Quiksilver and Roxy are proud to support the Water Innovation Now (W.I.N.) contest 2008. In an effort to promote water conservation, W.I.N. challenges Orange County students grades K-12 to develop progressive and creative ways to save water. Winners will have the opportunity to display and share their project at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (U.N.E.S.C.O.) Global Conference on water in Irvine, California.

With many great prizes to be won and a chance to make an impact on California’s current water crisis we encourage all teachers and students to get involved! For more information please visit win.ocde.us

Thank you!

We did it AGAIN – we made a huge impression on decision makers with close to 3,000 Save Trestles campaigners attending the Secretary of Commerce hearing yesterday to show the federal government that the people do not want a toll road running through a State Park.

We are now back in the waiting game as the Secretary of Commerce will make his decision between Oct 24, 2008 and January 7, 2009.

This is great as it gives us more time to make sure all of our family and friends write the Federal Government and demand they uphold the Coastal Commission decision to protect San Onofre State Beach.

We have until October 2nd to submit comments. We’ve made it easy for you: click here.

If you have already completed the action alert, our system will catch it.  Even if you have written the Federal Government, please pass this link around to at least 20 friends today.

At this point, waiting is our forte!  We have been fighting this toll road for over 10 years… and remember when we had to wait for a public hearing to be rescheduled?  Patience always pays off!

Thanks for your enduring support. It’s all possible because of YOU! (www.savetrestles.org)

Shayne checking in after the “Quiksilveredition Paddle 4 Humanity” fundraiser held this Sept. 13th in New York, paddling from Montauk to Block Island,18 miles.

15 paddlers made the crossing over a steel gray sea to raise $45,000 for the “Miracle House,” as well as other worthy charities based here in NY. The morning started off with choppy shoals and a daunting dense fog, turning into a golden shroud of cloud cover and glassy seas for the remainder. As it was not a race we stuck together covering the distance in about 6.5 hours and upon arriving at the picturesque Block Island we were greeted by orange banners, an excellent lunch, and Bart Hopkins – happy to see we had all made it alive.

I want to thank everyone at Quiksilver who gave this project the green light and gave me the opportunity to be a part of it. I have roots here in NY, my Dad being a pioneering surfer on the Long Island coast and it was great to connect with a hardy bunch of salts willing to swim over the same waters the world record 4,500lb. Great White shark was harpooned. Bart Hopkins did an outstanding and thorough job through the whole event, and along with Dan & Anita Hopkins, took great care of me during my stay.

Other highlights:

*Ran into Izzy Paskowitz and crew throwing a “Surfer’s for Healing” event at Ditch Plains, Montauk the day before the paddle. I jumped in to help out and spent my pre-paddle warm up day taking children with Autism on the waves.

*Visited Stuart & family at “Air & Speed” along with Bart and connected with Lars from “Main Beach”

While building the Quiksilver SurfAid Community Health Training Centre, site manager Matt King has also been establishing the fruit and vegetable gardens. He is finding some unique challenges.

“We knew this was a difficult site when we took over the lease of the land,” Matt said. “It is positioned right on the beach, with a river skirting the edge, and is obviously very sandy with poor soil.

“But we want to demonstrate to the local community, not just here in the hamlets surrounding Katiet, but also in the wider Mentawai and Nias regions, that it is possible to create productive soil to grow healthy food if you build up the organic matter in the soil through composting.”

The Centre gardens are integrated with the chickens, the composting toilet, the water management systems and the kitchen so that all wastes become resources for another element. This is part of the approach to demonstrate a living system where all parts are linked.

Please click here to read the full story…

SurfAid International is delivering clean water for the first time to some Nias communities, off Indonesia’s North Sumatran coast, after completing 99 water projects on the island which was devastated by the March 2005 earthquake.

The earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, badly affected the water supply on Nias as it lifted coral reefs on the west and south coasts by 3 to 11 feet, raising the level of many wells above the water table.

Community wells were also destroyed or badly damaged so SurfAid undertook a joint Watsan (water and sanitation) program with UNICEF and NZAID, which started in 2006.

“Awesome, though much overused these days, is really the only single word that can describe the achievements of the Watsan team,” SurfAid Program Director Alan Rogerson said. “There are now communities who have clean water for the first time in more than three years, and other communities who have it for the first time in their history.”

