Surfrider Foundation, MAKING WAVES, June 2004

MAKING WAVES, June 2004 issue: Table of Contents

East Coast

On April 23, Earth Day, Tom Warnke of the Palm Beach Chapter and Wyatt Porter-Brown from the South Florida Chapter made a presentation to the 6th grade class of St. Andrews School in Boca Raton. Organized by the class science dean, Betsy Pickup, about 80 students were present for an introduction to the Surfrider Foundation educational video, Sea to Summit. This was particularly beneficial to the students because Betsy had recently covered the hydrologic cycle in her classes and this reinforced the material they had covered from an ocean user’s point of view. The school is five miles from the Atlantic and “Boca” has a strong community of surfers and recreational ocean users, many attending St. Andrews. After the video, Tom and Wyatt fielded questions and passed out Surfrider Foundation material. (Look for in-depth coverage on this next issue - Ed)

Surfrider in the classroom

South Florida Chapter activists, Wyatt Porter-Brown and Tom Warnke, field questions after presenting the Sea to Summit video to the 6th grade class of St, Andrews School in Boca Raton, Florida.

Yet another year of cold and wet weather didn't prevent the Capitol Chapter from showing up en masse to support the 16th Annual Alice Ferguson Foundation Potomac River Watershed Cleanup. With support from Georgetown’s Patagonia store and Whole Foods Market, over 15 chapter members and local volunteers tackled a section of the Potomac River waterfront in Georgetown, removing 45 bags of trash weighing an estimated 750 pounds. Items ranged from the everyday, cigarettes and Styrofoam, to the unusual, blue barrels, tires, and goose decoys. The Capitol Chapter was proud to be a sponsor of the cleanup and host of one of 159 sites that together removed an estimated 159 tons of trash from the Potomac River Watershed in just three hours! Look for more events to come as part of the chapter's continuing commitment to local watershed health.

April 26th marked the first of many regional expansion meetings for the Massachusetts Chapter in 2004. Chapter Chair Liz Fuller and activist Dotty Manfredonia attended the first meeting of the North Shore Task Force of the Massachusetts Chapter in Marblehead. Brickhouse Boards hosted and lead the meeting, which included discussions on outreach efforts, campaigns and growth. One area identified is the implementation of the Blue Water Task Force to monitor and improve water quality around Plum Island, which is becoming more developed.

Next up, was the Cape Cod Task Force meeting on May 20th led by Surfrider Foundation activist Marc Angelilo. The organizing group plans to partner with the Eastern Surfing Association to conduct beach clean-ups before every local contest. They hope to start building awareness and recruiting activists.

The South Shore Task Force will soon begin conducting organizing meetings at Wear & Tear Surf Shop. On the agenda for this task force is developing a campaign to address the Nantasket Beach Seawall and how best to conduct effective outreach for the summer’s Nantasket Beach concert series.

Under the leadership of Chapter Chair Ari Lawrence and Vice Chair John Mock, the Virginia Beach Chapter has been revitalized in the past year. Along with fellow activists Dorinda Parkola, Carolyn Mckendree, Mark Carter, Brett Copeland, Pam Geary, Peter Langlands and Greg Simon, the chapter has initiated numerous campaigns and outreach efforts.

The chapter formed a coalition with local surfing associations to form the VB Surfing Partnership.

The partnership meets quarterly to discuss local issues and works together to promote a positive surfing atmosphere throughout the local surfing community. The partnership has already proven quite influencial when approaching city officials about surfing issues.

In conjunction with area students and the City of Virginia Beach, chapter activists organized a major storm-drain stenciling event to mark 2,000 storm drains in one day. The Virginia Beach Chapter also plans to hold another Youth Day Event. The event provides children the opportunity to learn first-hand the effects of coastal pollution from litter. The children participated in a large beach clean-up and competed to find the largest, smallest, strangest and greatest total amount of trash. All of the participants received prizes from the sponsors, which included Wave Riding Vehicles and Whalebone Surf Shop.

