We are going to be mixing it up in June with Ceto Surf!

Stop by Russell House Tavern at the regular meeting time (6:30pm) and hear what is going on with Surfrider MA and your fellow city surfers.

There will be $1 Oysters, too, so bring a crew! We will be chilling well into the evening. Hope to see you there!

RSVP here – Or just come on down!

Please join us in celebrating and honoring the best sport in the world with some surfing, beach cleaning and an after PARTY! Woo hoo!

Event Details:
Saturday June 23 2012
Beach Cleanup at Good Harbor Beach | 2-4pm
After party at Cape Ann Brewing Co. | 4-6pm

RSVP on Facebook – or just show up!

About International Surfing Day

International Surfing Day sprung from the idea that it would be great to have an annual day to celebrate surfing, while giving thanks and appreciation to our oceans, waves and beaches. From there, the first International Surfing Day began with one international and 16 domestic events. It has grown to more than 90 domestic events and 71 International spanning more than 30 countries across the globe. The day is not only filled with fun surf sessions and paddle-outs, but encourages people everywhere, no matter where they live, to give back through various activations organized by the Surfrider Foundation.

2012 marks the eighth anniversary of International Surfing Day. This year there are more than 200 individual International Surfing Day celebration events taking place globally.

Download a PDF of our events through November!

Valentine’s Day 2012 was the perfect occasion to show the Massachusetts Bottle Bill a little LOVE. And that is just what Surfrider MA did (along with MASSPIRG, The Massachusetts Sierra Club, and a list of about 45 other groups), by helping to deliver endorsements from 352 businesses to the Legislature in support of the Bottle Bill.

For over 10 years folks have been trying to get one of Massachusetts’ most successful recycling programs updated to include the newer beverage bottles that have come on the market since it’s enactment in 1983. These bottles include the multitudes of single-use plastic water bottles and energy drinks. Yes, the containers are recyclable but many are consumed “on-the-run” and do not end up making it to curbside recycling. Instead, they end up littering our cities, parks and, eventually, our oceans.

It is simple. If these bottles were redeemable, there would be plenty of people who would be happy to collect the bottles and get the deposit. Until producers step up and create more sustainable product, we need to take every measure possible to ensure that these containers do not become waste.

What some business owners are saying:

“This bill will eliminate a lot of plastic waste. It’s a pretty basic idea and important as well. We get a refund on some bottles already. Why not all?”
- Kathy Ball, Textures Hair Studios, Fitchburg.

“We endorsed it because it’s good for the environment and the economy. It cuts down on the amount of solid waste and is just common sense.”
- Sean, Copy Cat, Amherst.

“It just seems like the next logical step. If we can recycle some bottles we should be able to recycle all bottles.”
- Matthew King, Food for Thought Book Store, Amherst.

Check out coverage of the Press Event:
- Top editorial in the Boston Globe
- For livelier debate over ideas, House must get bills on floor

Learn more about the MA Bottle Bill:
- Bottle Bill @ MASSPIRG

Check out more images from this event:

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Long-time volunteer for the MA Surfrider Chapter, Andrew Fish, Fights Pollution on the Seas.
An interview with Kathleen Willis Morton, MA SF’s resident writer

Andrew Fish has been an active contributor to Surfrider chapters in California and Massachusetts over the years and is now setting sail to the great big blue to research and to help figure out a way to make it little greener for all of us. Andrew is boarding a sailboat in the Canary Islands to gather data on plastics pollution in the gyres. He answered a few questions for us now, and will be sending posts from remote to keep us all up to speed on his adventure.

Katie Willis Morton: Tell me about your trip!

Andrew Fish: In short, it’s an expedition across the Atlantic, approximately 2,800 nautical miles from the Canary Islands to Martinique in the Caribbean. At least once per day we will be towing a tool called the “Travel Trawl” to sample for plastic particles in the ocean. We will slow the boat, drop the trawl, and drag it for an hour or more to collect the samples. Depending on wind conditions, I expect to take 20-30 samples along the journey. With each sample I will note the location, boat speed, direction, wind conditions, and store them in jars until the samples can be analyzed after the trip. From what I’ve been told, I can expect to find a shocking amount plastic in each sample, even though I’ll be hundreds, if not thousands of miles from any land in sight.

