Surfrider SoCal Chapters Merge

 

Channeling The Power of Three

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

After years of collaborating on beach and environmental advocacy programs three of the Surfrider Foundation's Orange County, CA, chapters made it official and merged into one combined chapter.

So, in 2023, Surfrider's Huntington/Seal Beach chapter and Newport Beach chapter became the North Orange County chapter. 

 

Representing a 14-mile coastline of some of California's most beautiful and iconic beaches, the new NOC chapter will be better positioned to maximize the power of its members by working toward common goals and sharing resources.

 

The new alliance is also going to focus on expanding inland to encourage people who might not go to the beach often to come and enjoy the ocean. It's important for them to know the big role they can play in protecting it by reducing trash and other pollution that flows to the ocean through inland waterways and drainage systems. 

 

Much of the trash that people see on the beach comes from someplace else. Everything drains to the ocean. Discarded cigarettes, plastic bags and utensils, Styrofoam containers, bottles and cans, and other debris make their way to the sea. Even garden fertilizers and chemicals reach the ocean through groundwater runoff.  

 

In 2022 Surfrider volunteers collected more than 10,000 pounds of trash that washed down the Santa Ana River toward the beach outlet between Huntington and Newport beach.        

New co-chairs Richard Busch and John Wadsworth are eager to get the chapter's environmental message out to the community and elected officials about the need to protect our oceans, waves, and beaches. "It's not just a coastal issue," says Wadsworth. "We're all in it together."

 

This is why Surfrider chapters are doing things to benefit all of us. Cleaning beaches, testing ocean water, promoting recycling and sustainability, showing how to plant "Ocean Friendly Gardens" that are good for the environment, and more.

And it's why Surfrider's North Orange County chapter is glad to be on board, channeling the power of three. 

 

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.