Surfers making waves to Save The Wave all around the world

CANARIAN SURFERS JOIN THE BATTLE




SURFERS, lets face it, dont have the best reputation in the world. Beach bums or layabouts are two of the least offensive epithets applied to them.

Theres also the stigma, if nowadays somewhat outdated, of being more than a little partial to the intake of strange substances that can sometimes make them seem what you might call out of touch with reality or off their faces if you like.

Even their musical tastes are considered by many to be questionable. They still listen to early records by The Beach Boys, for heavens sake, when theyre not skidding across the faces of mountainous waves, risking a snapped neck from being dumped on the seabed.



Thats the common perception, at any rate. But times are changing and, more and more, surfers are showing themselves to be in touch enough with reality to recognise that a lot of things are going wrong with this planet that didnt ought to be.

It may stem from rather selfish concerns for the future of their sport and pastime. But at least they care. And they care enough to get off their boards, stand up and do something about it.

Typical of the new breed are a trio who descended on Tenerife last week to make a film about the fast disappearance of surfing beaches under the rush of development in pursuit of sand and sun tourism.

It is not just the threat to their beloved waves that bothers them. Underlying their worry that there soon might be nowhere left for them to practise their energy-sapping sport is a deep concern for the way beautiful coastlines are being altered, with natural beaches being obliterated under tons of concrete and imported sand..






by ROGER DISS

James Pribram, left, and Will Henry inspect the surf beach at Punta Blanca, Guia de Isora. Will that be next to be endangered by beachfront development?




It is time tourism and beachfront developers woke up to the fact that waves are often more valuable than the projects that threaten to replace them, says film team leader, Will Henry. They are a unique and irreplaceable resource that should be preserved at all costs.
Will, a product of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, himself truly woke up to the worldwide coastal threat on one of his annual pilgrimages to surf the waves in Madeira. As a keen surfer he had seen the sign of what was to come in the rampant development of Californias coastline.
Then, on that visit to Madeira in 2001, he saw the government about to follow the same pattern, with a proposal to build a large marina in the village of Lugar de Baixo, directly on top of what surfers recognise as a perfect right point break (a place for good, regular wave patterns) and known as Jardim do Mar.
Tractors and cranes soon built a seawall along the shoreline at the point and within days the islands 30 or 40 regular surfers, mostly under the age of 20, saw the waves start to disappear.
They thought there was little chance of winning any fight against the government. But Will thought differently. He headed home to California and started setting up the Save the Waves Coalition.
It brought numerous environmental groups together, forming an alliance and igniting a campaign that brought forth a huge outcry from surfers around the world.
Under intensive lobbying, the government of Madeira relented and moved the marina to another bay. The wave motion at Jardim do Mar, ideal for beginner surfers, was damaged but spared from ultimate destruction. Ironically, the new marina was damaged by large swell. To this date there has never been a boat moored there, says Will.
Encouraged by what was at least partial victory, the Save the Waves Coalition took its crusade to many other endangered surfing sites around the world with varying success.
The trouble is, governments and town councils see the development of coastline with marinas and seawalls as prestige projects, often drawing down huge subsidies from organisations like the EU. Its hard to make them see the damage they are causing to the natural environment.
The fight brought Save the Waves to Tenerife this year. Will was accompanied by James Pribram, 36-year-old pro surfer who reached 35th in world surfing rankings, and film producer Vince Deur working the camera.
Their aim is to make a film about the threat to La Enramada beach, Las Americas, as a follow-up to their first film, Lost Jewel of the Atlantic, about the fight to save Jardim do Mar.
Film can be a great tool to bring home to local populations and governments the threat of unbridled seafront development, says Will.
The trio are uncomfortably aware that part of the battle to save the wave in Las Americas has already been lost. They hold the construction of El Camison beach responsible for the destruction of surfing waves at Las Fitenias and La Casita.
They dont want to see the Hotel Rui Palaces proposal to add another artificial beach in front of its hotel cause the same kind of damage ... Especially since a sandy beach is available to its guests only 150m away at the artificial beach of Bahia del Duque, says Will.
But film-making was not the sole objective of last weeks operation. Part of the Save the Waves mission is to remind the local population of the value of surf beaches to the environment and encourage them to fight to protect their heritage.
Its a mission that is undertaken carefully and tactfully, with the team ever-mindful and understanding of the American image of pushy interference around the globe.
We dont tell anybody what they should be doing, says James Pribram, who has added surfing journalism to his qualifications as a skilled surfer. We just point to the problems faced by other surfers around the world and explain how they have faced up to governments and big businesses over such issues as concrete development and polluting effluent discharge from industry.
It is a technique that has brought Canarian surfers on side through the support of Angel Lobo Rodrigo, president of the Canary Islands Surfing Federation.
When hotel owners try to justify these infrastructures, says Angel, they say they are building the beach for the people, that they are regenerating the beach.
In this case thats a hard argument to sustain because there was no beach there. You cannot regenerate something that has never existed.
They also say its good for tourism but the truth is it primarily benefits the hotel and that is an example of exploiting a resource in an intensive way.
The funny thing is that the whole area in fact the entire west coast of Tenerife is considered by the European Union a Lugar de Interes Comunitario (Place of Community Interest) and, as such, should be protected or at least these intensive actions should be avoided.
In light of that Save the Waves is seeking legal support to protect the rights of surfers and ocean enthusiasts in the EU, who they see as increasingly on the losing end of the battle to preserve natural coastal treasures.
We are attempting to mount a legal challenge to the EUs poor environmental stewardship and argue for mitigation to replace the waves that have been damaged or destroyed, says Will.
They are not without some pretty powerful backing for such action. Their present film-making expedition was commissioned by the magazine The Surfing Path, which plays a crusading role in protecting surfing areas, and subsidised by XS Energy drinks, an acquired taste among surfers who need a boost to keep riding those waves.
There are many powerful companies that have sprung up to cater to the growing popularity of surfing, says Will. The manufacture and sale of surfwear alone amounts to $8 billion dollars worldwide.
We feel confident they will all pitch in where necessary to help us saves the waves wherever we find them under threat.
So the old image of surfers as idle vagrants of the waves is changing, counting among their ranks doctors, lawyers, corporate business heads and other respectable members of the community who just want to let their hair down every once in a while and



indulge in the thrill of wave-riding. The change hasnt come a moment too soon for Will, James and Vince and perhaps for the waves. In 1992, two world-class surfing beaches, Las Fitenias and La Casita, at Las Americas, were destroyed by the construction of artificial beaches and breakwaters.
Expensive oceanfront hotels wanted to offer their guests a sandy beach along this naturally rocky shoreline. They brought in sand and built large breakwaters to protect the sand from washing away.
The breakwaters were built with no apparent regard to preserving the popular surf spots in front of the hotels, extending far enough into the sea to smother the wave formations under tons of rock and concrete.
Now La Enramada, the last remaining surf beach on this part of the coast, could be facing a similar fate. Hotel Riu Palace, on the fast-developing plush seafront resort of Costa Adeje, wants a sand beach too.
But this time there will be a fight, as a team of surfers, dedicated to preserving surfing sites around the world, prepare to mobilise local protests.