Surfrider Foundation - Atlanta Chapter

On September 18, 2009, the Surfrider Atlanta Chapter traveled to Seaside, Florida for a beach cleanup with the Emerald Coast Chapter. We had 120 people turn out, and we collected over 600 pounds of trash at 6 different sites. We picked up plastic bits, cigarette butts, and loads of other junk.

Steve, George (and family), and Korbi represented Atlanta. We met Mike and Megan from Louisiana at the campground, and they joined up with us for all the events, including the YOLO paddelboard race and beach celebration. We had a bonfire on the beach on Saturday night and saw a few shooting stars.

Check out the pics below. Additional pictures and a video of the race and beach celebration are here.

In August 2009, Atlanta Chapter Co-Chair and artist, Pam Longobardi, led a group of 11 Georgia State University students to Costa Rica for a collaboration with students from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica Heredia and Nicoya campuses. The students all collaborated on large-scale public art murals made from plastic beach debris. These murals are now for permanent display at the Nicoya campus.

Pam also introduced the students to surfing and lead beach cleanups on the Guanacaste coast at Playa Sámara. The cleanup involved over 30 individuals, including La Grupa Hormigas (“The Ants”,) the student recycling activist coalition. Las Hormigas is responsible for all campus recycling, which they do themselves by hand, in addition to cleanups and public awareness. Together, they removed over 100 kilos of material from the beach, which was later sorted by artist Pam Longobardi and Hormiga group member Jocksan Salavar, to generate material for the plastic mural ‘Human Mirror’, a permanent public art installation by Longobardi at UNA Nicoya.

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The Surfrider Foundation Atlanta Chapter won the Grand Prize for the International Surf Day challenge sponsored by Ocean Minded. The description of the challenge is below. Our submission is here. If you missed the event, check out this post.

CHALLENGE: “Eventually Everything Ends Up In The Ocean” theme

The participant who conducts a cleanup farthest away from the beach. Participants submit photo(s) of the inland cleanup they did along with the following information: Where the inland cleanup took place; how many people participated; how much trash was collected; and how far away from the beach the cleanup was.

Grand Prize — A pair of Bede Durbidge’s Signature sandals and a pair of Bethany Hamilton’s signature sandals, signed by Bede and Bethany; a pair of men’s or women’s sandals in the winner’s size, a shirt in the winner’s size, and Ocean Minded backpack, and Ocean Minded hat.

UPDATE: We also won the Grand Prize for the QuikSilver Diamond Dobby Beach Clean-Up Challenge:

CHALLENGE: “Diamond Dobby Beach Clean-Up Challenge”

Contestants must identify 4 pieces of trash that correspond to the 4 elements of Diamond Dobby™ Boardshort technology: Lightweight, No Rash, Quick Dry and Perfect Stretch. The first contestant to find and present 4 pieces of trash on the beach that fit into these 4 categories wins!
Examples of trash in each category are:

• Lightweight: Styrofoam, Cork, Paper
• No Rash: Smooth Glass, Smooth soda can, Smooth glass bottle
• Quick Dry: Piece of cloth or fabric, Cigarette Butts, Sponge
• Perfect Stretch: Rubber, Rubber Bands, Plastic 6-pack can holders

Grand Prize Winners: Will receive 2 pairs of Diamond Dobby boardshorts.

The following was posted on the Upper Chatthoochee Riverkeeper website regarding their recent online fundraising initiative.

“Thanks for Voting for UCR on Brickfish – We Won!!
Thanks to all of you who voted online for UCR in the Brickfish contest sponsored by North Face and helping us win the $15,000 first-place prize. Special thanks to 97.1 The River, Rock 100, North Georgia Trout Unlimited, River Through Atlanta, and Surfrider for their help in getting the word out about this contest.”

The Surfrider Foundation Atlanta Chapter promoted this event on our homepage.

The Atlanta Chapter hit the road to celebrate International Surfing Day on June 20, 2009 and joined up with our friends in the Emerald Coast Florida Chapter. The fun started Friday with a stand up paddleboard race. Saturday was full of more activities such as a beach cleanup, raffle and bonfire later that night. The waves may have been small, but it was still great for SUP riders, who were out in force. Steve and Rob Combs even paddled the East Pass in Destin. Special thanks to Mike Sturdivant, an officer of the Emerald Coast Chapter, for hosting our members at his house. Check out the photos/video below.

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Surfrider members join up with the Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper and hundreds of paddlers to race down an 8 mile section of the Hooch. Our guys took on the river aboard SUPs in the Recreation Division and received a lot of attention from the local outfitters. Who knows, SUPs could bring new meaning to the phrase “Shooting the Hooch!”

For more pictures visit www.stonemountainsurf.com

Thanks to all of the volunteers that came out on Saturday morning the Surfrider Atlanta Chapter was able to pull out more than 1000 lbs of trash from Cochran Shoals to Paces Mill, plus the park area at Paces Mill. This section of river rarely gets cleaned because of all the rapids, so it felt really good to get out make a difference. The water team was made up of 7 canoes, 1 kayak and a SUP. The land team worked the park by foot. Both groups pulled out tons of trash like tires, a CPU, balls, styrofoam but most of all, plastic bottles. It’s always such a shame to see so many plastic water bottles polluting the very river that provides our drinking water. This is what the Surfrider Rise Above Plastics Campaign is all about, eliminating single use plastic.

We’d like to extend a special thanks to the Flying Biscuit Cafe for providing all the great food for breakfast.

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The Surfrider Foundation Atlanta Chapter had its inaugural party March 14, 2009. The Go Green Membership Drive brought in 150 people, 30 new members and raised $1300. We couldn’t have done it without our sponsors: SweetWater Brewery, Horné Rum, SixDegrees Magazine, Oakley, Distortion Boarding, White Cap Windsurfing and Doogallery with local artists. Our Live Entertainment was Jamal Hafza and Calling All Stars and Wesley Cook.

The New Executive Committee

The Surfrider Foundation Atlanta Chapter was started in 2009 by a group of landlocked surfers who wanted to do their part. By thinking globally and acting locally, we are dedicated to the protection of the waterways in and around Atlanta, and to whatever beaches our surfing passion takes us.