SurfWriter Girls

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Surfrider Foundation Celebrates 40 Years!

Protecting Oceans, Waves and Beaches

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

The non-profit Surfrider Foundation is celebrating its 40th year of protecting the world's oceans, waves and beaches. Started in 1984 by a group of surfers in Malibu, CA, who wanted to clean up their local beach, it has grown to become one of the leading environmental organizations in the world.

A strong voice for the ocean, the Surfrider Foundation removes more than 200,000 lbs. of trash from beaches each year.

Its 200 chapters and student clubs worldwide are dedicated to making clean, safe beaches accessible to everyone.

Since it began working and gaining support for the environment, Surfrider has achieved over 800 victories, protecting coasts from over-development, pollution, erosion, and other threats.

Volunteers put in over 180,000 hours a year participating in beach cleanups, community outreach, environmental education activities, and more.

Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force tests water quality in 14 states and Puerto Rico to protect beachgoers from contaminated water.

Through its Ocean Friendly Gardens and Ocean Friendly Restaurants programs it works to conserve water, fight pollution, and practice sustainable food-sourcing and service methods.

With its 30,000 volunteers joined together in a powerful activist network, the Surfrider Foundation is more committed than ever to protecting the place it loves – the ocean!

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.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Women Making Waves 2024

Nine More Women Shaping Our Seas and Surfing

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

This is the ninth year for SurfWriter Girls Women Making Waves story focusing on nine amazing women making a difference in the lives of our oceans and in surfing.

Like the ninth wave in a set, that is more powerful than the rest, these women have had a powerful impact on the world. Surfers, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and more. SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel are excited to introduce you to this lineup of dynamic women.

Nancy Caruso, marine biologist/founder of nonprofit Get Inspired! is getting people involved to restore California's kelp beds and protect endangered abalone, white sea bass and Pismo Clams. She's taught over 12,000 students and takes people in SoCal on dives to see the kelp beds and sea life. Caruso worked at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific caring for exhibits and animals and in the water quality lab. Growing up in Virginia, she hadn’t even seen the ocean when her fourth-grade teacher told the class about oceanography and got her hooked on being an oceanographer.

Sally Fitzgibbons, 2024 U.S. Open of Surfing champion and Surfing Walk of Fame inductee, had lots to celebrate in Huntington Beach this August. The Australian, who started surfing on the World Tour in 2009, scoring a win in Portugal her rookie year, won the Open before in 2011 and has 12 wins on the Tour, including the Rip Curl, Billabong, and Fiji Pro events. With sponsors including Town & Country Surfboards, Breitling, Boost Mobile, and Accor Hotels, Fitzgibbons is a major force in surfing. She says, "Being a professional surfer is the best job in the world. The ocean is my office, nature is my business partner."

Love Lee Ghione, founder of the Surf City Splash, Huntington Beach's annual New Year's Day run into the ocean, is at the heart of Surf City's vibe, working with the HB Coordinating Council and the Surfrider Foundation to stage events and promote the city. Known on Instagram as surfcitywonderwoman, Ghione lives up to the name with her boundless energy and enthusiasm. A dog lover, Ghione is also a co-founder of HB's DogBeach.org preservation group that supports the city's dog beach where pooches can run and play in the ocean.

Christy Hahn, champion bodysurfer and Beach Volleyball Hall of Famer (Manhattan Beach Volleyball Championships Doubles winner 1969), is the epitome of the California beach girl, living a life people dream about. And, in February she saved a life, rescuing a swimmer from drowning in rough surf in Del Mar, CA. Hahn, who's in her eighties, knew the ocean conditions well. She set a World Record there in 2018 with twelve other bodysurfers for the most women bodysurfing a single wave. Hahn puts on bodysurfing clinics for disabled vets and Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton's Beautifully Flawed Foundation

Melissa Murphy, of Melissa Murals, based in Huntington Beach, recently used a 60-ft. boom to paint the exterior of the Sunset Lounge, turning the building's bland gray exterior into a riot of color. With murals all around Huntington Beach and other SoCal beach towns, the HB native (nicknamed “Melissa Murals”), who graduated from CSU Long Beach with an art degree, is changing the look of the O.C. one brush stroke at a time. An avid surfer, former lifeguard and water polo player, she is particularly fond of ocean scenes and sea life.

