Chasing Waves
Photos courtesy Sumatra
Surfzone Missions; www.surfzonerelief.org.
Surfers have been reaping the benefits of
By Terence Loose
|
S |
ince the 70s,
The world stepped forward to help. And so did many local
surfers, who put down their boards and joined in a fight to give comfort and
aid to a region and people who had given them so much pleasure.
Bill Sharp hadn’t been to
Sharp, a 43-year-old journalist and consultant who
organizes promotional events for major surf companies such as Billabong, is a
man who knows the power of big waves. He built his reputation by charging the
Wedge in his hometown of
“I make my living from big waves,” he says, “so I had to do
something, or I couldn’t hold my head high.”
At first, Sharp planned to do what he does best: get the
word out. As a journalist he was frustrated by the lack of information coming
out about
When they got to
Within hours, their mission changed, from one of
documentation to direct help. Sharp says one of the things they recognized was
that as surfers they had certain skills that many other more professional
agencies lacked. “I’ve been doing the Billabong Odyssey trips [hunting for
waves in the remotest corners of the earth] for years and have gotten pretty
good at organizing a group to move somewhere fast, with a lot of equipment,
into totally unfamiliar surroundings,” he says. George has spent his life doing
the same, and Turner has spent three years of his 24 camping in some of
In their first discussions of what to do, Sharp and crew
decided they’d concentrate on the “surf zone.” They would look for places where
their intimate knowledge of reefs and surf would be uniquely important. Though
most of the devastation and loss of life was centered in the Banda Aceh region
of mainland
Sharp didn’t believe it. His gut told him that because the
island was filled with villagers who got their sustenance from the sea, even if
the people themselves survived the stories-high wave, there was no way their
fishing canoes and equipment could have. “I just knew that these people were
probably terrified and cut off from the sea, their main source of protein,”
says Sharp. The SSRO mission statement was formed: one, bring immediate aid in
the form of food, water and medical help, and two, get the Simeulue people back
on the water and self-sufficient again.
The first thing they needed was money. Sharp had a $50,000
home equity credit line on his
They were told there were no boats available, but they
tracked down a dilapidated 80-footer, named the Mikumba, to make the three-day
voyage to
That doesn’t mean they didn’t face challenges, though.
People tried to rip them off, half their load was almost pirated, a storm
battered their boat on the first night out of port, and a maze of coral reefs
slowed their progress. But they pressed on, finally reaching
Even before their landfall, they knew they had made the
right decision, as recorded by Matt George in his dispatches from the boat:
Dawn found the Mikumba dropping anchor in the bay at the
northernmost Simeulue point, scant miles from the earthquake’s epicenter. On
shore, 40-foot palms held household items in their fronds like a laundry line
from hell. The main village was completely leveled. The rivermouth reshaped,
made much wider, choked with debris and sand…. We were met on the beach by
hundreds of villagers in a desperate state, and it was there we fashioned a
crude refugee camp for over 2,000 souls who ring this azure bay. Acting quickly
under alternating deluge and blistering heat, [we] fabricated a large medical
tent and another for the distribution of aid supplies…. We [distributed] over
200 rescue buckets, one ton of dried fish, one ton of fruits and vegetables and
sundry tools and materials for rebuilding…. Work continued until dusk. By day’s
end our medical team had treated over 125 injured and sick and set up a
quarantine area for six tuberculosis cases discovered.
Offloading the relief supplies proved more difficult than
loading them and transporting them. Because the reefs of these islands were
thrust right up out of the seabed, leaving the sand beaches sometimes hundreds
of yards inland, it took all their surfing knowledge to get the goods to the
islanders. First they had to negotiate the breaking waves, then the coral
reefs. “And forget the helicopters and Land Rovers you see in the Red Cross
commercials,” says Sharp. “Every pound of our 60 tons went in on someone’s
back.”