KWM: What is your background and history with Surfrider?

AF: Within a few days of receiving my college diploma—in land-locked, Colorado— I packed up my belongings and headed West to Ventura, CA to manage a surf school there. Each day, our surf camps started with a beach cleanup and the kids would fill 1-3 trash bags on just a short stretch of sand. It isn’t until you start picking trash up off the beach that you realize how much crap is really out there. That’s when I really tuned in. I soon attended my first Surfrider meeting at the Ventura Public Library which happened to be a celebration for the Surfrider Foundation’s 20th anniversary. I’ll never forget it, Glen Henning, one of Surfrider’s founders giving a presentation about the beginnings of the organization. I was the youngest person in the room so when they mentioned an election was coming up for a seat on the executive committee of the chapter, I was all for it. Pretty instantly I was elected to the executive committee of the Surfrider Foundation, Ventura Chapter. I didn’t know what I signed up for, but that seems to be how I do things (this boat trip is no exception, I don’t even know how to sail!)

So there I was, sun burnt and barely out of college sitting on the executive committee of a Surfrider chapter with an environmental engineer, a mathematician, a school teacher, and world-renowned environmentalist. Though I felt like a fish out of water, it was amazing way to start my relationship with the Surfrider Foundation.

The environmental issues in Ventura at that time were complicated and ran deep through the local community. For so many years they had been dealing with local and state governments on the same two projects, a beach restoration project at Surfer’s Point, and the removal of Matilija Dam.

My experience in Ventura taught me that while working on the environmental crisis can be a daunting and timely mission, it can also be creative and fun. The Surfer’s Point project is an example of this, for after 15 years of Surfrider efforts, the project finally broke ground in July, 2011. Still, we are hoping to see the removal of Matilija Dam.

KWM: What has inspired you to take this trip?

AF: Plastic – and specifically – plastic pollution is a topic I’m connected to both personally and professionally. That, as well as my love of surfing and the ocean inspired me to take this trip. I see this as a chance for all those interests to come together. Hopefully the data I will be gathering will have a positive impact on solving the problems of single-use plastics pollution that is killing the oceans.

For Surfrider’s local Massachusetts chapter, plastic has been a big topic in 2011. We’ve had to pick up 8 million plastic discs after a New Hampshire sewage plant overflowed and are always working to update the Bottle Bill to include a deposit on all plastic bottles, not just a few select ones.

On the discs, I attended organized cleanups with Surfrider, but also picked them up – by the hundreds – on my own before/after surf sessions from Maine to Rhode Island. I’ll never forget how shocked I was to find them on Martha’s Vineyard this summer, more than 4 months after the spill. The only positive thing about the discs is that without them covering our shores, we never would have heard about the thousands of tons of sewage the came from plant with the discs.

Now the Bottle Bill, this is Surfrider’s biggest campaign here in Massachusetts. Our chapter is a coalition member alongside MASSPIRG, The Massachusetts Sierra Club, and a list of about 45 other groups that are in favor of the expansion. To us, it just doesn’t make any sense that a Coke bottle is worth 5 cents but a Vitamin water bottle isn’t. They are the same bottle, same material, and the only difference is that Vitamin Water doesn’t fit into a beverage category that existed when the Bottle Bill was created in 1983. It’s actually quite simple, the bill needs to be modernized, which will drastically increase recycling rates of single use plastic bottles.

On the professional side, I work at a local green business here in Boston called Preserve, www.preserveproducts.com. Preserve is most known for making toothbrushes out of Stonyfield yogurt cups. All of their products are made from 100% recycled plastic and manufactured here in the U.S. At work, I’m constantly talking about plastic, the concept of reuse, and generally educating people on anything plastic-related. It’s amazing how many people don’t know what numbers 1 thru 7 mean on a piece of plastic! Hint, it has nothing to do with how recyclable the product is!! Fortunately, Preserve has been incredibly supportive of my trip.

KWM: What are the intended objectives and goals of your research?