Jane Schmauss, co-founder of the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, has served as the museum's director, president and historian. A San Diego native and graduate of San Diego State University, Schmauss is a booster for all things surfing. The museum's first location (in 1986) was in a corner of her restaurant George's in Encinitas, a spot where all the surfers hung out. Its current location, steps from Oceanside Pier, is 5800 sq. ft., filled with surfing exhibits, art and memorabilia. Schmauss co-edited Surfing in San Diego, a book about the region's surfing history.

Brooke Shannon is the founder of Jilaine Swim, a Costa Mesa, CA, manufacturer of sustainable swimwear made from recycled materials. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Shannon started her business because she wanted to make a fashion statement while having a positive impact on the environment. A beach girl at heart, who practically lives in bathing suits, her lineup of eco-friendly swimwear lets her put all her skills to use. And nothing goes to waste – fabric scraps from the manufacturing process are made into matching scrunchies.

Caitlin Simmers, 18-year-old surfing phenom from Oceanside, CA, just made history by becoming the youngest female to win the World Surf League Championship. Dazzling the crowd at CA’s storied Lower Trestles in San Onofre State Beach September 6^th, she clinched the number one spot on the tour. With three World Tour wins this year and a spot on the 2024 Olympics team, the 2023 Rookie of the Year has not only lived up to everyone’s expectations but skyrocketed to the top of her sport.

Suzanne Strom, Ph.D., oceanographer and head of the Strom Lab at West Washington University, focuses much of her research on plankton, an important part of the ocean ecosystem. Plankton, a diverse collection of organisms that drift on the water, are a key source of food for fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Researching how plankton produce and interact, Strom has made breakthroughs in the lab and encountered 30-ft. waves at sea, working on projects from the Gulf of Alaska to the Palmer Station in Antarctica.

Leaders in their chosen fields, each woman shares one thing in common – a passion for the ocean and a desire to make the world better.

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Dave Reynolds – Awards Winner!

Surf Artist Turns Trophies into Art

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Surf artist Dave Reynolds has a deft touch that can turn a blank canvas into captivating artwork. His minimalist style makes his paintings instantly recognizable and in much demand. Unlike other artists, though, Reynolds has a side gig that brings him as much recognition as his art – making trophies.

Not just your standard trophies – the metal loving cups with handles on the side – but extraordinary trophies that are themselves works of art. Sculptures and constructions, often made from sustainable materials, that are perfectly suited to the award the winner receives.

Since 1988 Reynolds has been creating custom surfing and paddleboard trophies and awards for everything from local events to World Surf League competitions and the Olympics.

He's created more surf trophies than anyone – as many as 30,000! In addition to competitive events, that includes trophies for companies from Quiksilver and Coppertone to Verizon and Hawaiian Airlines.

A fan of the Pearl Jam rock band (with wife Kellie), Reynolds has made awards for them, too.

Reynolds has partnered with the Surfrider Foundation, Bolsa Chica Wetlands, Wyland Foundation, and many other organizations to create special, one-of-a-kind trophies.

With collaborator Phil Roberts, Reynolds made trophies (in the form of tractors) for the first event at 11-time World Surfing Champion Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch in 2018 with surfers competing on Slater's man-made waves in the middle of Central California's farmlands.

And when Rip Curl held its GromSearch TV competition Reynolds was the one they chose to make the trophy.

So did the prestigious New Big Wave Championship in Nazare, Portugal, this past fall with surfers from around the world riding waves the size of skyscrapers.

And the International Surfing Association World Games in Puerto Rico in February 2024 where surfers competed for slots at the Paris Olympics. Reynolds already had a slot at the Games – designing the ISA’s VIP Surfing Award, a sculpture of Tahiti’s fearsome Teahupo’o wave!

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti are longtime fans of Reynolds and are always surprised and amazed by the new artworks he comes up with.

Retro TV sets refitted with 3-D art scenes inside the frame.

Endless Summer shadow boxes and beach themed chess sets and pinball games. Bronze sculptures of sea life. The list goes on, limited only by Reynolds' boundless imagination.

The surfing world is fortunate to have Dave Reynolds commemorating its victories with trophies that, like the recipients themselves, reach incredible heights.

