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SAVE THE WAVES COALITION NEWS
Source: Save The Waves Coalition


Honoring Earth Day
Last Saturday, April 18, Save The Waves Coalition, in partnership with Mavericks Surf Ventures, Green Apple Festival and numerous volunteers from around the Bay Area, met at Half Moon Bay's most famous beach where the Mavericks big wave surf spot rocks the coast in the winter. The waves were small but over 30 volunteers showed up to walk the beach and cliffs picking up trash in honor of Earth Day. After 2 hours of sweat and sandy beach combing, we left with a cleaner beach and over 200 pounds of oceanborne trash.

Save The Waves also participated in a fun event at San Francisco's Academy of Sciences in sunny Golden Gate Park where kids and massive crowds at the Academy were treated to interactive fun surfer environmental games and educational talks by Save The Waves, Surfrider Foundation, Heal The Bay, and other hardworking local environmental organizations.


"Value of a Wave" Survey
Launching the Mavericks Online Survey: Save The Waves in partnership with the Center for Responsible Travel - CREST - at Stanford University and the University of Hawai'i is launching an important online survey to assess the value of Mavericks big wave surf spot to the local and regional economy.
Please click on the link below and help us proactively protect Mavericks - this new study will also help us to create a survey model for more waves around the world to help protect and promote surf spots as important cultural, environmental and economic resources that must be protected and preserved.

Take the survey now at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/122581/the-value-of-a-wave-late-spring-2009-

Also visit our coalition member, Surfrider Foundation and their Surf- First survey - http://www.surf-first.org. These academic instruments contribute to the creation of "paper" and political tools that help surfers and coastal lovers in their activism to protect our surf spots and coastline by correctly assessing their value.

These studies calculate and prove not only the economic value of a wave in a given year (as we all know a wave's value goes far beyond economics) but also the value of a wave over time and from a social, environmental and cultural perspective. These are considered the more intrinsic values of waves and their surrounding coastline and waters. Stay tuned for more as the "Value of a Wave - Mavericks" study is slated to be published in Oct. '09.

Surf photo: program director Joao Macedo charges Mavericks during November 2008 Thanksgiving swell.
Photo: Ken Skindog Collins.


Great Turtle Race
Conservation International and Save The Waves Surf Ambassadors are teaming up on the Web this week to raise awareness about sea turtles in the Great Turtle Race.
An innovative and interactive online sea turtle race is taking place this week and Save The Waves surfers and staffers are blogging live at http://blog.conservation.org with Hans Hagan (surf ambassador) and Josh Berry (environmental director) along with sea turtle expert Dr Wallace J Nichols, REM musician Mike Mills, Olympic swimmers and other celebrities!

Click http:// blog.conservation.org to read their blogs and join the fun! Click here to go directly to the STW bloggers at Conservation International.


Endangered Wave: Santos Del Mar, Chile
The Los Robles Coal Power Plant proposed for a remote beach near the new Santos del Mar big-wave surf spot in Chile has been indefinitely postponed. This is a great victory for local activists and surfers who are very concerned about the environmental effects that such a mega-project would have on local ecosystems and coastline. A remote Chilean point break would be completely obliterated by the project's wharf and air and water pollution would devastate the region.

However, activists recently won a temporary victory when the energy company AES Gener announced that the project is on hold due to a lack of investors: a combination of activists successfully publicizing the issue against the coal industry and a faltering world economy where such massive development projects are harder and harder for the private sector to finance.

Although this is merely a battle won and not a full victory, it gives environmentalists and opposition a chance to regroup forces and continue its successful campaign against the coal plant proposal.

Surfers for Cetaceans, Save The Waves Coalition, Dave Rastovich and Ramon Navarro team up to protect an endangered surfing area and its ecosystem.

Southern Chile's newest big wave surf site, Santos del Mar, and its surrounding coastline would be polluted if plans go ahead to construct a proposed US$1.3 billion dollar coal-fired power plant on the coastline of Chile’s 7th Region.

Ramon Navarro, Chilean big wave hunter and the pioneer surfer at Santos del Mar, is particularly inspired to fight the project: "This is the biggest and most powerful wave that we've ever found in Chile and the area holds numerous other surfing resources that must be protected. Mega-industry will put it at risk with this polluting coal plant, and we must stop it."
Read more here: http://www.savethewaves.org/santos.asp


Surfing Illegal in Dubai
Surfers are being fined and harassed by police on Dubai's beaches. But can Dubai afford to ban surfing? Sign this petition to save surfing in Dubai



About the International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Mike Gerard (USA) and Karin Sierralta (Peru).

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Joao de Macedo, Mavericks