AF: For the research, I’ve teamed up with the 5 Gyres Institute, www.5gyres.org, who has lent me the trawl and taught me how to take valuable samples. 5Gyres is the leading voice against plastic pollution and single use plastic. They sponsor bag-bans and other campaigns, are advising on the 2012 London Olympics, and are most known for their research expeditions to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the other four gyres. In addition, 5Gyres will be leading the first expedition into the Japanese Tsunami Debris fields where houses, cars, and boats, and thousands of tons of debris were swept out to sea. This expedition begins in May, 2012.

KWM: What are you going to miss most while you’re away?

AF: There’s nothing I love more than trekking through the snow in my wetsuit with surfboard in hand. I’ll definitely miss those cold winter swells with my friends who love it just as much as I do.

KWM: Can you suggest books or links to info if readers want to learn more about this issue, what you’re doing, and the gyres you will be exploring?

AF: The book that put it all into perspective to me is called Let My People Go Surfing, by Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard. I read it at a time when I was a frustrated business undergrad, unable to see the purpose of my studies. This book helped me realize that “business can inspire solutions to the environmental crisis” which completely turned my world upside-down!

A few links below:
Earth911
Greenbiz
Treehugger
Sustainability at Harvard
5 Gyres
Surfrider Foundation

To follow Andrew’s adventure:
5 Gyres Blog
MA Surfrider Blog
Surf is Swell

Snow, a great turnout, sunshine and the debut of our new Surfrider Tent! Thanks to everyone who made it out for Snowrider 2012!

Huge thanks to The Blue Hills Ski Area, all of our awesome Surfrider volunteers and extra special thanks to John Rutter and John Trumbull for the great photos.

Check out more images from this event:

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$1 Oysters Cocktail Party & Sustainable Surf Demo
Russell House Tavern, Harvard Sq, Cambridge, MA
Tuesday, Jan 24th from 5-8pm

WIN A SURFBOARD, HANDPLANE, SURF LESSONS & SUP TOUR!

$10 suggested “door fee” gets you a 100% recycled Wax Buddy wax comb and the chance to win a ton of donated prizes: custom shaped surfboard by Monroe Surboards, wood handplanes from Grain, VEC and Crooked Blanks, shaping lessons by Green Lightning, Surf Lessons from Cinnamon Rainbows, SUP lessons and tours from Cape Ann SUP, and more!

SUSTAINABLE SURFBOARD DEMO

Local shapers Grain, VEC, Crooked and Green Lightning will demo their sustainable boards made with wood and recycled materials.

SPECIAL GUESTS AND EVENT SPONSORS

Grain Surfboards, VEC Surfboards, Crooked Blanks, Monroe Surf Company, Cape Ann SUP, Green Lightning Surfboards, Endless Wave Surf Shop, Change is Simple, Wisdom Publications, and Cinnamon Rainbows.

This party is a 100% all volunteer effort. Co-hosted by the Surfing Meetup Group and the Mass Surfrider Foundation, all proceeds will fund a new initiative by CetoSurf.com to promote sustainable surf products.

About Ceto: CetoSurf.com welcomes surfers of all ages, abilities and wave riding styles who share a passion for the ocean, fun and friendship. By connecting and informing surfers, Ceto seeks to promote a healthy ocean environment and a more sustainable surf industry.

Click here for directions on Google!

Event Details: We will set up the table and tent outside near the lifts at about 9:00am and will close up shop around 2:30pm, then head into the lodge. If we are able to get a few decent items donated, we will be selling raffle tickets and having an early afternoon drawing.

Volunteers: Plan to take shifts at the table for about an hour, and then the rest of the day is yours to enjoy on the slopes. Any questions: please contact Event Coordinator John Rutter at rereader@gmail.com. If you haven’t already done so, let him know that you are coming.

The mountain opens at 9am. Lift prices are $38.00 for 8 hours, or $32 for 4 hours, plus a one-time $5 charge for the reusable Blue Flex Pass, Blue Hills’s new electronic lift pass.

Click here for Blue Hills directions and hours of operation, and more information about the Blue Flex Pass.

Photo credits: John Trumbull and Andrew Fish. Thanks guys!

Check out a few more photos from last years event:

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