We Exist to Oppose This

This is what an extinct wave looks like. Save The Waves Coalition was formed to stop this type of problem from occurring. Learn more about Ponta Delgada and support our campaigns to Save The Waves: http://www.savethewaves.org/wave/ponta-delgada-madeira-portugal

An Invitation

An Invitation from Save The Waves: let’s define a wave. 

From the perspective of those who experience it, the purpose it serves, the feelings it evokes. How it looks, sounds, and moves. How it behaves. How it awes, and inspires, and delights us. How it holds the power to utterly transform us.

Let’s give voice to the reasons waves are special, treasured, cherished, adored. Let’s explain why they’re vital. The truths about why we worship at their altar.

Let's explore this elemental, fundamental part of our lives. A reflection of unexpected, surprising, taken-for-granted truths about the simple, awesome thing that is a wave.

We want to speak from the perspective of surfers and non-surfers alike. From that of naturalists, conservationists, and environmentalists. From nature-lovers and ocean-lovers. From young and old. Scaled and finned. From all over the oceans, all around the globe.

Let’s capture the inexpressible, magical power of the wave, and touch, in everyone, the place where these sentiments reside.

An Invitation (Watch the PSA video here)

Let’s show them just how to help keep waves protected, for now and for the future. At savethewaves.org

New Fuerza Chile! Posters

Check out these new rad posters by Dominick Frabizio. The artwork is cool, pulp mill pollution is not. Follow the links below for more creative works by Dominick.

www.brownstchronicles.blogspot.com
www.dominickfrabizio.blogspot.com

Click here to see how you can get involved to protect the coast and ocean in Chile.

Update on Sandbags at Sloat

Save the Waves supports San Francisco’s proposal to use sandbags as a temporary bluff slope protection measure.


The City of San Francisco has recently obtained an emergency permit from the CA Coastal Commission to place sandbags along the shoreline of the Sloat region of Ocean Beach. This permit is intended to protect the Great Highway and Lake Merced Tunnel from potentially significant bluff retreat during the winter storm season. As seen throughout the last decade, storms can cause major bluff retreat at Ocean Beach and impacts infrastructure built too close to the coast, such as the Great Highway and Lake Merced Tunnel.


Unlike in previous years, however, San Francisco has opted to implement a relatively softer bluff protection measure. Sandbags are flexible, easily installed and easily removed, and do not have the same destructive impacts as rock and concrete revetments.


According to the design report, the Great Highway and Lake Merced tunnel will be temporarily protected from winter storm events by large sandbags that will be placed along the bluff toe and slope. Approximately 375 tan-colored, geo-textile sandbags will be used as bluff protection. The bags would be deposited in a 4-foot-wide by 70-feet long toe trench that would be excavated to a depth sufficient for 2 bags to be embedded.


While sandbags are indeed a step in the right direction from the destructive armoring strategies that the City has implemented in the past, it is important to urge San Francisco officials to move away from coastal armoring altogether and to adopt strategic relocation (a.k.a managed retreat), which is a more sustainable bluff protection and erosion control strategy.


Click here to watch a video of the sandbag placement, courtesy of Tom Prete/Ocean Beach Bulletin.

Here are photos taken in early January of the work:

Photos: Save The Waves Coalition

Save The Waves Film Festival Goes Off!

Last Friday night the Victoria Theatre was the scene of the third-ever Save The Waves Film Festival, featuring a collection of short local films and the San Francisco premiere of Come Hell or High Water. The hooting nearly drowned out the movie soundtracks as the crowded theatre (a full, standing room only, sold out capacity crowd) rang out with deafening cries of joy for the great films screened.

Save The Waves Coalition thanks the presenting sponsors of Save The Waves Film Festival for their generous support of this non-profit fundraiser: Clif Bar, Rip Curl, Jim Beam and Patagonia.

A collection of locally made short films launched the evening's film festival after a welcome set of surf-drenched reggae by My Peoples: Surf for Life explored the philanthropic possibilities of grassroots surf tourism; Soundings celebrated the activist nature of surfers and ocean lovers; Great Highway celebrated the first surfers of San Francisco; and Save Sloat recounted the problems and solutions at the southern edge of San Francisco's Ocean Beach where the road, parking lots and city infrastructure are falling into the ocean.

Other notable happenings during Save The Waves Film Festival include an exclusive, on-stage interview with pro surfer Dusty Payne -- unfortunately cut short by a shark sighting; a very special wooden bodysurfing wetsuit handmade by local shaper Danny Hess; and a celebrity sighting of Giants relief pitcher Brian Wilson who was there to introduce his fellow bearded warrior, filmmaker Keith Malloy.

The night ended with legendary bodysurfers Mark Cunningham and Keith Malloy taking the stage to present their new film, Come Hell or High Water. The film was a resounding yet unlikely success due to its non comformist bodysurfing subject matter, and the crowd was elated. Over ten thousand dollars were raised for Save The Waves Coalition's campaign to Save Sloat and the World Surfing Reserves program.

Save The Waves Film Festival was also proudly supported by: 7x7 Magazine, Hog Island Oyster Company, Zola Acai, Pacifico, Peligroso Tequila, Ocean Vodka, My Peoples, San Franpsycho and Transworld Surf. More information about the film festival and the programs it supports can be found at www.savethewaves.org/filmfestival

The Skinny on the OB Lawsuit Against the City of SF

by Stephanie Haughey, Save The Waves Intern

On August 9, 2011, the California Coastal Protection Network (CCPN) filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco. CCPN argued that the City violated the California Coastal Act by failing to obtain a coastal development permit for development undertaken at Ocean Beach San Francisco.

