October 19, 2004
10/19 - Surfrider is the best!
Had a great weekend at the Surfrider 20th Anniversary Summit Conference. They are an amazing organization. About 250 members were present, including the majority of the heads of their 60 chapters from across the nation. A lot of the east coasters brought their surf boards, but were miffed when the Saturday night first-of-the-year heavy rains meant the coastal waters would probably be unsafe for swimming and surfing due to runoff on Sunday when they had planned to go. Bad luck for them -- the guys from North Carolina said they don't have such problems, they don't have the runoff, and in fact rely on storms to bring the only decent surf, meaning that they HAVE to get out surfing
within the 12 hours after a storm to get the best waves.
What is most amazing about Surfrider is their structure -- very little hierarchy, very little bureaucracy, very close to the ocean itself, because most of the members are out surfing on the ocean every weekend.
On Sunday they had a chapters meeting in which all 250 or so members got the chance to speak openly about how things were going for their chapters. You can imagine the potential frustrations in running such a large organization, and yet, even the most frustrated of speakers didn't convey any anger -- there is an amazing spirit of environmental collaboration that pervades this group.
Which is why in my one comment to the whole group I said that, from my two years of working with them as a partner group, they seem like, "A blast from the past, and the wave of the future," meaning that their humble, unpretentious, grassroots dynamics recall the early, smaller environmental groups of the 1960's and 70's, while their youthful, energetic demographics and the popularity of their image (especially for me in Hollywood) puts them way out there on the cutting edge and clearly the wave of the future. Here's to Surfrider, Happy Birthday!
For a good time, join Surfrider.