Glenn Hening named it Surfrider after the Santa Monica hotel, the Surfrider Inn, which he dropped in on a family vacation on the West Coast of the United States. Almost forty years ago, the story of Surfrider begins here, which became a Foundation in 1984, with Hening himself as president, based in Malibu and other founders Lance Carson, Tom Pratte, Chris Blakely. The idea is simple: we are surfers, we go out to sea, we love the sea, so let’s work to defend it and to protect the coast.
Since then, the Surfrider Foundation surfboard has slipped on the waves of half the world, also landing in Europe. Surfrider Foundation Europe was born in 1990 in Biarritz, on the Basque coast in southwestern France, one of the historic surfing capitals of the Old Continent. Today it can count on 50 offices in 12 countries, is chaired by Gilles Asenjo, has several testimonials in the world of sport and 106 young ambassadors, boys between 20 and 27 years who come from the world of the sea – from biologists to sailors – and who are in a certain sense, the new faces of the “battle”.
Among these there are also some Italians, one of them is Giulia Querini, Venetian from Mirano, descendant of Pietro Querini, the merchant, navigator and senator of the Republic of Venice who after being shipwrecked on the island of Røst in the Norwegian archipelago of Lofoten exported in the Serenissima the dried cod and opened the stockfish market.
Giulia, how are the 106 born?
“They were born last summer, when Surfrider recruited a group of young people from all EU countries, linked and active in the maritime and sea world and to whom the blue was at heart. We realized that there was no network of this type of young people, a sort of blue Erasmus, which would also bring the voice of the young people to the places where environmental policies are decided and where the youngest are never invited “.
You have been chosen and then?
“There was a selection that ended on November 18th and then, the 106 of us, took part in various training workshops”.
You have developed and carried out eleven recommendations, which were presented to French Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin recently in La Rochelle and then at the One Ocean Summit in Brest. What do they mean?
“We start from the creation of a blue Erasmus that combines education, work and networking opportunities to improve knowledge and awareness on maritime affairs to an EU-wide surveillance program, from the creation of an ocean certification for public authorities to investments for the training and retraining of workers in dying out sectors and facilitating their transition to new sustainable jobs. And again, we call for the creation of a European platform to promote ocean literacy, the implementation of a new classification system for zero-emission ships that combines the EU MRV regulation and the IMO classification system, so that by 2040 only ships with rating A can sail in European waters and land in EU ports. We ask to improve the monitoring of water quality in ports and the allocation of funds for training on the technology of autonomous ships and to facilitate the environmental transition of the maritime sector ”.
Surfrider is also a partner of the Green Marine certification, which supports shipowners in demonstrating their environmental commitment.
“Yes, we have signed a partnership to extend the initiative from North America to Europe. We ask that its membership be facilitated and that financial support be provided to its certified members ”.
Surfrider Foundation is also known to most for its beach cleaning campaigns.
“True, but they are not limited to just removing the waste from the beaches. Behind this collection there is also a study to understand what type of waste there is, so as to be able to provide those who will then have to elaborate the EU directives a sort of scientific-statistical database to establish which materials to ban “.
Other initiatives?
“We also care about water and we have launched a project together with the University of Bordeaux that includes the help of surfers, who apply sensors to their legs when they go surfing. These are “antennas” that measure the concentration and type of bacteria. The quality of the sea water, in short, in areas where they are not usually monitored, because they are outside the bathing area “.
E Surfride Foundation in Italia?
“For now, there is no office yet, but sections in Genoa and Rome. Perhaps we do not yet have that awareness of the protection of the blue heritage that is now rooted in other European countries. But we are optimistic. My dream would be to contribute to the birth of an Italian Surfrider Foundation “.