Surf Protection, World Surfing Reserves, Malibu and other Case Studies

Big Day, Small Board: Erik "Frog" Nelsen dropping in at Cloudbreak, one of the world's iconic waves.

On October 9th, Malibu's famous Surfrider beach surfing areas was dedicated as the world's first World Surfing Reserve - an ambitious effort by a small NGO called Save the Waves.

The idea of protecting surfing areas and providing our iconic surfing spots around the globe protected status is something that is shared my many surfers as well as other NGO's that protect surf spots including the Surfrider Foundation USA, Europe, Japan, Argentina, Canada, WildCoast, Surfers Against Sewage, and others.

Here's a recent presentation I have on the topic of surf protection, the role of world surfing reserves in protecting surfing areas and some examples of surf protection efforts.

Surf Protection & World Surfing Reserves from Surfrider Foundation on Vimeo.

You can view and/or download the presentation here (Keynote).

In addition here are a couple of recent articles discussing surfing reserves:

A critique of Malibu's world surfing reserve designation here.

An essay by Neil Lazarow entitled, "What is a Surfing Reserve and why should surfers care about them?"

Perfect Anecdote: the wave value is so high...

Photo by TKO:

File Under: Perfect Anecdote

The other day, I was walking down to Trestles for a lunch time surf (in the name of research of course!) and I had a nice chat with a guy who had cut out of work early to surf. He was from Manhattan Beach - so he had driven over 60 miles (one way) and then committed to the 20 minute walk down to the surf. We talked about quality of the waves, the crowds, etc. In response to the discussion about the crowds he said, "you may only get a couple of waves, but the wave value is so high that it's worth it".

So this guy was willing to drive 120 miles round trip, give up 1/2 a day of work, walk 40 minutes round trip, and brave the crowds at Trestles for a couple of hours in the water - all for one or two waves, because the value of those waves was so high - they were so much fun- it made it all worth it.