Surfrider

This Sunday is the Surfrider's 2009 Paddle For Clean Water in Ocean Beach. The day will be filled with waves, beer and music starting with a 1-mile paddle around OB Pier. The event is to "raising awareness of the border pollution issues in southern San Diego County and raising awareness of fresh water issues that impact our local coastal waters in our current drought." Hope to see you there! Read more »

Got there early, about 7:40. SurfRider was set up and got the few early bird going. I got my shirt and headed out. Its all about those free shirts I tell ya.

This year the Morning After Mess Cleanup Day presented by Sun Diego Boardshops will be on Monday July 6th. T-shirts to 50 volunteers at each site and 50 concert tickets at each location to see Slightly Stoopid, 311 or Incubus later in July at Cricket Amp. in Chula Vista!!! Raffle prizes for volunteers at each location including gear from Sun Diego vendors.


Five cleanups on 7/6 from 8-11am:
Ocean Beach Pier - meet at grassy area by the end of Newport Ave.
Mission Beach - Belmont Park - meet south of roller coaster, on the grassy area by the boardwalk
Pacific Beach - meet at the end of PB Drive on the beach
South Carlsbad State Beach - Ponto Beach - meet south of Ponto jetty
Oceanside - South Harbor Jetty - meet on the beach near the parking lot where Harbor Dr. meets Pacific St.

The (18th Annual) Paddle for Clean Water is a non competitive event that consists of hundreds of local beach goers paddling around the Ocean Beach Pier in a joint effort to bring awareness to the pollution problem along San Diego’s coastline. This is a free event, and all ocean enthusiasts are invited to participate. As part of the festivities, there will also be free breakfast for all paddlers, guest speakers, music, a huge raffle and a beach cleanup.

This year there will be a Post Paddle Party, a Festival for Healthy Oceans immediatly following the Paddle until 6pm at the Ocean Beach Pier parking lot. The event includes a kids art contest, an art show, dance lessons and great live bands.

For additional event details checkout San Diego Surfrider's Google Calendar Paddle For Clean Water

Independence Day is typically the busiest beach day of the year as the celebration lasts into the evening with fireworks. Help us raise awareness about the litter issue on the beach while making a difference in helping to keep our beach clean.

The San Diego Surfrider Foundation tells us of the event

The 4th Annual Morning After Mess presented by Sun Diego Boardshops is scheduled for Thursday July 5th with beach cleanups at seven locations: Ocean Beach Pier, Belmont Park in Mission Beach, PB Drive, Tourmaline, Del Mar 15th Street, Ponto in South Carlsbad and Oceanside South Jetty.

Each site will host a cleanup from 8-11AM with an organic cotton t-shirt for the first 50 volunteers at each site and a prize pack to be raffled off for volunteers compliments of Sun Diego and their vendors. The more trash you pick up, the more raffle tickets you get.

Along with some tips on how you can do your part to help the morning after mess effort

• Consume less and buy products that do not have a lot of packaging
• Take less to the beach and use the trash cans or bags provided during your celebration
• Take an extra bag or two with you to bring home any trash or recyclables that you cannot dispose of properly
• When you leave the beach, pick up three pieces of trash
• Help clean your community after ANY celebration, not just the 4th of July
• Spread the word to "Respect the Beach!"

If you wish to volunteer for this event please pre-register by sending an e-mail to volunteer@surfriderSD.org with the location where you will be helping and the number of people with you, if any. It is not mandatory, but much appreciated, especially if you are bringing a group of 10 or more people. If you plan on coming out to help, please print and sign this waiver in advance to make the check-in process quicker.

WIN A NEW SURFBOARD! The person with the most creative paddlecraft that makes it around the pier will win a new Holeman Surf Designs board hand shaped with a Petritech blank.

