JUNE 2006 NEWSLETTER

THREE FREE SURF CLINICS THIS MONTH !!

6/3       Beach Bash with WJRR at the Cocoa Beach Pier – Beach cleanup sponsored by Surfrider at 7:30 a.m. (followed by surf sesh and all day party) Come out early to help clean the beach of cigarette butts

6/8       (New location!) Monthly Chapter meeting and social, Cocoa Beach’s Surfside Playhouse, 6:30 p.m.

**  8 p.m. is the start time for Jack McCoy’s new surf flick – "Free as a Dog" starring Australian surf pro Joel Parkinson and his home break – Coolangatta.

6/10    Brevard County Summer "Save It" Celebration, Lori Wilson Park

6/13    The Cocoa Beach City Council will be hosting an Artificial Surfing Reef workshop on Tuesday, June 13 at 6:30 PM in the Cocoa Beach City Hall. We expect representatives from the city and county commissions, Depart of Natural Resources, local businesses and the media. Dr. Kerry Black, designer of the Orlando wave pool and numerous artificial surfing reefs will be the featured guest. We hope that ALL interested beachgoers will attend.

6/17     RedSand’s Groms Gone Environ-Mental FREE Surf Clinic, 16th Street, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Call 779-0279 to reserve a space or to help

6/21     International Surfing Day – people paddling out around the world to celebrate surfing in clean oceans and beaches! We’ll be at the beach behind Cocoa Beach Surf Company (2 blocks south of 520) hosting a FREE SURF CLINIC put on by NexGen Surf School. Contact Brian Gale at 591-9577 if you’re coming out!

6/24    RedSand Groms Gone Environ-Mental, this date at the Sebastian Inlet, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BIG NEWS –

Enviro-Group to Sue EPA Over Inadequate Beach Water Quality Standards -

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has officially announced its "intent to sue" the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the EPA's failure to protect human health from waterborne disease. Specifically, NRDC points out that the EPA has missed its October 2005 Congressionally mandated deadline to revise and improve beach water quality standards. The EPA wants to extend the deadline to 2011. Current beach water quality monitoring, under EPA requirements, only tests for certain bacteria, ignoring viruses, toxins, and parasites. "The current standards focus on bacteria, because years ago we didn't know as much about other disease-causing organisms," explained Dr. Joan Rose, director of Michigan State University's Center for Water Sciences. "We now have methods that can detect viruses and parasites -- which can cause serious health problems -- but they're not being used." More info from the NRDC press release at www.nrdc.org ** The additional testing that Surfrider did in 2003 along the Brevard Coast showed significant levels nitrogen caused by human sewage. The county and port then paid a group of NOAA scientists $100,000 not to do additional testing, but instead to discredit the study. The group did not even read the peer-reviewed and published study before presenting their findings. Up until now it’s been a dead issue.

OTHER NEWS –

Thanks to Brian Lind, Jay Leskowyak, Ben Zink, and Margaret Roth for helping out at the Brevard Zoo’s Party for the Planet, held on May 20th. Visitors who dropped by the booth were given “Hold on to Your Butt” stickers and brochures on water quality, and could sign a petition asking for cleaner oceans by supporting the bill that would ban sewage dumping by gambling boats. Over 100 people signed the petition and due to the public’s outcry, the Port Canaveral commissioners voted to move ahead with the construction of a pump out station at their south terminal. So keep up those letters to the people and come out to future Surfrider events. If you don’t, who will? Check the calendar above and then call Brian at 749-8557 if you wish to help.

Also thanks to our business supporters - Ultimate Sports Warehouse Inc., Coastal Vending, R & D Surf, Tires Plus Total Car Care, Manitou Computer Services, Skim City, The Groove Tube/The Goods Surf & Skate, Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant, Amstar Mortgage Corporation, Tom Neilson Shapes, Snappy Signs, 2ndlight.com, NexGen Surf School, and Ron Jon Surf Shop. To join – go to www.surfrider.org/join