Great Turnout for Mad River Beach Clean-up!

Thanks to all the volunteers who rallied on Saturday out to Surfriders Mad River beach clean-up.  Volunteers raked through several left over beach fires and collected thousands of nails with magnets.  We even found piles of burnt plastic and furniture..yikes!  By the end of the clean-up the beach was in much better shape!  Thanks again!

The thousands of nails found from beach fires are left over from people burning wood pallets. Burnt pallets leave a mess of nails making it unsafe to walk on the beach.

If you missed out on this months clean-up take note that Surfrider has a clean-up on the second saturday of each month.  Next month is our adopt-a-highway clean-up  on January 14.  We meet North of Trinidad off  HWY 101 on Seawood Drive road exit.  We always provide supplies!

December: Day Without a Bag, Gear Swap, Ocean Night and more!

Season’s Greetings to all! This holiday season Humboldt Surfrider has a lot of exciting events with plenty of opportunities to volunteer.

This could be you!

One chance to shine: Surfrider is in search of a very special high-energy someone to dress up as The Bag Monster and make appearances throughout December’s events.  Don’t be shy! You know you want to!  To be part of any Surfrider event this month, please email Volunteer Coordinator MJ Mazurek at mjhumboldtsurfrider@yahoo.com.

Humboldt Surfrider Meeting
6PM Tuesday, December 13 at a location to be determined (stay tuned!).
First 2 pitchers of beer are FREE!  Join us to find out about our beach and highway cleanups, water quality testing, our “Ban the Bag” campaign and much more! Your ideas and involvement make our chapter stronger.

Day Without Bag Leadership Training
5-6 PM Wednesday, December 7 at Humboldt Baykeeper
Join Surfrider for an evening of training to learn how to support a reusable bag campaign in our local grocery stores. Help us lead the way to make every day “A Day Without A Bag!”  Plus get crafty while learning how to turn old t-shirts into re-useable shopping bags, see video here.

Gear Swap
6PM Friday, December 9 at Far North Climbing Gym (along with Arts!Arcata)
Start digging through your attics and garages to sell or swap your old gear. Or if you need something and can’t afford new, mark your calendar and be there!  Surfrider still has room for a few more volunteers to table at this event.

Ocean Night
6:30 PM Saturday, December 10 at the Arcata Theater Lounge
Come hang with our friends at Humboldt Baykeeper and the Ocean Conservancy for a night of ocean environmental documentaries and epic surf flicks.  December’s films are SoLa: Louisiana Water Stores and Come Hell or High Water.

Mad River Beach Cleanup
10 AM Saturday, December 10 at Mad River beach
Show your love for the beach! We will meet at Mad River beach parking lot at 10am to pick up trash. We provide all of the supplies. CANCELS in the event of dumping rain. Email Debbie Topping to volunteer.

Day Without a Bag Event
11 AM Thursday, December 15 at Eureka and Arcata grocery stores
A Day Without a Bag is an educational grassroots event created by Heal the Bay.  From 11am to 1pm Surfrider and Humboldt Baykeeper will be tabling at local grocery stores in Eureka and Arcata asking holiday shoppers and retailers to forgo single-use, plastic shopping bags in favor of reusable bags. Volunteers will create reusable bags out of old t-shirts and silk-screen them with the Ban the Bag Humboldt logo for shoppers.

Day Without A Bag!

Surfrider Humboldt and Humboldt Baykeeper are partnering to bring you Day Without (a disposable) Bag on 15 December at Wildberries, Ray’s Arcata, Ray’s McKinleyville, and Eureka Natural Foods.  Day Without a Bag was started by Heal the Bay with the goal of reducing the use of environmentally harmful single-use plastic bags by empowering individuals to take simple and direct actions to eliminate the use of disposable shopping bags.  Surfrider Humboldt and Humboldt Baykeeper will be encouraging shoppers to stop by our information booths and to bring in a t-shirt that we will make into a reusable bag.  Your new bag will then get screen printed with our Ban the Bag Humboldt logo.  A single reusable bag has the potential to replace over 1,000 single-use bags in its lifetime, saving a significant amount of resources. We hope this one day of action will encourage people to go plastic free during the holiday shopping season and throughout 2012.

