| MAKING WAVES, Feb. 2003 issue: Table of Contents |
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Name: Annette Blasini Age: 38 Occupation: Massage Therapist City/State: Rincón, Puerto Rico No. years as a Surfrider Member: 1 year Chapter affiliation: Rincon Organizing Committee |
How did you become involved with the Surfrider Foundation? When Leon (Leon Richter, Surfrider Foundation's Field Representative in Puerto Rico -Ed) moved in next door to me and told me about the Tres Palmas campaign. It sounded really interesting, so I decided to get involved. What are some of the challenges you encounter operating a chapter in Puerto Rico? Certainly, the differences in language and culture have been an obstacle. A lot of people ask me if the brochures are also in Spanish. It helps to get buy in from people if the material is available in their native language. It ties in better with their culture. The real challenge however, has been in getting the locals involved and trying to keep them motivated to volunteer their time. There is a lot of cynicism in Puerto Rico. People think that a small group can't affect change from the government. We try to keep them focused on the long-term goals so that they can understand the importance of our day-to-day efforts: beach clean-ups, reforestation, etc. The Rincón Chapter scored a major victory last year by stopping the planned resort development above Tres Palmas. That must have been pretty gratifying? Totally. The people here in Rincón couldn't believe it. It was a tremendous inspiration for us to continue our work. |
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How did you become involved with the Surfrider Foundation?
I think I first heard about it from Perry Farrell on MTV. I went to college in Southern California, so I heard a lot about the organization there. I was always impressed by the volunteer involvement and the effort to make environmentalism fun. You live pretty far from the ocean, in Colorado. How do you stay involved with the Surfrider Foundation? We do slopeside clean ups, have a display for Snowrider brochures, and a sign telling folks to "Hang on to your butts - our mountain is not an ashtray." We also talk to snowriders about the hydrological cycle. When I lived in Montana, we did a lot with the river surfers, i.e., "kayakers" as well. The Montana Chapter has a really active Blue Water Task Force. Which do you like better, surfing or skiing? Snowboarding. I am a cold weather chick and have spent most of my life in the mountains, on frozen water opposed to the ocean. I plan on spending a lot more time surfing in the near future so check back in with me in a couple of years. The answer might change. |
Name: Jen Ader Age: 30 Occupation: Executive Coordinator at Silverton Mountain Ski Area City/State: Silverton, CO No. years as a Surfrider Member: 7 Chapter affiliation: none currently (formally Bozeman, MT chapter) |
 Age: 31 Occupation: Online Advertising Production Director (NYC) Residence: Long Beach, NY No. years as a Surfrider Member: 1 year Chapter affiliation: New York City |
How did you become involved with the Surfrider Foundation? When I finally decided to get on a board and learn how to surf, a woman who taught me a lot mentioned Surfrider. I think she noticed that I was one of those beginner surfers who had to consume all of it - I needed to meet other people who surfed, talked about surfing, and loved it as much as I did. She recommended that I check out my local chapter of Surfrider. So, when I got back to New York, the first thing I did was log onto Surfrider's national website and I discovered the NYC chapter. At the time I lived in Queens, so I quickly joined the awesome NYC chapter. Tell us about your recent efforts to slow down the beach nourishment project in Long Beach. My husband and I moved to Long Beach, New York, in June of last year. Once we moved in, I quickly discovered that the ACOE was trying to get approval of a "sand replenishment" project of the very beach I had just finally moved to! I quickly attended the open city council meetings every month and started to get active. I began with talking to people - learning more and more from where we are with this project. Also, I spent a lot of time in the local library checking out the history of this project. I got local surfers active with the help of other chapter members, as well as posting info on our NY surf source: http://www.newyorksurf.com. We organized an online petition and got the word out on different local and national websites. Several members of the NYC chapter posted signs throughout the town as well. Eventually, we were able to rally over 75 supporters to an open city council meeting where we spoke out against the project. The ACOE is now doing a "Surfability" report of Long Beach, as well as other spots on Long Island, due the NYC Chapter's activism on this issue. Has it been challenging promoting the Surfrider Foundation in New York? People laugh when I mention that I surf in New York, but honestly, promoting Surfrider in New York City hasn't been a problem. Our NYC chapter is in a central spot, so we get surfers from Long Island, New Jersey, all the boroughs, and even a few from Westchester and Connecticut. I do believe that people don't associate New York with surfing...but you know, that makes it even cooler and more of a community. We have year-round surfing, we have access to all different forms of boarding events in our big city, we have the access to important key speakers, we have folks with all different types of skills, and so we have a lot of interest in our chapter from our boarding folks. * * * |