SurfAid’s research on Nias shows a 30 per cent prevalence of diarrhea in children and it is a big contributing factor to the under five year-old child death rate of 66 per 1,000 live births.

“These alarming diarrhea rates are being addressed by SurfAid through our Community Based Health Program,” Rogerson said.

“And it quickly became apparent in this health program that there was a strong relationship between diarrhea, hygiene, local sanitation facilities and the availability of a reliable source of clean water."

“Plus carrying water is a chore exclusively for women and children. In some communities it has been
necessary for individuals to invest several hours per day in this task. This consumes valuable calories
transporting heavy loads over relatively long distances, often uphill."

“In communities where malnutrition is common, women, including pregnant women, and children do not have the calories to spare. So it is our expectation that supplying clean water to these communities will have the direct effect of improving health more generally,” he said.

The 99 facilities, in 26 villages in Sirombu and Teluk Dalam, include new water tanks, tapped spring water systems, new and reconditioned wells, rainwater harvesting systems and two separate types of latrines.

All have been constructed with community participation – SurfAid’s Watsan team provided the materials and expertise, and the local communities provided the labor and any locally available component materials, such as stones and gravel. And all facilities are located in isolated areas so the challenges of logistics, transport and availability of equipment have been common.

“The strong focus on community engagement and ownership has been a successful model for ensuring the long-term maintenance of the facilities,” Rogerson said. “And the approach of a hand up, not a hand out, is a central plank of SurfAid’s philosophy in working with communities.”

Following the success of this first Watsan program, a second phase has already been planned for Nias and will commence with an assessment of eight villages in Afulu and Alasa. SurfAid is currently raising money to fund this program.

SurfAid is also assessing the feasibility of extending the Watsan program to the Mentawai Islands, which lie south of Nias. The Mentawai was badly affected by two major earthquakes, measuring 8.4 and 7.9 on the Richter scale, in September last year. (Courtesy of SurfAid International)

Quiksilver is pleased to announce the release of "Clay Marzo: Just Add Water," an epic film that dives beneath the surface of one of the most gifted and creative surfers in the world, 19 year-old Clay Marzo. The film gives a never-before-seen look at Clay’s mind-blowing skills in the water and the challenges he faces on land as a result of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Like other kids growing up on the island of Maui, Clay lived in the waves. Clay’s pure love of the ocean along with his natural talent allowed him to excel to new heights, pushing the limits again and again. A member of Quiksilver’s elite Young Guns crew, his spontaneous, unpredictable and creative style has earned him three NSSA National surfing titles, a nomination for Maneuver of the Year at the 2007 SURFER Magazine Poll and Video Awards and video spots in the biggest surf movies of this decade. Three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons calls him, "hands down, the best 19 year-old surfer in the world," while eight-time world champ Kelly Slater goes even farther saying, "He knows things I don’t know about surfing."

Sometimes a puzzle to those around him, Clay was only recently diagnosed with Asperger’s. The realities of life as an elite pro surfer, the constant travel and media demands, are not easy for Clay, but he is bravely taking on his difficulties.

The film will be available in stores in October, and a portion of the proceeds will be given to Surfer’s Healing, a foundation for Autism that seeks to enrich the lives of children with autism and the lives of their families by exposing them to the unique experience of surfing.

SurfAid’s Malaria Free Mentawai (MFM) program resumes this September with distribution of specially treated mosquito nets, malaria education and parasite testing on the island of Sipora.

The MFM program completed work on the other three Mentawai islands of Siberut, and North and South Pagai in March, rolling out the program to nearly 53,000 of the approximate 70,000 population.

Distribution of about 3,500 nets will be targeted at Sioban, Mara, Matobe, Saurenuk, Berliu and Betumonga, an approximate population of 10,000 people, and is scheduled to be finished by December.

Besides net distribution, SurfAid staff engage in socialization when they first arrive in communities. Then they implement a series of well-rehearsed dramas/skits, other participatory training, and education aimed at ensuring all community members understand the causes of malaria, recognize the symptoms, understand the treatment options and know about breaking the life-cycle (by using nets and keeping communities free of standing water).

For more information please visit www.surfaidinternational.org