You can help our effort in several ways:

• Volunteer for the event
• Volunteer for our pre-Day Without a Bag work party
• Help provide or loan needed supplies for the event
• Plywood to make into Ban the Bag boards
• Blue and white paint and supplies
• Extension cords
• Heat guns to dry screen print
• Donate T-shirts

Please contact mjhumboldtsurfrider@yahoo.com for more information or to volunteer.

North County Fair! Coastal Cleanup! Surf4Peace! Volunteers needed!

North Country Fair!
Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18

Join Humboldt Surfrider at the fair this weekend! We need volunteers to help table, share info and sell our awesome T-shirts and hoodies! Email merisurfriderhumboldt@gmail.com to sign up.

Coastal Cleanup!
Saturday, Sept. 17

Make our beaches cleaner together this Saturday, when Humboldt Surfrider joins Humboldt Baykeeper at the North Jetty from 9 a.m. to noon for Coastal Cleanup Day! Email Debbie Topping for more info at debeachcomber@gmail.com.

Surf4Peace!
Sunday, Sept. 18

The 8th annual Surf4Peace takes place Sunday at the North Jetty from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. It’s all ages, longboard and shortboard.

Join the Neighborhood Surf Shop Saturday night at the new Beachcomber, across from Jacoby Creek School in Bayside, for a pre-party featuring Globe’s Year 0000, then volunteer, compete and just have fun at Surf4Peace the next day. Admission is free, with a suggested $2 donation at the door.

For more info, stop by the Neighborhood Surf Shop at 685 11th St. in Arcata, call 822-7873 or email Jonny Redboard at jca1011@gmail.com.

We want your body! Volunteer opportunities aplenty!

People! We need volunteers! Want to help sign up new members? Hand out info? Raise funds? Experience live music and great movies while doing so? Here’s what we’ve got going on:

• Friday, March 4: Ocean Night at ATL, The Mother Hips at Hum Brews
• Saturday, March 5: Absynth Quintet at Hum Brews
• Wednesday, March 23: Zion I and Grouch at Hum Brews
• Friday, March 25: Beach Ball at ATL with Friends of the Dunes. Berel Alexander Ensemble and Ukesperience!
• Saturday, March 25: Gig at Hum Brews (details to follow)

Drop an email to Jennifer at humboldt@surfrider.org. We’ll get you all trained up and ready to go!

Update: new T-shirts, projects and more!

Happy Fall! Hope everyone’s enjoying the sunshine this week!

And when you’re out and about in the lovely days… or in a lovely daze, depending… don’t forget to represent! Currently at Greenhouse, we have the 2010 Matt Beard edition Ts and hoodies, with the 2011 Shawn Griggs version Ts on their way.

(We sure are lucky to have so many fine artists donating their work to Humboldt Surfrider – a shout out to 2009 artist Matt O’Brien, too, of course!)

In other news,

efforts to repair the pipeline to the Jetty shower are underway,

slow progress is being made on improvements at Moonstone and Camel Rock,

our Rise Above Plastics campaign is hitting back hard after California failed to ban single-use plastic bags,

we’re looking to partner with the Tobacco Education Network to end cigarette butt litter

and, of course, we continue to hold monthly film nights,

plus regular beach and highway clean-ups,

as well as pursue the best protection for our local ocean, beaches and waves.

Not a member yet? JOIN! (Link goes to current Iron Surfer promotion page.)

Already a member? A volunteer? A donor? A supporter? Any of all of the above – THANK YOU!

As always, email humboldt@surfrider.org with any questions or to get more involved.

See you at the beach!

Seeking Volunteer Coordinator

Details here. Email humboldt@surfrider.org if you’re interested. (Jennifer is out of town this week, but will see you at the Shindig and get back to you asap!)