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Happy Forth of July... if you find yourself in Malibu you may want to bring some Cipro.

Does anyone else find it hard to comprehend how this can be 2009 we can be talking about this level of bacteria and pollution from a high-end community like Malibu?

Ground zero for this issue is Surfrider Beach. Watch and weep.

I know, photography... like any of the arts... it's subjective. One person's Picasso is another person's trash. Still... when I think of surf photography one of the first names that pops into my mind is Ron Stoner. Here's why...



Call me retro, or anything you'd like, but Ron Stoner captures more than an image of surfing, he captures the feeling. And he captures that feeling with elegant, organic simplicity.

One person is perched on the nose of a log. Glassy waist-high peeler. One buddy has paused paddling back out and is stoked... pointing to his friend. Even the third person is looking over his shoulder, acknowledging the ride. All this via a point of view that makes you feel like a bird, sitting on a tree... taking it all in.

The photo has some issues to be sure. The color pallet is muted, it's grainy and various elements are out of focus. Heck even the wave isn't anything too special. Yet even those add to the mystique and the feel. If had perfect color representation, auto-focus and the wave wasn't sectioning I'm pretty sure Ron wouldn't have snapped the shutter. Part of a Ron Stoner photo is it's approachable...that is, we can all feel what it's like to be IN this photo.

Ok, I'll stop pontificating... I just love Stoner's eye and composition.

I love that he captured the joy of riding waves.

Check out the larger gallery at Surfer Mag's site.

Steve Higgins' job is to create the illusion of permanence along an impermanent stretch of shoreline.

Nature engineered beaches to shape shift with the wind and waves. Higgins, Broward County's beach erosion administrator, does what he can to keep an undulating strand from wiggling out from beneath the hotels, condo towers, parks and mansions.

It was a mistake, of course, that long ago decision to erect Florida's most expensive permanent structures along unstable stretches of migrating sand. But it's a little late now for urban South Florida to rethink land-use policies on the barrier islands. So Higgins engages in a perpetual struggle to replenish sand and persuade beaches to stay put.

Pumping sand ain't the half of it. It's become about finding money -- the feds have become increasingly stingy with beach renourishment projects.

It's about finding sand -- suitable caches of clean, lightly hued, post-card ready sand. Most of the deposits close to shore have been either sucked up by previous projects or deemed too environmentally sensitive to disturb. more

Michelle Duval was born in the Midwest and in her early years she put in motion a trajectory toward the ocean.

Was it her early experiences with the Great Lakes that piqued her coastal interest or was it those smelly crabs and shells she put in her mom’s trunk?

Fast forward a few years, now with a Ph.D. in marine ecology at the Duke University Marine Lab, and her life vector is set. Listen in as we talk through her early years, how and where she connected to the coastlines, what her views are on fisheries and finally her role on the Surfrider Foundation Board of Directors.



Other podcasts are here. Subscribe to podcasts via itunes here. And if you're wondering why I create podcasts like these, that answer is here.

Devon Howard and the Patagonia Cardiff crew hosted a board swap a few weeks back. I've sold more than my fair share of boards on Craig's List and left boards with locals as I've traveled... but this board swap surpassed all those experiences. It surpassed those due to the built-in sense of community coupled with the second lives many of the boards were about to enjoy.

A board swap isn't rocket science or even hard to pull off, the Patagonia store in Cardiff essentially allowed their parking lot to be used for anyone to sell any kind of board, at any price (with no price to sell or to come to the event). You can do this. You should do this.


I showed up with a 6'6" Wayne Lynch gun that I knew I'd never surf the way it was meant to be surfed and sold it to a guy for a few hundred dollars. I was stoked to let him have it for less than it was worth as I'd previously talked to him about the boards he was selling. I walked past a board that I should have bought on the spot, a 5'9" Mccallum singlefin egg. And left the party with a $75 Paterson 6'1" quad egg that I took home, spray painted into a new life and then took out to Swamis.

But what I loved was interacting with the buyers and sellers. My favorite was a guy with three meticulously cared-for longboards. I asked him how much he was asking for his 10' Cooperfish and he looked at it, caressed his fingers along it's rails and then turned to me and said "I don't think I'm going to sell it after all." I loved that response. Getting three, heavy logs to this event wasn't an easy task in itself... and then to not sell them. It brought a smile to my face.

