Cindy Lee's National Bucket List Day!

 National Day Calendar Ambassador Creates Special Day

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

What's on your Bucket List? Places to go? Things to do? Dreams to achieve? Most of us have a Bucket List simmering on the back burner.

 

Thanks to Cindy Lee of Huntington Beach, CA, now there's a National Bucket List Day – April 24th – designated just for celebrating your Bucket List and the things you've accomplished.

 

Both a dreamer and a doer, Cindy is an avid Bucket List creator. She uses the lists to keep on track to turning her dreams into reality. The lists help her to stay focused and prioritize things. 

Cindy says, "A Bucket List isn't just about travel destinations. It's about facing your fears, taking on challenges and living your dreams." One of the dreams she's close to checking off is writing her first book, "Growing Your Business through Referrals and National Days."  

A travel agent, CFO (Chief Fun Officer) with Bucket List Coach Travel & Tours and a travel blogger, she helps others check off the items on their lists, too. She wanted to encourage even more people to go after their dreams. And she had just the way to do it!

 

As an Ambassador for the National Day Calendar, she loves getting the word out about all the special National Days to celebrate – Pizza Day, Dolphin Day, Find a Rainbow Day. So, why not a National Bucket List Day? The NDC team agreed – and the new Calendar Day was launched in 2023.

Cindy, whose personal Bucket List includes exotic travel destinations, podcasting, writing, business coaching, and volunteering, spends a lot of time supporting Huntington Beach and working with the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

 

Cindy told SurfWriter Girls, “You get two dates and a dash. There is the day you were born and the day you pass away! The dash is the in between time. The important part is to live your dash.”

 

She says a Bucket List gives you something to look forward to. And, after you check off each item, something to be grateful for. After watching surfers from the shore, she got up her nerve to take a surfing lesson with Rocky McKinnon – and checked that off her list. She had a blast!

Now, with an attitude for gratitude, Cindy Lee is living her life "with purpose and joy"...one check mark at a time!  

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.

 

CA Surf Museum Photo Competition

 

A.R. Gurrey, Jr. Event for Students

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

The 2nd annual A.R. Gurrey, Jr. Surf Photography Competition for middle and H.S. students, sponsored by the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, is open to students 18 years old or younger.

 

Named after Gurrey, the first one to photograph surfers in the early 20th Century, the surf photography competition's deadline for submissions is April 15, 2024.

 

With prizes from GoPro Cameras for winners in six categories, the competition’s goal is to encourage students to develop creative and marketable skills in surf photography. The winning photographers will be honored at an awards celebration and their photographs displayed at the museum.

 

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel were excited to get the details on this photo competition from CA Surf Museum Vice President of Outreach, Tom Gibbons, and to learn more about A.R. Gurrey’s work.  

 

Surfing photographs, like the ones in Gurrey's pioneering 1914 book, The Surf Riders of Hawaii, had never been seen before and helped introduce surfing to the world.

 

SurfWriter Girls use the power of photo images to put people in the middle of the action and are eager to see how this next generation of surf photographers carries on Gurrey's legacy. 

With a judging panel of pro photographers, the six photo categories are: Surf Action from the Land; Surf Action from the Water; Seascapes/Lineups; Portraits of Surfers; Boards, Equipment & Surf Cars; Environmental Awareness & Ocean Activism.

Each participant can submit two entries. To get more information and access the competition's online submission form, go to the museum's website: CA Surf

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.

Surfrider 2024 Beaches Report

 Surfrider Foundation Rates Beaches

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

How would you rate your beach? Not just on its surfing conditions and location, but on how it's holding up to climate change, shoreline erosion and extreme weather. 

The Surfrider Foundation just released its annual State of the Beach Report Card, which grades 30 U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico on their policies to protect their coastlines.

The results for 2023 revealed that there is work to be done to have the beaches where we want them. 

Just eleven states are doing a "fair or better" job and earned a grade of "A" or "B." The remaining 22 locations earned grades of "C" or less. California continues to lead the pack with a rating of "A."

