Surfers paddle out to attack pollution

Nonprofit's Event Seeks Clean Water

San Diego Union Tribune

By David Washburn

September 17, 2007

Like warriors doing battle, upward of 1,000 surfers in Ocean Beach yesterday morning banged on their boards, whooped war cries and charged the enemy: coastal pollution.

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune photos About 1,000 surfers and a handful of kayakers participated in a paddle-out organized by the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. The event is put on to raise awareness about coastal pollution, especially the treated sewage and runoff that seeps into coastal waters.

Among their numbers were grandmotherly types, dads with kids and local surfing legends. They stormed the rough, fog-ensconced waters surrounding the pier in a symbolic fight against dirty water that ravages coastlines from San Diego to South Africa.

They paddled boards, and in a few cases kayaks, against the tide of treated sewage and runoff that flows over Southern California beaches every year. They paddled against littered cigarette butts and the diarrhea and sinus infections suffered by people who come in contact with polluted sea water.

Behind the charge was the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. This was their 16th annual “Paddle For Clean Water,” a signature event for the environmental nonprofit that advocates anti-pollution measures, fights for public beach access and works to protect coastal areas from development.

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune photos A participant in the 16th annual paddle-out walked by one of the information signs the Surfrider Foundation put in the staging area by the Ocean Beach pier. The surfers paddled around the pier to show their support for clean water.

With nearly 1,000 people in the water and about 500 more on the beach, this was the group's largest paddle-out ever. At 10 a.m., the paddlers went into the water and around the T-shaped pier – a journey of about three-quarters of a mile. The fastest made it in about 20 minutes, but some were still on the water two hours after the start.

“It was an awesome experience,” said Johan Hagenah, 32, of Escondido, who participated for the fourth time. “After getting past the break, I looked back and saw a sea of people coming out of the fog. It was like a tribe; I got goosebumps.”

The first paddle-out was held on an overcast Saturday in 1992. That day about 247 surfers showed up. The event was over before noon.

It turned out to be a catalyst, said Gary Sirota, a former president of the foundation and organizer of the first event. Surfrider chapters from Oregon to Argentina now have paddle-outs.

“People already had ideas about clean water – they just didn't know how many others agreed with them,” Sirota said. Yesterday's event was a mini-festival, with a rock band, corporate sponsors, vendor stands and speeches by local politicians – most notably San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye, the grande dame of San Diego's surfer class.

Frye and her surfing-legend husband, Skip Frye, have been involved in every paddle-out since the first one. She used her time on the podium to push for a program to turn treated wastewater into drinking water. The so-called “toilet-to-tap” program is also supported by City Attorney Michael Aguirre. Mayor Jerry Sanders opposes it.

"People need to wake up and realize that we live in a desert,” Frye said. “We need to look at a way to reuse recycled wastewater.”

Surfrider, however, has focused primarily on keeping sewage out of the ocean. Its leaders say the increased awareness generated from the event has aided in several of its recent efforts on behalf of the coastal environment.

The chapter is most proud of its fight to reduce the amount of sewage spills in San Diego.

In 2000, there were 365 sewage spills in San Diego. Last year there were less than 70, in part because of a 2001 lawsuit that Surfrider and San Diego Coastkeeper filed against the city.

Last year, the city tentatively agreed to a final settlement of the suit, which would require it to spend $163 million annually on sewer capital projects and $50 million annually on maintenance through 2013.

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