I loved that there were a few kids combing the racks looking for their first board. I loved that Rerip was in a corner talking about thier board recycling programs.

But what I loved most of all was the simplicity of this event. It brought the community together. People talked experiences and design. Some left with more boards than they brought and others sold off half their collections. This event can be replicated anywhere and I encourage you do host one. It's not about commerce. It's not about generating fees from sellers and buyers. It's about bringing people together that share a passion and letting them talk to each other, trade a story or a board.

It's hitting on all cylnders in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra. Kudos to the Pato crew.

The DC Council voted unanimous a few weeks ago to pass the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act.

Activist Julie Lawson and the DC Chapter recently helped push this multifaceted law through.

Here are the high-level details:

• Starting January 1, 2010, all retailers that sell food in the District will be charged 5 cents for each plastic or paper bag distributed

• One to two cents of the fee returns to the retailer and the remainder will go into an Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Fund to help restore one of the most polluted rivers in the country

• The fund will also pay for reusable bags and an educational campaign for low-income, elderly, and other needy residents

• The bill also establishes a new special license plate (first non-standard license plate in the city) and other voluntary revenue streams to keep the fund solvent

• Councilmember Tommy Wells who was a guest speaker at the chapters ISD event and penned the legislation also announced that Safeway donated 10,000 reusable bags to distribute to
  low-income families in the city.

This was one of those everyone-rowing-in-unison moments with the bill being supported by a coalition of approximately 30 environmental and community groups.

The DC Chapter led the way on gaining public support for the bill, coordinating a postcard campaign to collect signatures at grocery stores and community events, and keeping an army of volunteers at the ready to answer questions and combat false information spread on blogs, news articles, and other online news sources. We also testified at the public hearing, met with
several councilmembers and their staff, and even designed the coalition's logo.

Kudos to the DC crew for the 360 degree approach to activism... every angle seems nicely addressed.

I read "The Theory of the Leisure Class" a few years ago and loved it.

Taking those ideas and bringing them up to date is a blog I came across a few days ago. I strongly encourage you to read this well thought-out piece titled "Conspicuous, but not Consuming: Why Facebook is more important to the environment than solar panels."

One thing is clear, culture is in flux. We are moving from one definition of social interaction to another, one system of commerce to another and one framework for society to another.

Kudos to the crew at Good for continuing to push things forward in a relevant way.

There has been a constant din of conversation surrounding artificial reefs. The idea of popping reefs into coastal spots to make surfable waves speaks to a desire to control our destiny (and "manage" our natural surroundings). Yet this is also one of those subjects whose successes have proven very illusive.

One of the reasons artificial reefs continue to generate strong opinions is the relatively small amount of quantitative data on the installed reefs. For as much as science is cited on why they work there is virtually no quantitative data on how well they are working. A few numbers would be great to have. What are the attendance or visitation figures? What are is the average swell height? How much has a local economy gained from having an artificial reef? The lack of quantitative data then pushes the dialog to the qualitative front.

Due to the ongoing interest in this subject I thought I'd share a few angles into it via a series. First up, user feedback (or better... surfer feedback). A few days ago a blog post went up with what I thought was a simple and brilliant approach to the larger value of artificial surfing reefs.

Ask the locals.

Better yet, if a reef is going in for "high quality" waves... ask some of the better surfers around for their perspective.

I see this as brilliant as it's easy to dismiss a single person, label them crazy and their ideas as tied to an agenda of some kind. It's pretty straightforward to negate someone like that... but this person went to a neutral group of people and the arguably the group whose opinions carry the most weight, sponsored and professional surfers.

For the longer version of this I suggest you go to The truth about the Mount Reef post as the author, Hamish Mathieson, has done a very nice job assembling views on the key questions on Mt. Reef. The reason Mt. Reef is interesting is because it's one of the examples people tend to hold up as being a success more than any other. I'll share perspectives on other reefs in future posts.

Worth noting on his post, none of the photos on his blog come from Mt. Reef... they come from local natural wave alternatives to Mt. Reef. On his post he asks seven local sufers the same questions, I've shared one of their responses here.



Now, you may think... this is out of context. Again, I suggest you read his entire post here (which was built after his original post caught some people's attention).