They continued circumnavigating the island until their load
was emptied, then returned to
The second wave was dedicated even more toward getting the
islanders self-sufficient again. Sharp and crew bought 16 canoes and another
$15,000 worth of relief supplies, in addition to the $17,000 in boat charter,
doctor and labor charges, and returned to Simeulue. This time round, they were
even more resourceful – Sharp decided rather than burn a day getting official
approval to enter the province (because of civil war, it’s been off limits to
foreigners for 20 years), Sharp forged papers. “There was such an urgency.
People were dying,” he says. “So I decided it was better to ask forgiveness
than ask permission. Besides, I’m pretty good at typography.”
Sharp says that second mission was funded completely by
donations and he’s begun to see some repayment of his $50,000 personal
investment. But if he doesn’t get fully reimbursed, he says he’s not sweating
it. “No regrets,” he says. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I figure, I’ve
still got a nice home, the people we helped have nothing.” Well, thanks to
Sharp, now they have a little more than nothing.
SurfAid International
While the tsunami sent a wake up call to most of the world,
one group of surfers was already “in theater.” SurfAid International has been
battling preventable, but deadly, diseases in
In that year, a
Malaria was the worst killer; it was a modern-day plague.
Studies showed that, among the mostly forgotten Mentawai people, it would kill
32% of children under 12; 50% under the age of five. As for other preventable
diseases such as whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, polio, tuberculosis, and
tetanus, many villagers had never been given immunization. Most Mentawai people
relied on local shamans and village healers for their medical needs. Death and
disease was a part of everyday life.
It was a tragedy that Jenkins could not in good conscience
ignore. “Because the mosquitoes that carry malaria only come out after dusk, he
knew that with simple, inexpensive methods like treated mosquito nets, which
cost a few bucks each, he could make a big difference,” says Robert Gerard, an
For Dr. Jenkins, the decision was clear. He quit his
practice, sold his home and moved to the
The next year, SurfAid got its first donations from Lonely
Planet Publications, Mitchell Surfing Foundation and local surf apparel giant
Quiksilver. And though SurfAid received some publicity over the next few years,
the Mentawai islanders’ plight went largely unnoticed. This, despite the
success of SurfAid’s pilot projects, which yielded a 75% reduction in malaria
parasite rates and tripled immunization levels.
By 2002, Jenkin’s drive was still strong, but his
organization’s resources weren’t. The surf community had yet to step up in any
significant way and many on his staff hadn’t been paid in months. Wrote Surfer
Magazine’s Steve Barilotti at the time: “SurfAid, the fledgling surfer-run NGO,
is lurching down a short runway, suffering from chronic underfunding and
burnout. The situation is past dire.” Jenkins knew, without SurfAid, that the
situation of the Mentawai islanders was even worse. So he made a final,
passionate plea to the surf industry at the 2003 gathering of SIMA in Cabo San
Lucas, a festive event attended by virtually every surf industry giant.
Immediately, Billabong, Quiksilver and Reef got involved and SurfAid breathed
new life – literally. Last year, in addition to surf company backing and
Adopt-A-Village programs, SurfAid received close to $90,000 from the
governments of
Then the wall of water came.
Incredibly, the
When they did, they found a people devastated. Though less
than 300 people had been killed, over 2,000 had been left homeless, frightened
and cut off from the sea. Doctors treated the injured, such as a 15-year-old
girl who suffered a compound fracture of her leg in the tsunami, two burn
victims and a nine month old with intestinal worms, and delivered tons of
relief supplies. They also gave immunizations, something not always an easy
sell in primitive village culture.
“But,” says Gerard.
“SurfAid is ultra-culturally aware. [We] ensure that the village or local
leadership is on board with what we’re doing.” Important, since the leadership
is often Muslim or shamanistic and sometimes wary of western “help.”
Leaving a contingent on Nias to continue rescue and aid
work, SurfAid set sail for
But as bad as it was in the month following the tragedy, SurfAid
doctors worried the worst may not have come yet.
“Malaria is a potential second tsunami,” says Gerard.
That’s because the monsoon season has descended upon
Fortunately, SurfAid is better funded than ever before.
