Conference to Save Surf Spots This Week

Surfing organizations from the United States, Europe and Latin America are gathering this week to talk about how to conserve some of the world's best surf spots at the Global Wave Conference III.  Members and organizers of the Surfrider Foundation and other groups are meeting over a three-day period in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, just north of Todos Santos.

Here is the essential goal of the conference, outlined on the GWC Web site:

"While the coasts are attracting more and more people combined with increased development, climate change, sea level rise, the conservation of surfing waves is a major issue on many coastlines around the world.

Ocean waves come from the alignment of multiple social and environmental factors, many of which are only

Photo: Wikimedia (John Sullivan)

moderately predictable. There are several types of threats that can cause the degradation of a wave (pollutions, oil spills, coastal development, lack of accessibility, poor water quality, offshore development, etc.). As a result waves are vulnerable from many threats. For this reason many surf spots have now been altered or lost.

Against this backdrop, the challenge for the surfing community is to highlight the fact that the presence of a wave exceeds surfing alone and has larger community and societal benefits. As a result, one objective of the conference is to characterize what are the damages which can affect waves and coastal area and to study the best ways to fight them."