Help Surfrider, By Shopping
You can help The Surfrider Foundation raise money this holiday season by doing your shopping at Amazon. All you have to do is visit www.5percentblue.com, and click the link to amazon. Surfrider gets 5 percent of the sale for any purchase you make on that visit.
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November 16th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
What is a good alternative to Surfrider to donate money too? I am not a fan of them.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
What’s your beef?
November 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Yeah, what’s the problem?
November 16th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
They used to be an organization of surfers who cared about beach access and water quality but now they are sue happy lawyers who care more about the $$$.
November 17th, 2007 at 12:05 am
So I’m curious… how much $$$ does Surfrider actually make through litigation initiatives? I should hope it’s enough to cover the costs of their 59 Coastal Victories since Jan. 1, 2006! (http://www.surfrider.org/whoweare6g.asp) I support the Surfrider Foundation & I’ll now support 5%Blue as well.
November 17th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Surfrider put itself on the map by suing two Humboldt County pulp mills for $5.8 million. Great victory right? Well, the pulp mills closed down and moved to Chile where there are no environmental laws. Had Surfrider created a plan to invest the 5.8 million back into the pulp mills to upgrade them Humbolt could have had kept it’s jobs and been a model for the future instead of outsourcing the pollution to Chile. Check out http://greensurfing.blogspot.com/index.html to learn about the struggles against the pulp mills in Chile.
In my hometown we have a dilapidated beach access to a very popular surf spot. The state gave the city a few million bucks to improve that access and at the city workshop two Surfrider lawyers spoke. All they offered was threats of lawsuits, but they offered no ideas or plans of their own. Just threats of lawsuits. Now the project is on hiatus.
I myself have donated thousands of dollars to Surfrider over the past 20 years but now I am wondering if there is another group to support. Is there?
November 18th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I bet the CEO of Surfrider makes 6 figures. What’s more, over consumption of goods is one of the main reasons why we have pollution in our oceans. So why would an environmental organziation promote consumerism?
Who the hell needs a tide watch when you got the internet?
I agree with JP. Give your money to a grass roots organization and don’t buy shit you don’t need. It won’t improve your surfing expereince no way.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Surfrider will continue to be a force of good, I hope I didn’t come off too harsh. I am interested in the Save the Waves coalition: http://www.savethewaves.org/index.asp
We need to protect the actual surf spots above all else. The list of spots that have been destroyed is depressing.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Good points. I did a google search and came across this http://www.surfrider.org/international/pmblog/ Looks like Surfrider (and others) are taking what they learned at Humboldt and applying it to Chile and Tasmania pulp mill fights. Good stuff. Yeah, Save the Waves is cool too. Just support someone. Lets all make this world better. The bad guys are trying to ruin it.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Remember, there’s 2 sides to every story…
I completely agree that if the 5.8 million (the amount Surfrider apparently received in the lawsuit) minus the expenses to fight the case in the first place, was reinvested back into the pulp mills to upgrade them… Humbolt could have “potentially” kept it’s jobs and been a model for future litigation. Again, I completely agree that makes a wonderful script.
But here’s my question to you… what’s the guarantee that the pulp mills wanted to upgrade their plants in the first place? If what you said is true & the pulp mills moved to Chile where there are NO environmental laws and now there’s an ongoing struggle against the mills currently… it could be just me, but that doesn’t sound like a management team n’sync with environmental standards and community interests? Let’s be honest, they weren’t very proactive from the beginning as it took a lawsuit to eventually render their fate.
But I don’t know the situation… I don’t know the facts behind the second example you brought up either. (Though Surfrider makes it abundantly clear that their Beach Access initiative promotes the right of low-impact, free and open access to the world’s waves and beaches for all people.) All I know is that there’s always 2 sides to every story, tough decisions have to be made, lessons have to be learned, and though I respect your opinion… 200+ community outreach campaigns, 900 presentations of Surfrider’s education program - Respect the Beach, 8,000+ beach water tests taken, 600 beach cleanups, 125+ meetings and events involving city, county, and state governments were attended by Surfrider Chapter representatives, and 140,000+ volunteer hours is a pretty good track record for recent accomplishments!
I’d like to echo surf4less’ comments, “Just support someone. Lets all make this world better. The bad guys are trying to ruin it.”
November 19th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I agree with WAVRYDR. What a great concept-just support someone!
While debating the past is intrinsic to growth and success, we just need to back “all” local groups with aspirations of ecological reclaimation. If 5%Blue can bring funds to the table-HURRAY!
Debating the pro and cons of each group is philosophical but it doesn’t get the job done. Surfrider is successfully educating and bringing action to the table.
I for one don’t do a great deal of Amazon shopping but will enter 5%Blue into my favorites. This is at least a positive step and a no brainer.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
That is crazy about what happened with those mills. Very insightful thanks for posting that. I have faith that Surfrider will learn from these past incidents though…
November 19th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
A small percentage of my paycheck goes to Surfrider every couple of weeks. In medicine, we always learned, “First, Do No Harm.” I don’t think Surfrider Foundation is actively doing harm. Like any large organization, we can easily pick em apart. All the money I used to donate went to S.T.O.P. before Donna became a council women. I wish she was still doing that. I think that was her true calling. My default donation then went to Surfrider, but I’m thinking I soon might be changing. Save the Waves might be a good option.