This is critical both to the environment and the economy. As noted in the report released by Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, coastal erosion causes approximately $500 million in property loss annually in the U.S., including damage to structures and loss of land. Along with this, to mitigate erosion impacts, the federal government spends an average of $100 million every year on beach replenishment and other shoreline erosion control measures.

If something isn't done, scientists predict that sea levels could potentially increase by up to six feet by 2100, causing chronic flooding of up to 2.5 million homes and affecting coastal economies, public access, recreation and healthy ecosystems.

The report emphasizes that significant policy improvements are needed. So is continued federal support for the Coastal Zone Management Act and funding for agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

With the right policies and support in place our efforts can take flight.

Sekich-Quinn gives part of the credit for California receiving another top rating to the California Coastal Act, which was passed in 1976. She also pointed out that Washington state moved into the "A" category thanks to the support it is getting from $3.9 million allocated by the state for coastal hazards planning. 

Protecting our oceans, waves and beaches takes work. When it comes to making environmental decisions or taking a side, we need to determine what’s important to us.

      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. 

Lynne Cox Book Yoshi Inspires

 

Sea Turtle's Amazing Journey!

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Long-distance open-water swimmer Lynne Cox never fails to inspire and motivate with her fiction and non-fiction books about extraordinary achievements and acts that connect living beings to one another. 

 

Her latest children's book, Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius, will have you cheering for the title character as she battles against impossible odds to return to the place where she was born and lay her eggs. An ocean journey that will require her to swim 23,000 miles!

Based on a true story, this book of courage and determination chronicles Yoshi's adventure, swimming a record-breaking distance for any being, single-mindedly striving toward her goal. 

Cox’s writing style is both descriptive and lyrical, characterizing Yoshi at birth as “just the size of a smile.” Later her beautiful shell grows into “the shape of a heart.” And swimming “in the vast ocean, she was just a dot.” 

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti are longtime fans of Cox and continue to be in awe of her accomplishments in the sea and on land, as a record-breaking swimmer, talented author, and motivational speaker.  

Whether Cox is writing about her own adventure swimming with a whale calf that's been separated from its mother, the antics of an elephant seal in New Zealand who becomes part of a small town's community, or the heroics of an Italian water rescue dog, she draws you into the story.

 

Yoshi, illustrated by Richard Jones, will enthrall children and adults alike, spinning a beautiful story about the wonders of nature. Like Cox's other works, it also highlights the innate drive of living beings to survive and the importance of family. 

 To learn more about Lynne Cox and her other books, see this SurfWriter Girls story: SurfWriter Girls: Swimmer Lynne Cox is the Write Stuff 

 

  

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.

Roy Gonzalez – A Vibrant Virtuoso

 

The Artist of a Thousand Canvases

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Legendary film star Lon Chaney (1883 -1930), known for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was dubbed "The man of a thousand faces" because he could immerse himself in any role.

 

Roy Gonzalez might be called "the artist of a thousand canvases" for his epic creations in surf and skate art, comic books, music album covers, murals, media, brands, fashion, and more.

Infusing each artwork with his own electrifying style of kinetic energy, Gonzalez' paintings are the personification of "mind-blowing" art, interweaving vibrant colors with minute details. 

In addition to using his art to share his view of the beach and music worlds, his Roy’s Real Tales stories series tells about his life experiences and how they shaped him, hoping that others can learn from them.   

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel were fortunate to be seated next to Gonzalez at a California Surf Museum annual gala in Carlsbad, CA, and to hear his stories firsthand.

 

Surprisingly mellow for someone whose artworks are filled with so much excitement, Gonzalez was enjoying soaking up the surf vibe in the room.

 

Waving to the surfing greats passing by, he talked to surf artist Ron Croci and Phyllis Tracy, a “Gidget” 1960s Malibu Beach scene regular, and enjoyed the ohana – sense of family – that was all around.

Calling himself “a Rebel with a Pen,” Gonzalez is an original, who loves to point out life’s absurdities and poke fun at convention.

 

An iconic artist who is full of surprises, much like Frank Sinatra’s famous song “My Way,” Roy Gonzalez puts his own spin on life and this painting of the blue-eyed crooner.  

 

It’s a spin that’s wild, irreverent, and filled with a passion for living each moment to the fullest.

  

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.