We're seemingly lost in our office, scratching our nappy heads, circling the "meeting room" on skateboards with big, ugly souvenir mugs of coffee in hand, and yawning like choir boys with laryngitis. Today's a serious day. Today we are finishing up our enviro issue, and the vibe around here is plummeting to a rewarding crash. Now, if we could just get someone a bit wiser - someone with a firm, praised voice, to contribute to this Starting Hold.
Hmmm... I got it.
To simply call Drew Kampion "an accomplished surf journalist" is sorta like calling John Gill "a guy who likes to boulder." Sure it's true, but extremely unjust. Drew has been decorating pages with his words on surf culture for the past forty years. He's authored numerous books, including the number-one selling surf history bible, Stoked: A History of Surf Culture. He's currently the man at The Surfer's Path magazine, where his position as American Editor tops off his editorial resume like a sweet cherry.
I'll shoot him an e-mail and get things rolling.

Hi Drew,
Issue #13 of URBAN CLIMBER is at hand. It's our enviro issue and call to arms. The way I see it, our world is split into two natural arenas; Land and Water. While we are out nurturing our mountains, the guardians of the sea are riding waves of resistance over their protected reefs. So, in theory we could work together, side by side, with our surfing kin and save the planet. Heh, it's obviously not that easy. Man, the Earth is being beaten and bruised every second of everyday, and while we might not be able to stop the lashings entirely, we can help heal scars and protect some its precious natural places. But, it's getting the message out, ya know? I always think the surf community has got a handle on environmental issues and is active with the preservation of the ocean and our beaches. It's almost a rite of passage when you grab a board for the first time...you become an instant protector of your playground. That's one thing I love about the surf culture...! Well, we gotta bring that awareness and activism to our side of the coin, the forests and mountains. We need to spread the word. Any advice, man?
Best,
Joe

Hey Joe,
I only WISH surfers were as active as you say, but it's a slow process. Even though the first surf enviro org (Save Our Surf) started up in Hawaii in 1961, and even though our culture has preached a lot of environmentalism since the first Earth Day in 1970, surf companies and media have been slow to offer consumer-level green options. But this must be done. Someone has to do it, or nothing will change. One would expect surfers to be inclined towards environmentalism since we spend our time immersed in a wild environment that is heavily impacted by activities on both sea and land. The same clear-cutting that whacks the soul out of the mountains clouds streams and brings suffocating silt downstream, destroying salmon habitat and upsetting the near-shore environment. It's all connected!
Drew

Drew,
I'm hearing you, man. We've got some great orgs such as the Access Fund, equivalent to your Surfrider's Foundation, working hard to keep our climbing areas open through acquiring land, negotiating with land owners, initializing and enforcing regular clean-up days, sponsoring Adopt-A-Crags and just laying down the codes of conduct for a preserved environment. We also have Leave No Trace, with similar ideals as your SAS (Surfers Against Sewage), making sure our community recognizes the impacts we already have on the environment by simply being a user group, let alone leaving behind any traces of unnatural filth. And, this trash doesn't JUST affect our mountainous destinations. We don't want any shitty runoff rolling into the sea, catching Joel Tudor's fin during a beautiful glide or, worse yet, being mistaken for food by our friends living underwater.
Man, it's pretty easy to see that we're not playing on a half-pipe that was built last month and could easily be torn down tomorrow...only to be rebuilt brand spankin' new. So, the idea is, if we can't rebuild, we have to preserve. Now, I believe that everyone gets it, but how do we get them to act? What's the ultimate message?
Joe

Yo Joe,
The ultimate message is sustainability. If the concept of sustainability is not in your mission statement, you haven't got a real mission. It's just common sense. The bottom-line cause of the global predicament we find ourselves in is the absence of sustainable vision. And not just sustainable use of resources, but sustainable relationships, too.
Which of our national or world leaders are speaking to the idea of ensuring that our planet will be habitable for our grandchildren? Who asks what we must do today to make that happen in the future? The silence is deafening. These people, our leaders, have no vision. I can think of about three exceptions.
I mean, look at us! We've been given the ultimate celestial space ball to enjoy - literally an Eden - and just a few years down the pike of time we've managed to take it right to the edge of the precipice! It's beyond sick. It's massively psychotic at the top and hopeless from there on down. The only possible action for most of us is to abide by the time-tested injunction to think globally and act locally.
Making those small efforts (packing out your trash, and others), minimizing fuel consumption, micromanaging your waste, and so on, have the effect of grounding us in a simple sanity that is becoming rarer by the year. It's the least we can do, but it paves the way for the next step, which is always there waiting for us.
Drew

Enjoy the issue, go climbing, and spread the word.

See you out there,
Joe Iurato

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