By Jason Murphy for The Sea Lives Initiatives

Surfers have a special relationship with the beach and the shoreline. 

Yury Kulikov explained it to me as we rode the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo – one of the two main ferry routes between BC’s lower mainland and Vancouver Island.

Yury is Chair of the Vancouver Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation – a global network of surfers and coastal advocates with over 80 chapters worldwide and three in Canada.

He says that for surfers the beach is a special, almost sacred space marking the border between the ordinary world and something better.

Given this, it comes as no surprise that surfing groups have become adept at fighting for what they believe in – beach access for surfers and the prevention of shoreline pollution.

It was in this context that I met Yury and other members of Surfriders here in BC.

Mainstreaming Ecological Activism

Yury is the first to admit that while the Vancouver chapter of Surfriders has done many good things – including an effective "Ban The Bead" campaign against the use of microbeads in cosmetics, toothpaste and household detergents, beach cleaning activity and public events focused on oil-spill and other pollution issues – the overall tone has been somewhat laid back – a low key group welcoming those who love the beach and ocean – but that is starting to evolve again. According to Yury, members are looking for more structure and a more progressive attitude to important issues and he is looking to take up the challenge.

Yury isn't trying to turn the world on its head, just trying to make it better, and is starting by making an effort to promote the work of groups who are already out there doing good to his members and beyond.

My opportunity to connect with Surfriders arrived with an event they hosted at Vancouver Aquarium – Rise Against Plastics – a grassroots presentation for concerned parties on efforts underway in BC to mitigate pollution from ocean debris, including the work of Ocean Legacy – a BC non-profit wholly focused on dealing with plastics pollution (more on Ocean Legacy and their work in a future post.)

Events like this are Vancouver Surfriders’ first steps to a new approach to making a difference, an approach that is not so much idealistic as pragmatic, mainstream even.

He told me that he is willing to work with highstreet sponsors to make progress, and didn't hesitate to host an event at Vancouver Aquarium given that their hi-profile conservation programs include extensive work studying the effects of pollution including Microplastics, and despite the fact that aquariums still come under fire from conservationists for their practice of keeping large mammals in captivity – a move that rejects the kind of “conservation angst” (my phrase) that can get in the way of well-intentioned groups from working with each other.

There is a realism to his attitude that I appreciate. Yury isn't trying to turn the world on its head, just trying to make it better, and is starting by making an effort to promote the work of groups who are already out there doing good to his members and beyond.

My impression is that angst of any kind doesn’t feature on Yury’s agenda very much, and he was kind enough to allow me to join him and fellow Surfrider member Mark Lindsay on a surf trip to Tofino where I could photograph them in their natural element and meet other members of the Foundation.

 

"Live Like a Local" – A Textbook Case for Community Activism

The Vancouver chapter of Surfriders may still be ramping-up their activism game, but they have a good example to draw from in their sister group based in Tofino, where the Pacific Rim chapter, Chaired by Michelle Hall, has been working for the last two years with some success on programs to reduce marine debris. 

Their experience reads like a textbook case for how to get community activism done.

Michelle reasoned that people visiting Tofino do so because they connect not just with the area’s spectacular natural beauty but also with the idea of the place...

So what have Michelle and her chapter members learned? Firstly, that you need full-time staff. 

Lilly Woodbury is the chapter’s full-time manager, her salary funded by grants and sponsors, and this was a big step in giving Michelle and the rest of the 18-strong volunteer committee – each with their own specific job roles and campaigns – the necessary operational support to actually get stuff done.

Speaking of Lilly in this role, Michelle says “She is the glue that holds us all together.”

Under this structure the chapter attracted 500 people to work on its campaigns in 2017 alone.

Secondly, it comes back to community – but this time in a new and powerful way.

Michelle reasoned that people visiting Tofino do so because they connect not just with the area’s spectacular natural beauty but also with the idea of the place – a picturesque coastal community on the edge of the wilderness and a fishing town turned natural adventure playground. This realization led to an innovative approach – use what Tofino represents to the people who live there to brand positive behaviors with regard to plastics.

