have been waiting for.
While this may sound like DC-wonk-speak [...]

This series explores the the question “what does it mean to protect a wave?”
My last post looked at the relationship between two elements of wave protection, two legs of the stool so to speak.
The more I thought about this the more I saw the need to talk about how critical the distinct components of [...]

You may have recently heard about the Governor of Hawaii’s executive order that established the Duke Kahanamoku Surfing Reserve and the North Shore Reserve on Oahu.
You may also be aware of the protective status of two waves–Tres Palmas in Puerto Rico and Bells Beach in Australia (pdf). And if you’re really dialed into this [...]

Reading the post-Copenhagen news blasts a few days ago, I immediately found myself drifting toward a cynical mood. I found myself wanting to pop out a tweet with a snarky comment like “what happened in Copenhagen? Nothing.” That feeling lasted a few minutes and then the reality set in. The reality is that the last [...]

Santa Barbara County CA Apr 2009Judge Invalidates Water District Annexation of Gaviota Coast LotsA lawsuit filed by the Gaviota Coast Conservancy and Surfrider Foundation resulted today in a decision invalidating a 2008 action by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) annexing prime Gaviota Coast parcels into the Goleta Water District. Without water service, development of [...]

I’m an optimist when I can talk myself into it.
It feels like that’s getting harder and harder. It feels like things are cycling faster and regions are developing at a quicker rate. Yet that pace of consumption and (many times) accompanied destruction doesn’t have a simultaneous force for conservation and/or preservation.
The equation seems [...]

New York Times
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — The battle here over a proposed toll road near a state park has entangled powerful interests from across California: Labor is pitted against surfers, American Indians against developers, commuters against campers and coastal people against inland dwellers.more

Yes, we keep track.
Why, so we know how we’re doing. We keep track so you know what we’re doing. We keep track so you’ll come alongside us and join us. We keep track so Surfrider entities all over the world can tap into a network of activist knowledge and coastal environmental practices.
We keep track because [...]