The Paddle for Clean Water is a non-competitive event that consists of hundreds of local beach goers paddling around the Ocean Beach Pier in a joint effort to bring awareness to the pollution problem along San Diego's coastline. This is a no-charge event, and all ocean enthusiasts are invited to participate. As part of the festivities, there will also be breakfast for all paddlers, guest speakers, music by local artists, a huge raffle with another surfboard as the grand prize and a beach cleanup. Come out and support clean water!

Thursday August 17th in Ocean Beach.

The 6th annual event embraces grassroots activism and calls for our supporters to raise awareness about the Hold On To Your Butt anti-cigarette litter campaign. We need your help: Between 4 and 6pm we will be at various intersections in the Ocean Beach area and need volunteers to hold our hand made awareness signs and to help with street sweeps to cleanup the areas. In addition we will be holding a morning press conference to unveil our new outdoor ashtrays for OB and to remind the public and raise awareness about the smoking ban for San Diego City beaches and parks that takes effect that day. If you are interested in helping, please email bill@surfridersd.org or click here

The San Diego Union Tribune reminds us: Smoking ban kicks in tomorrow

Take your last puff, smokers who like to barbecue or bodysurf at city parks and beaches. Tomorrow, San Diego's ban on smoking begins. Smokers can be fined $250 or more if caught by a lifeguard or park ranger. Some exceptions are leased properties on city land - such as the San Diego Zoo, which will continue to allow lighting up in designated areas. The mayor's office is studying what, if any, other exceptions might be allowed and plans to decide in November.

Because of a glitch in the no-smoking ordinance approved in June, the ban doesn't cover some beach boardwalks, including paved walkways at Mission Beach and Pacific Beach.

City Council President Scott Peters wants to close that loophole by amending the ordinance, probably this fall, his spokeswoman said.

Don't expect the cigarette patrol to swoop in with ticket books blazing tomorrow at sunrise. City lifeguards probably will write citations only after first alerting people to the new law and then issuing a second warning if the Camel or Cohiba isn't extinguished right away.

"I don't anticipate that will happen very frequently. People are pretty willing to comply," said San Diego Lifeguard Capt. Rick Wurts, who said other cities with smoking bans report that warnings work. Also, a lifeguard's first job is to prevent drowning, not smoking, Wurts said. "It's not going to be at the top of the priority list," he said.

To help promote the new smoke-free atmosphere, the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation is installing 30 outdoor ashtrays along Ocean Beach.

The rust-proof stainless steel receptacles are meant to encourage people to snuff out before hitting the sand and to address cigarette butt litter, cited by the City Council as a major reason behind the ban.

The ashtray installation is a pilot program by Surfrider, and the group hopes to expand it to other beach areas throughout the county, said chapter coordinator Bill Hickman. Surfrider volunteers also will hand out personal ashtrays in Ocean Beach tomorrow afternoon as part of an effort to raise awareness of cigarette butts littering the beach.

The city joins more than 30 California locales that have outlawed smoking in one place or another, after Solana Beach was the first to ban smoking at beaches in 2003. Earlier this month, San Diego passed an ordinance banning smoking inside Qualcomm Stadium.

Help Surfrider by Celebrating Stone Brewery's 10th Anniversary



This is a great opportunity to help Surfrider and at the same time sample some excellent food and beer from vendors such as Anchor Brewing, Ballast Point, Green Flash Brewing, La Jolla Brew House, Mad River Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and many more!

"Are you an early riser, or an afternoon type of person? Since you're all invited to the Stone 10th Anniversary Celebration & Invitational Beer Festival on Saturday, September 9th you need to start deciding now which session you'll be attending. Here's why: for this year's event we are breaking the event into two different sessions (like last year).

Our annual event will once again be benefiting some very Worthy, local charities: the Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos, Palomar Family YMCA, the Surfrider Foundation, and Fight ALD!

Since this is our 10-year bash, we are planning on having the most guest breweries we've ever had, tons of great food, homebrewed sodas, and lots, lots more."

Check out Stone Brewery Website for more information and tickets >>