Local surfwear giants, is now as dedicated as the doctors in the jungle. And
donations are not stopping there. “Just after the tsunami hit, I sent an email
plea for money to everyone I knew,” says Gerard. He expected to get a few
donations. “Within a week, I had $50,000 promised. The response was
overwhelming; it almost brought tears to my eyes.” Since then, big names have
come on board. Jackson Browne, Ben Harper, and Jack Johnson from the music
community. World-renowned surf stars like Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Mark
Occhilupo, and Rochelle Ballard, have also stepped up. The running total? Over
$1.5 million.
Pretty good for a bunch of surfers.
To learn more or
help:
SurfAid: visit www.surfaidinternational.org or
call (760) 753-1103.
Chasing Waves Part II
In the wake of
Katrina, Bill Sharp and Matt George of Surfzone Relief Operations went to work
again, this time using their big wave and Personal Water Craft (PWC) skills to
save victims of the most destructive U.S. hurricane on record.
|
W |
hen
So when the call went out for volunteer watermen, they were
among the first to sign up.
In
They arrived in
Finally they made it to Zephyr Field, the New Orleans
Saints practice facility and the relief effort headquarters, with thousands of
rescue workers and National Guardsmen sleeping in cots. After spending the
first few days making runs back to
Fortunately, one of the things they had grabbed during a
supply run were chest waders usually used for fishing. But while they protected
them from the waters, they also made the 95 degree heat and high humidity
nearly unbearable. “By the end of each day, we’d have pints of sweat in the
bottom of the gators. At least we hoped it was sweat, and not the water,” says
Sharp.
Other hazards were not so apparent. More than a few times
they would be motoring along what used to be a city street, now a river, and
hit “nautical hazards” like submerged trucks and street signs. One sent
Quirarte’s PWC airborne.
And though they had prepared themselves for the worst, they
were still unprepared for the toll the tragedy would take on their own
emotions. They saw things that will not be forgotten soon. Dead bodies – one
lady had hanged herself over a railing – gravely ill elderly, petrified
children.
In one rescue, Sharp and his friends helped evacuate a
family of 19 from a school. The family had been holed up for eight days, in sweltering
heat on the second floor – the entire first was flooded – and growing low on
food and water. But they had refused to leave, cut off and ignorant to the
scope of the disaster. Finally, Sharp brought in a local cop, a man who they
knew as a friend. He convinced them to get in a row boat, which Sharp towed
with his PWC, and after the family got a few blocks away, they broke down in
tears and just started repeating “Thank you, thank you…” “It was the greatest
feeling ever,” says Sharp.
Coming from Sharp, that means something; this is a man who
had been in the trenches of disaster relief before, specifically in the
aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami.
Sharp and his crew brought more than 60 tons of relief
supplies to the islands off of
They also created the Surfzone Relief Operations (SRO),
with the mission of giving humanitarian aid to victims of coastal disasters
where surfers’ intimate knowledge of surf zones and coastlines would be
uniquely important. “We foresaw that there would be other coastal disasters,”
says Sharp. “I just never foresaw it happening in the
Just nine months later, Katrina hit
And though Sharp is quick to point out that he was amazed
at the many selfless souls who risked everything to help people they had never
met, he says he’s disgusted at the levels of ineptitude of many government
officials, the bureaucracy and the “deceitful marketing” of some NGOs. But when
it comes to the men and women on the ground, Sharp has only admiration. “I saw
first-hand the best and the worst,” he says.
Now, his goal is to bring the surf industry, with all its
power and money, into the mix, not just for Katrina’s aftermath, but the
inevitable coastal disasters that lay in wait. “It’s embarrassing to me that
the surfing community is so lacking in support,” he says. He says that aside
from Billabong and Surfer Magazine, very few surf companies support
humanitarian issues. Instead, the surf industry has historically put its
charity money towards environmental concerns. “And don’t get me wrong, that’s
great. I’m all for it,” says Sharp. “But within the last nine months the two
greatest coastal disasters of modern time have hit. Isn’t it time the surf
industry has a humanitarian assistance system to help? We all live on the
coast. We’re going to have something happen here, someday, and all I can hope
for is that someone will feel the way I did and come to help me and my family.”
Surfzone Relief Operations is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. To
learn more, visit www.surfzonerelief.org.