Stab’s Guide To Protecting Your Coastline - Stab Mag

Live Now — Episode 2 Of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico

109 Views

Stab’s Guide To Protecting Your Coastline

A DIY guide to getting active with Save The Waves director, Nik Strong-Cvetich.

news // Jan 15, 2017
Words by Stab
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The tireless demand for jobs and growth placed on humankind is increasingly putting our coastlines at risk. From Harry’s in Baja, to Bells Beach in Victoria, the Great Australian Bight in South Australia, and Bali, development is threatening many of our favourite waves and the coastal environment itself. Nik Strong-Cevitch from Save The Waves explains how best to protect your coastline and gives us a status update on the worldwide fight against ill-planned developments.

Stab: What sort of a threat does tourism development and other kinds of development pose to our coastlines and the sport of surfing worldwide?
Nik: In a lot of ways tourism development is a double-edged sword, and I’d say surfing has been complicit in a lot of coastal tourism development. Generally poorly planned, and over-development of coastlines tends to disrupt natural coastal systems. It changes the flow of sediment; it can have water quality and run-off implications, damage reefs, accelerate erosion, and also flat out destroy breaking waves. All of these are bad for surfers/surfing, as well as the environment. However, the other edge of the sword is that when tourism is properly managed it can offer alternative economic benefits to locals that don’t damage ecosystems. I.e managing a surf lodge in Indo is better than dynamite fishing the reefs. An extreme example but you get the point.

What are the most efficient ways to fight back?
Being educated on the issues, and paying attention to your backyard. Many times people get fired up about an issue when they see bulldozers burying their favourite break. The best way to fight back is to be prepared. If the EIS (environmental impact statement) is released, then look at it and take the time to comment publicly. If this stuff is not your bag, then check in with a local group to get the scoop; Save The Waves (http://www.savethewaves.org) on an international scale, Surfrider (http://www.surfrider.org.au) in US and the EU, Surfers Against Sewage in the UK. These are all good groups to be linked in with and can help you strategize the correct actions to take.

ScaleWidthWyIxMjAwIl0 MickSwerve

How is the fight going?
Depends on where and what fight. We just had some luck in Ireland with our local partners stopping Donald Trump’s seawall that would have destroyed the wave and the beach at Doughmore. Again, it’s a good example of locals being motivated and seeking the right help. There are other places (LINK) where some pretty heinous stuff is going on. 

What are the competing interests at play in the development of our coastlines and who owns the moral high ground?
In many coastal communities, the demands for economic development on the coasts are real. Lots of people are barely scraping by, and anything that provides jobs is hailed as a good thing. On the other side, some wealthy developers don’t have these concerns, and just want to make a buck or two million and will exploit this demand. Many times what is truly valuable in the long run is a coastline that is open, healthy and accessible, and that the short-term boom or promised boom, actually hurts the long run. Think of all the cool places in northern Baja marred by unfinished developments that now are worthless, ugly, and have degraded ecosystems and lost access. Was the short term worth it?    

Five Steps To Help You Protect Your Coastline:
1. Spend time enjoying and understanding your local break. If you understand what ecological functions make it work, then you understand what can disrupt it. Coral, dunes, river mouths, sandbars, and reefs are all ecosystems that depend on a delicate balance. This also makes you a better surfer.

2. Pick up three pieces of trash each time you surf. There is trash everywhere – make it better than you left it.

3. Stay informed on your local issues. Whether development, water quality or trash, all conservation starts locally. Attend a council meeting or publicly comment on plans if an issue arises. Also, take care of the stuff that happens at your house, and ensure that you’re not part of the problem with shit running off your property into your local break.

4. Become a member of Save The Waves, Surfrider, Surfer’s Against Sewage or another informed local conservation or surf group. Tell your friends too and be rad.

5. Look out for the coming Save The Waves Mobile App to help crowdsource threats to our coastlines around the world. Stay tuned at www.savethewaves.org

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

When Surfer’s Eye Is Actually Cancer

Erin Campbell's brutal journey from surf camp dreams to chemo drops, cryotherapy, and surgical horror.

Jul 3, 2025

Surfing’s 2025 Q2 Report

An assessment of surfing's vital signs throughout the second quarter of 2025.

Jul 2, 2025

What Actually Happened to Occy’s Mad Max Plunger Pool In Yeppoon?

Surf Lakes’ brass talks: internet hecklers, the unplugging of the plunger, and the Tom Curren…

Jul 2, 2025

Poor Goofy Foots 

Data shows that the world is stacked against goofs — they even make 15% less money than…

Jul 1, 2025

Britain’s First Wavepool Has Closed — What Really Happened?

Bankruptcy, social media hackings, debts unpaid — and yet, reopening looms.

Jul 1, 2025

Watch: Was Matt Meola’s Air Actually Better Than Hughie’s?

Watch the full Swatch Nines highlight reel and decide.

Jun 30, 2025

Houshmand Bludgeons Field To Win Second CT — Molly Picklum Tastes Blood, Snatches World #1 In Brazil

You can't argue with big surfing — that's Saquarema wrapped.

Jun 29, 2025

37 Years Old And World #1 — What’s Changed For Jordy Smith?

On rediscovering decades old surfboard templates, having a personality on the CT, and why this…

Jun 27, 2025

Tom Lowe Stars in ‘Let Me Live’

The wild, improbable ascent of Britain’s best big-wave surfer.

Jun 27, 2025

Saq Wrap: Italo Celebrates Mid-Heat, Griff Drops A Freestyle, Jordy + Yago Continue BBQing 20-YOs

Top seeds sow ruin, Final 5 starts to crystallize.

Jun 27, 2025

Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico: Episode 2

Our seven surviving surfers confront an oddly large California beach break.

Jun 26, 2025

SEOTY: The ‘Once-In-A-Decade’ Caribbean Swell That Kelly Slater Passed On

Michael Dunphy stars in Jimmicane's 'Blue Veil'

Jun 25, 2025

Who Owns Bingin? Legal Fight To Stop Demolition Begins

Eviction notices served for all businesses built on state land.

Jun 25, 2025

Tony Hawk Just Named Hughie Vaughan’s Internet-Breaking Air Because… No One Else Can

89% of our IG poll respondents claimed the 'stale fish flipper' was the best air…

Jun 25, 2025

German Surfers: AN INVESTIGATION

Truth is the light by which the world can see. 

Jun 24, 2025

“I Lost Everything I’ve Ever Owned, But This Board Came Back”

One month after the LA wildfires, a surfboard washed ashore.

Jun 24, 2025

Shock Therapy: World 1 & 2 Eliminated Early In Saquarema

Gabriela Bryan and Caity Simmers fall victim on Day 1 of the Vivo Rio Pro.

Jun 22, 2025

German University Surf Contest Derails After Local Pushes Competitor Off Wave

The story behind the shove, and why wave-rental politics turned physical in Seignosse.

Jun 22, 2025
Advertisement