What I like about his post more than random comments you find on the internet is that he identifies himself and the surfers comments are from people that are also named. When I see comments on the 'net with a random moniker I almost always dissmiss them. It's way to easy for true agendas and commercial perspectives to seep into comments when they can appear anonymous. It may be just me but if a person doesn't identify themselves I tend to discount what they are saying. Hamish makes his case by being transparent and quoting real people, real surfers. Most other debates on subjects like these unravel into virtual catfight with a slew of people that haven't identified thier allegiances or even their name.

Which brings me to this next clip, for an alternative view on this particular reef check out this YouTube clip. It's supposed to be impressive but, honestly, Georges (not close to the best wave in my area) was better than this the morning I'm writing this. One thing many of us learned a long time ago is that every spot, even the junkiest spots, tend to break well once or twice a year.

To net this out I'm not suggesting that all surfers are against artificial reefs. I don't think they are. Yet I do find it very hard to find a groundswell of surfers that will share positive, personal experiences beyond a photo here or a video clip there.

My sense is that, overall, surfers are cautiously optimistic on artificial reefs. Yet I also believe that surfers that have experienced artificial reefs are less than cautiously optimistic due to their real-world knowledge. So... where do you stand? Let us know who you are and what your experiences with artificial reefs are. Please don't reply if you work for a company that makes these reefs, let's keep this user... 'er surfer feedback.

As most of you know Surfrider Foundation is a non-partisan organization. Our membership reflects every political persuasion, every gender, age and demographic. I'm sharing this video because transcends politics.



From my perspective I've always believed that it's great to know what you love but it's even better to act on that love. In this case she's talking about a love of the United States and a love for the ideas behind the US. She's spurring us on to volunter this summer and I think that is an excellent, simple request.

Give this a watch. If you're looking to plug into Surfrider and you live near the coast, I'm guessing there is a chapter near you. Find the chapter near you right here.

Our coastal and ocean resources represent almost $138 billion dollars to the US economy. If our coastlines were a company they'd be a Fortune 10. Of course they aren't a corporation but don't you think it's about time we started valuing them appropriately and aligning federal policies to insure their value is preserved?

The Obama administration is starting to do just this...

Let me backup a bit... a little over five years ago two independent groups (US Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission) looked at the state of our coasts and oceans. These groups were large-scale teams and made up of the highest caliber experts available. One of these was put in place by, then, President Bush and the other group was a group experts from non-profits and non-governmental organizations that deal with ocean and coastal issues.

They both said the same thing (which is notable... how often do two independent groups say the same thing?)

I'll paraphrase and oversimplify what they said...

"Our oceans are not doing well. In fact our oceans and coastlines are doing horribly. Now is the time for large-scale action to save our oceans from collapse."

The environmental community sang praises for both reports in unison. Again, notable. We agreed with what was wrong. We agreed with what needed to be done. Picture all the environmental groups you know of that are associated with coastlines and oceans... holding hands and singing "We are the World" together, in the right key. It was wonderful. Everything aligned, everyone agreed, life was great. Bliss.

Then nothing happened.

Well, that's not fair... something did happen. What happened was that our coastlines and oceans got worse. They got worse due to the existing pressures on water quality and other ongoing pressures and then felt even more pressure due to new challenges including alternative ocean projects, ocean acidification, offshore drilling leases, etc.

But now, it seems as though the bleak backdrop of non-action is starting to shift.

A few weeks ago President Obama signed a proclamation declaring June to be National Oceans month. That by itself isn't anything to cheer about. But what is worth cheering about is what he did alongside that proclamation. President Obama issued a memorandum to executive departments and agencies to establish the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. I know what you're thinking, another task force... stay with me... this decision puts additional focus on the protection, maintenance and restoration of the health of coastal and ocean ecosystems and resources. That sounds a lot like our mission here at Surfrider Foundation and we love it when we're not the only ones focused on achieving it.

This may sound like another task force of non-action but what he's trying to do is the opposite. President Obama is trying to connect-the-agency-dots and nudge (well, maybe push) the various departments and agencies toward action. I'm not surprised by this movement as he did a stellar job of picking Leon Panetta and Jane Lubchenco as part of his core team.

We strongly support this action by the Obama administration's movement regarding our coastlines and oceans because we know the pressures they face.

We applaud this movement, we see this increased emphasis as 100% complimentary to our national grassroots network and our mission and we look forward to the next steps where crisp, understandable and relevant action takes place.

We know that the road ahead won't be easy but we're past a major threshold. We've stopped singing We are the World and started to treat our oceans and coastlines like the priceless entities they are.