The approach of Michelle and her colleagues has been to support Tofino Tourism by informing visitors on how they can “Live Like a Local” by making sure that they minimize their use of single-use plastics, make sure they do not litter the beach with anything (including cigarette butts – a debris item made with plastic fibres that comprises over 30% of all collected shoreline debris according to Ocean Legacy) and by proactively participating in beach cleaning efforts.

 

Identity Drives Action, Adopting a New Identity Drives Change

This appeal to tourists and locals alike has also been successfully backed up with political and entrepreneurial action.

Inclusivity and engagement of the First Nation communities has been a priority, the theme? Working together and learning from each other. 

An appeal to local businesses for a voluntary ban on plastic bags has resulted in 150,000 fewer plastic bags dispersed annually.

Local districts have supported the installation of cigarette-butt canisters – 65 in all that together have yielded 133,000 butts. Waste material that has since been recycled into plastic lumber by recycling solutions firm Terracycle.

It's a focused and determined grassroots approach that is getting results and is a model that could be followed by coastal communities anywhere: Brand better behavior so that tourists have a more of positive impact and local businesses and politicians are willing to follow through in any way they can to make the brand a reality for the good of the community.

It’s the more positive flip-side of making any problematic activity socially unacceptable – brand the desired, more beneficial behavior in such a way that people are drawn to it.

It turns out that while you can be effective by aligning disparate groups around a cause, if you connect the behaviours that drive positive change to further that cause in such a way that it allows people to identify more strongly with their community or a community they aspire to be a part of, and a sense of place, you can get a more focused, determined and rapid result.

It's an approach that (often toxic) political groups have been using on important issues for years, and it’s easy for them because there is usually a convenient flag to wrap around their ideas – the flag of a country or something darker.

Michelle’s victory for progressive thinking and ecological activism is her realization that Tofino’s identity (its “flag” figuratively speaking,) was friendly to making the world a better place, free of marine debris – an identity she could wrap around her positive agenda.

The participation of Surfrider groups in the "Ban The Bead" campaign has been instrumental in achieving a ban the use of microbeads in Canada, and now the Pacific Rim chapter is working with local politicians to craft a national strategy for combating plastics pollution.

In addition, Pacific Rim Surfriders and the volunteers they have inspired have removed 20 tonnes of marine debris from 44 beaches and coastlines (recycling 20% of that through Ocean Legacy,) have collected and recycled 1500 lbs of old wetsuits (not already turned into yoga mats by Suga,) have worked with 16 local businesses to give them “Ocean Friendly Business” certification by helping them to eliminate 10 difficult to recycle plastics in their operations, and have put 210 youngsters through a Youth Environmental Stewardship program in local schools, educating them on consumption, plastics, marine health and data quantification in part by supporting them in making art with plastics collected from their beach cleaning efforts.

And Michelle and her group are aiming higher than that too. 

The participation of Surfrider groups in the "Ban The Bead" campaign has been instrumental in achieving a ban the use of microbeads in Canada, and now the Pacific Rim chapter is working with local politicians to craft a national strategy for combating plastics pollution.

Michelle stresses that the ecological goals of Pacific Rim Surfriders are very clear: 1 – Eliminate single-use plastics; 2 – Divert waste from landfills; and 3 – Educate youth, visitors, businesses and locals. 

The clarity of these goals has surely been a big part of what Pacific Rim Surfriders has managed to achieve – a vital foundation to success – but it is not the only driver. 

Conceptualizing an appeal to the general public’s aspirations for the future and their own identity, installing an operational framework equal to the task, and mobilizing hundreds of island residents and tourists as well as scores of local businesses and key political bodies have been a big part of making Pacific Rim Surfriders successful in moving forward on their goals for a better environment.

Maybe it took an outsider to connect with the power that the idea of a place can have.

Michelle is a Brit. Born in the Wirral in the UK’s industrial northwest she moved to Tofino because it represents her perfect West Coast reality.

Maybe it took an outsider to connect with the power that the idea of a place can have. Whether that is true or not, her lessons regarding how to get effective activism done can be learned by anyone looking to make a positive change in their community.