Pacific Northwest

The Portland Chapter hosted a Snowrider Project booth at Mt. Hood Meadows’ 9th Annual Vegetate event. Vegetate spotlights the native wildflower revegetation program. Portland Snowrider Co-Coordinator Katie Breene and volunteers Butch Bannon, Haley Brown, Alison Mead, Meg Meredith, Jocelyn Gary, ChaRee Messerli and Eric Brody staffed the booth and informed mountain enthusiasts about the hydrologic cycle and how simple steps taken with people’s homes, automobiles, and neighborhoods can help stem pollution within our coastal watersheds. The booth entry fee was graciously paid for by a donation from local Surf/Snow/Skate shop, Gorge Performance, which also donated a Burton snowboard, bindings, and a snow skate to raffle. The chapter raised $234, with the board going to Tyler Miles.

The Portland Chapter also hosted a fundraiser with Drew Kampion displaying a collection of historic surfing and travel slides and screening Litmus at the Ecotrust building in May. The event was sponsored by Patagonia Portland.

May is also the month the chapter celebrates mother ocean at Mother Ocean Day in Cannon Beach at Ecola State Park. Portland Chapter Secretary Tina Torri and Co-Volunteer Coordinator Melissa Gilbert coordinated the event. Activities included: a sandcastle building contest for all ages, an information booth, a clean water paddle, and a fundraising raffle.

Kip Roseman, Tanya Cole, and Matt Baker were presented with a three-dimensional hydrologic model of Central Oregon by the students at Rimrock Academy Charter School. Teacher John Gawrse and his students presented the model at a school event. The chapter also held an information booth at the Mt. Bachelor Bud Light Snowboard Rodeo on April 16.

In January, the Pacific City Chapter began the BWTF program. Volunteer activists including Travis Jackson, Mike Gianni, Derreck Vertner, Chris and Steve Swan, and Dustin Judd are testing two sites weekly; each side of Cape Kiwanda. This frequency is the highest of any volunteer or state-sponsored marine water-testing program in the entire state. Sampling is conducted by Pacific City-area residents and testing by the Neskowin Middle School. Two local shapers, Bryan Bates and Steve Swan, have been instrumental in propagating the BWTF program. Testing there is crucial as Pacific City realizes the highest number of surfers and ocean users in Oregon.

The Seattle Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation is wrapping up their Snowrider Project Outreach season at the Summit at Snoqualmie this year with a mountain clean-up on June 5th. The chapter held its final tabling event on April 10th, the JibThis! Contest at Alpental at the Summit at Snoqualmie. The chapter also kicked off a new Blue Water Task Force program on April 28th, with training and planning meetings. Chapter BWTF coordinator Philippe Bishop says, “This will provide us with an opportunity to supplement Washington’s new BEACH program and, by working with our local shops, make sure that Seattle’s coastal recreation community is involved in understanding the quality of our local waters.”

The Seattle Chapter also welcomes Sasha Sicks to the Executive Committee as the new treasurer. Sasha brings a great deal of experience with coastal issues and non-profit management to the chapter.

Ocean Commission work

Surfrider Foundation staff and PNW activists at the Governor Forum on the recent Ocean Commision Report. L to R: Kevin Ranker, PNW Regional Manager; Kerry Carnahan, Seattle Chapter; Chris Evans, Executive Director, Surfrider USA; Ian Miller, Washington Field Coordinator; Peter Stauffer, Washington Coastal Science Coordinator; Sasha Sicks, Seattle Chapter.

The Northwest Straits Chapter hosted a beach clean-up at the Keystone Ferry landing on the west side of Whidbey Island on May 8th. “Because we are at the mouth of Puget Sound, this beach tends to collect debris both exiting the sound and coming in from the ocean and the straits,” says clean-up coordinator Scott Bullock.

Activists from the Northwest Straits Chapter also turned out in force to attend this year’s Banked Slalom event at Mt. Baker. Volunteers included Chapter Chair Jean Olson, Secretary Jodi Mau and Ryan Maceliece. The chapter staffed a table and passed out information on Surfrider Foundation’s Snowrider Project.

In April, the Olympic Peninsula Organizing Committee, in partnership with Olympic National Park, finished up one year of data collection on the condition of Washington’s coastal waters. Starting in May, the organizing committee will be expanding the monitoring program to include five additional beaches.

The Olympic Peninsula Organizing Committee would also like to announce that Arnold Schouten has been elected as the new Chairperson for the Committee. Arnold has been surfing Washington’s waters for over 25 years and brings a wealth of knowledge to Surfrider Foundation.

Paddle Texas photo