Howdy,

The Hunter Branch has had a great day celebrating International Surfing Day.

Today went really well – numbers were not what I had expected but we’ve laid the platform for some more popular events in Summer.

The highlight for me was four time World Surfing Champion Mark Richards joining us for the Clean Up and the Exhibition – and his amazement at what we found discarded on the beach!

Here’s how it went ...

10.00 am – Surfing Mums, along with Surfrider got together for a surf at Newcastle Beach.

3.00 pm – Beach Clean Up at South Newcastle – the Environment Team from AAMI, along with four time World Champion Mark Richards and members of the Community got together to clean up South Newcastle.  It was great to have the resources of Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society to be used at the clean up. Even though it is Winter and a relatively secluded beach, we were surprised to discover the number and diversity of litter found on the beach.  An audit of the litter removed showed a staggering 1756 bits of rubbish collected from just 220m of beach in only 45 minutes! This included 394 cigarette butts, 56 balloon ribbons, 18 balloons, 13 ear plugs and 217 bits of polystyrene foam.

4.00 pm – Exhibition and Auction at Surf House Gallery – a number of Community members, including MR again, joined in the celebration of all things surfing through the appreciation of some amazing surf and beach photography curated by Alex Thompson at Surf House Gallery.

6.00 pm – To round off a great day a good crowd got together at Liquid Gold Café and were entertained by Rob Cooper, Peter and Scott Gelziniz (Father and Son) who provided some excellent sounds.  The music was topped off by the screening of Tim Bonython’s Sessions II - Slab Hunters feature, then some fantastic Cheap Eats, from Tony, Amy and the crew at Liquid Gold Café.

Thanks to Kent Rowe from Digital Print for getting the AV together for the night as well.

For More information: International Surfing Day - www.intlsurfingday.com Surfrider Foundation Australia – www.surfrider.org.au Surfing Mums - www.surfingmums.com Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society - www.oceancare.org.au Tim Bonython - www.volatile.com.au Surf House Gallery - www.surfhousephotography.com Liquid Gold Café - 4927 1778.

Supported by The Surfrider Foundation, ‘Slab Hunters Session 2’ is a 90 min surf film by Tim Bonython and will screen one night only at Avoca Beach Theatre, 5.30pm Sunday 20 June.

Sessions 2 takes us on a journey to witness the most amazing surfing that Australia has to offer and exposes us to some of Australia's best fearless surfers taking on what we mortals would think as pure craziness.

Over the last 10 years, surfers with a passion to surf big evil slabbing waves have been looking long and hard to find the perfect slab.  Australia has a massive coastline that is exposed to some huge ocean swells - hence with the aid of jet skis these Slab Hunters have been able to conquer waves that in the past were “unsurfable”.

The surf film night is a fundraiser for ‘Take 3’ and the Surfrider Foundation  to support their ongoing work for conservation, action, regeneration and education for the ocean, beaches and estuaries.

A short piece from local film director, Tim Silverwood, will screen beforehand introducing the concept of marine environment group ‘Take 3’.

 ‘Take 3’ is about encouraging the surf community to be pro-actively involved in removing marine debris from their ocean playground.  The aim of the program is not only to achieve cleaner beaches through monthly ‘Clean-up Our Beach’ days but to raise levels of environmental awareness, particularly among the eleven to twenty year olds.

On Saturday March 20th,  2010 members of Surfrider Foundation Australia Northern Beaches Branch headed over to Fishermans Beach in Sydney's Collaroy Basin for a beach clean up.

With the help of 17 volunteers 578 pieces of debris weighing around 18.5kg was collected from the beach in just a couple of hours!

The highlights included:
278 ciggarette buts,
58 bottlecaps
10 balloons
1 haircomb, 1 flipper, 7 pieces of driftwood, 1 frisbee, 1 jumper and 1 rag.

Wildlife frequenting Collaroy includes sea eagles, pelicans, terns, ducks and yellow-crested cockatoos. Fur Seals, dolphins and whales can be seen during migrating season all of which can be impacted by rubbish left on the beach and floating in the ocean.

Surfrider Foundation Australia and Tangaroa Blue have joined forces to coordinate the Australian Marine Debris Initiative. Volunteers are always welcome so if you are interested in helping out contact your local Surfrider Branch or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we can put you in touch with a group!