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunday, August 4, 2024

SurfWriter Girls Best Beach Books 2024

A Tsunami of Thrills, Adventure and Romance

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Summertime is adventure and escape time whether you’re out on your surfboard or lying in a comfy hammock with a cool drink and a good book.

For your armchair adventures, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel have all the books you need to beat the heat and while away the summer hours.

The Bookshop by the Bay, by Pamela Kelley, is a perfect beach read, filled with romance and new beginnings against a backdrop of sea and sand. When best friends Jess and Allison turn the page on their old lives and open a bookshop on Cape Cod, they find out it’s never too late for second chances. SurfWriter Girl Sunny liked how the chapters told the story from each character’s point of view.

California Golden, by Melanie Benjamin, immerses you in 1960s California surf culture. World-class surfer and mom Carol Donnelly would rather surf than be a housewife. As she and her two teenage daughters struggle to find their way in this unconventional family, the ocean is an ever-present force. The New York Times calls it a “dazzling saga of ambition, sacrifice, and the tangled ties between mothers and daughters.”

Carissa Moore: Hawaii Gold: A Celebration of Surfing, by Carissa Moore, tells the Olympic gold medalist's story about growing up and surfing in Hawaii. A tribute to the sport of Hawaiian kings, Moore invites other Hawaiian surfers and cultural leaders to share their stories about the islands and their legendary surf breaks. Sharing the stoke with amazing photos, the book "captures the exotic Hawaiian spirit in a beautiful way," says Essentially Sports magazine.

Chipped: Writing From a Skateboarder's Lens, by Jose Vadi, takes you inside the skateboarding culture with the 40-something author, who refuses to give up his beloved sport even as the years add up. This collection of essays recounts the lure and thrill of navigating the world on the deck of a skateboard and how it can "reenergize and re-imagine your environment...into a landscape bursting with creative possibilities."

Hemingway's Cats, by Lindsey Hooper, "is the cat's meow," say SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti. With a hurricane threatening the Ernest Hemingway House estate in Key West, Florida, where the descendants of Hemingway's six-toed cats live, it's all hands – and paws – on deck. Surrounded by 54 frisky felines, house tour guide Laura has her work cut out for her. Luckily, handsome cat keeper Jake is sheltering in place, too.

Hula: A Novel, by Jasmin Iolani Hakes, transports you to Hilo, Hawaii, just an island breeze from the Kilauea Volcano and into a community whose culture spans multiple generations connected through the hula dance. A coming-of-age novel centered around Hi'i, who seeks to win the Miss Aloha Hula competition, it tells her journey discovering her roots and what’s important to her. A Harper's Bazaar Best Book of the Summer, Hula "sings with a voice as spellbinding as the rolling surf," says Oprah Daily. (Hakes is shown below with authors Stuart Coleman and Mark Shapiro)

Lost Landmarks of Orange County, by Chris Epting, is a fun, nostalgic guide to the O.C., with a look at places that once entertained and thrilled locals and tourists. The restaurants, hangouts, and theme parks that made O.C. a special slice of the SoCal scene are all here, including Lion Country Safari, Golden Bear nightclub, and Japanese Village and Deer Park. Put travel writer Epting's book in your beach bag and you'll have lots to talk about with friends on lazy summer days.

Matterhorn, by Christopher Reich, is a chill alternative to summer books' tropical locales, with former CIA spy Mac Dekker giving up his peaceful Alpine life to return to the field to find out how his son died following in his espionage footsteps. For SurfWriter Girl Sunny, who lived in Switzerland, it was the perfect setting. Library Journal says, "fans of Bond tales and special-ops action novels should add this to their reading lists."

The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill, begins with a terrified scream...and keeps your attention until the last page. A book within a book, it's about an author writing about a writer trying to solve a murder that occurs in the Boston Public Library...with all the suspects in plain view. The Seattle Times describes the twisting, turning plot and different perspectives as "a layered literary hall of mirrors that's great fun to get lost in." SurfWriter Girl Patti was hooked on this USA Today Bestseller from the start.

And for the youngest groms, The Pelican Can, the colorful, new picture and rhyming verse children’s book by author/illustrator Toni Yuly, will have little ones eager to learn to read and to head to the beach to watch the pelicans soar and dive. Parade magazine calls the book “sunnily optimistic.”