The Coastal Act requires that anyone wishing to undertake development located within the coastal zone must obtain a coastal development permit. The coastal zone is an area that generally extends inland 1,000 yards from the mean high tide line of the sea, and the Coastal Act provides a broad definition of what actions constitute “development.” Among other requirements, the permit applicant must describe the proposed development project and its intended uses, describe ecological characteristics of the proposed location, and include feasible alternatives or mitigation measures which would substantially lessen any significant adverse impacts. After reviewing the application and considering public comments, staff reports and oral presentations, the California Coastal Commission ultimately determines if the proposed development should go forward. This process ensures a careful assessment of the proposed development’s impacts on the environment.


CCPN alleged in its complaint that the City violated the Coastal Act in the following way:

• The City failed to obtain a coastal development permit for the construction of a 600-foot-long rock revetment on Ocean Beach San Francisco between Sloat and Skyline Boulevard on or about the year 1997.
• While the quarry revetment was supposedly temporary and put in place only under emergency conditions in response to erosion damage from El Niño storm events, CCPN believes the City has dumped rocks, concrete sidewalk, pavement, rebar, metal poles and other rubbish onto the beach since 1997 without permits from the Coastal Commission. The Ocean Beach-Great Highway Storm Drainage Protection Project Final Report (May 2005) supports this allegation. The report stated that the 1997 revetment, “does not meet coastal engineering design standards” and would “experience a faster rate of degradation than an engineered structure and will require maintenance….” As the erosion continued and the revetment became less effective for protecting the bluff, it would be reasonable to believe other measures were taken to protect the beach, such as continuing to dump debris, with or without the proper authorization
• The City experimented with another strategy to curtail the effects of erosion: dredging sand from the Golden Gate shipping channel and dumping it into shallow waters on Ocean Beach from 2006 and continuing until the present without permits from the Coastal Commission. Without the necessary authorization, this action is illegal, as well as potentially destructive to marine ecosystems of Ocean Beach.
• The City was out of compliance with several conditions attached to Emergency Permit 2-10-003-G, including the finalized length of the revetment being 15 linear feet longer than what was approved in the emergency permit (the revetment was 440 linear feet, not the approved length of 425 linear feet). Additionally, the City failed to submit a complete application for a coastal development permit by the specified deadline in 2010.
  

Coastal erosion is a serious concern and will only worsen as climate change increases wave intensity. However, creating a wall of rubbish and debris to deflect impending sea level rise and erosion has proven to be ineffective and costly. The Ocean Beach-Great Highway Storm Drainage Protection Project (2005) even conceded that the 1997 revetment was inadequate because erosion was observed above the revetment due to wave run-up and windblown spray. Yet, the City of San Francisco has continued to use coastal armoring as its quick fix to erosion and has ignored arguments made by environmental groups, university professors, scientists and San Francisco residents for the implementation of a managed retreat and strategic relocation approach to erosion.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Apart from its involvement in the CCPN lawsuit, the City may:

• Apply for another emergency permit in response to erosion damage from weather-related events in the winter months. Given the uncooperative nature of the City, the Commission may be reluctant to grant an emergency permit that permits the implementation of the destructive and ineffective coastal armoring method to erosion control previously used by the City.
• Resubmit an application for a coastal development permit for its development at Ocean Beach. The City’s preferred method of erosion control is obvious: coastal armoring. One may argue that it is unlikely that the Commission would change its mind on the issue and approve an application that is substantially the same development as the City’s previous application (rock revetment). Instead, the Commission may welcome an application that incorporates sustainable erosion control measures such as managed retreat (strategic relocation).
  

For more information on the Save The Waves' campaign to Save Sloat! and ways that you can take action, please visit www.savethewaves.org/save-sloat. To sign the petition to Save Sloat!, please visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/220/377/665/.

Come Hell or High Water on November 4

Come Hell or High Water on November 4th in San Francisco

Keith Malloy’s directorial debut surf film, Come Hell or High Water, will premiere in San Francisco on Friday, November 4 at Save The Waves Film Festival. Tickets to Save The Waves Film Festival are now available for purchase online at www.savethewaves.org/filmfestival - be sure to get your tickets now.

Californian Keith Malloy of the Malloy clan steps out for his debut feature film in this unique exploration of bodysurfing. This is perhaps the greatest surfing film ever made, and not a single surfboard appears in it. Nearly anyone who has been in the ocean has bodysurfed, and the film appreciates these humble roots while also celebrating the dedicated characters who devote their lives to bodysurfing.

Save The Waves Film Festival is a non-profit fundraiser and all proceeds benefit the local Save Sloat and World Surfing Reserves programs of Save The Waves Coalition. This is a one-night, cutting-edge film festival event featuring documentary surf films, activists, athletes and artists who champion the human and environmental elements of surfing and ocean conservation.

Other films at Save The Waves Film Festival include a director’s cut of “Another Day in the Life of Wayne Lynch” by Cyrus Sutton, and a special short cut of “Great Highway” about the legendary surfing history of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.

Save The Waves Film Festival is proudly presented by Clif Bar, Patagonia, Jim Beam, and the Rip Curl Pro Search “Somewhere in San Francisco.”

Save The Waves Film Festival is also supported by Zola Acai, Pacifico, Hog Island Oyster Company, 7x7 Magazine, Ocean Vodka, Peligroso Tequila, My Peoples, TransWorld Surf, and San Franpsycho.

Get your tickets now! This event is 21 and over only, please bring identification to be checked at the door. Ticketing and all event details can be found at www.savethewaves.org/filmfestival