San Francisco, CA (October 8th, 2009) - Surf For Life's volunteer programs make a difference for the children & communities living in coastal regions around the world by offering unique opportunities for volunteers to intimately experience foreign cultures and world-class waves. Surf For Life enjoys the support of world champion surfers and has planned another fun-filled voluntourism trip to Costa Rica throughout February and March, 2010.

Pro Surfer Cori Schumacher says, "I am excited by the opportunity offered by Surf For Life to experience an amazing surf trip coupled with helping Puerto Viejo's BriBri people in 2010. I have always wanted to leave more than just wax, stickers and footprints in the sand on surf trips. Some of the most amazing surf breaks in the world are in areas inhabited by people who live in the world's worst conditions. Working with groups of people who not only understand this but seek to actively engage in transforming this reality fulfills that part of me that yearns to leave this earth a better place for my having been in it."

During February and March of 2010, Surf For Life volunteers are heading to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Every week a new team of volunteers is helping hands-on with construction and community projects benefiting the children of Puerto Viejo and of the indigenous BriBri tribe.

About Surf For Life:

•Surf For Life is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization designed to connect surfers and non-surfers with community service activities internationally.

•The mission of the organization is to channel the common interests and energy of surfers to get involved with hands-on social and economic development projects near world-class surf breaks.

•Surf For Life trips are open to anyone; experienced surfers, beginners, and non-surfers alike

This 17th year of the Paddle for Clean Water Festival promises a full day of fun for everyone.The Paddle For Clean Water Festival will feature booths highlighting environmental awareness and action, local artists; free massages ; free surf lessons, a free surfboard demo, a kids’ fun area featuring arts and crafts activities, food, great bands and a Stone Brew beer garden for folks age 21 and over. Local legend Chris Cantore will emcee the event and FM 94/9 will be broadcasting Brunch with Bob and Friends from the event!

The paddle around the OB Pier at 10 a.m. features all sorts of paddlecraft – surfboards, bodyboards, kayaks, outrigger canoes, etc. – in a non-competitive paddle out and around the Ocean Beach Pier to raise awareness to pollution problems along San Diego’s coastline. The event will also include breakfast for all paddlers starting at 9 a.m., along with special guest speakers, live music, a huge raffle with a Holeman Surf Designs surfboard as the grand prize, a beach cleanup, and bands all afternoon.

The decline of near-shore water quality remains one of the biggest threats to our world’s beaches and coastlines. In addition to destroying marine habitats, it poses a significant risk to the health and welfare of beachgoers. Two local issues will be highlighted at the event this year:

* Surfrider’s efforts to help Save Trestles and stop the proposed toll road through San Onofre State Park
* San Diego’s water supply and how it relates to the marine environment

Over 1,000 beach and ocean lovers took to the waters off Ocean Beach at last year’s San Diego event and 2,000 are expected for the festival this year.

“Whether you paddle or not, the Paddle for Clean Water Festival will be a fun way for people to get involved, and a great place to get the latest information on local coastal environmental issues,” said Scott Harrison, chair of Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego Chapter.

Schedule of events:
9am: Light breakfast is served
10am: Paddle around the OB Pier
11am: Group photo, guest speakers and raffle
11:30am: Live music begins with Shaka Buku
12:40pm: The Professors take the stage
2:00pm: One Drop takes the stage
3:20pm: Silent Comedy closes the show
5:00pm: Festival ends

Surfrider is making every effort to have the event be zero waste - from a solar powered sound stage to comprehensive recycling and analyzing what will be used at the event. Please walk, bike, take public transport or carpool to the event. Visit www.sdcommute.com or www.icarpool.com for more information.

More information about the Paddle For Clean Water Festival can be found at www.surfridersd.org

We just launched our E-Zine and are looking for stories for the online magazine. If you are interested in submitting an article for online publication in the E-Zine please send the article to admin@surfingsandiego.com. Surfing San Diego is ranked on the first page of Google under the term “surfing” and thus receives over 50,000 visitors per month. If you would like to expose yourself to surfers worldwide, this is a great way to get exposure. 

Most Websites ask for a donation to keep the website FREE. We are asking for your surf stories. So if you like the website, send us your story today! 

All of this is FREE to the surfer / member. Surfing San Diego has always been FREE and will Always Remain FREE.  So if you like the website and want to see it continue to grow take a moment and share a surf story with the other members. Help keep Surfing San Diego FREE.

Below are the requirements and other information to submit an article for publication on the E-Zine:

• The content must be unique
• The article must be 500 words or more
• The article must include at least 2 pictures.
• You may include a short bio of 50 words or less at the bottom of the article.

 Also, specify which area your article focuses on:

• Surfing Interviews
• San Diego Surf Stories
• Baja Surfing Stories
• National / Competitive Surf Stories
• International Surf Stories

NEW FREE TOOL For Surfers. Surfing San Diego and Surf 2 Phone have signed an exclusive agreement to provide you with your own personalized surf report via TEXT MESSAGE directly to your mobile phone every day.   This is another FREE service offered to all our Surfing San Diego users and just another way the team at Surfing San Diego is making it easier for surfers to keep track of the waves. Signing up takes only two minutes and you can cancel the service at any time.

To sign up now: CLICK ON THIS LINK

San Diego, CA. Media Arts Center: San Diego’s 14th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival is proud to present Surfing Latino Style (Brazil & Peru, Documentaries, 110 min, Video) on Sunday, March 18 at 2:30 PM. This special screening will take place at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center.

Surfing Latino Style showcases two exciting documentaries spotlighting Latinos making waves in the surfing world. Sofia (Directed by Peter J Goez, U.S.A. is a local documentary spotlighting the amazing career of Peruvian surfer and world champion, Sofia. After the thrills of traveling and surfing around the planet, 5 professional surfers, from 5 different places in Brazil, return to their local towns to re-discover the pleasures and enjoyment of surfing at their own Backyard. Total running time for screening is 110 minutes.

Don’t miss these incredible documentaries on the big screen celebrating riders as they ride big waves around the world! For more information and tickets on-line visit: www.sdlatinofilm.com

Welcome to the New and Improved SurfingSanDiego.com We are very excited to present you with a new design and new community tools to help surfers and give them more opportunity to interact.

When we started this process, it was important that we accomplish the following:

• First and Foremost was the objective to keep everything on the website FREE to the surfer. This website was founded as a resource for surfers who are experienced or just starting out.  Throughout the process, we asked ourselves if we were keeping in line with the overall objective of the original developer of the website.  We hope you will feel that we have accomplished this in the re-design of the website.
• Secondly,although we needed to have the website generate income, we wanted to make sure that the advertising banners on the website did not get in the way of the surfers experience. The main way to achieve this was to include any advertising in the header of the website. When we looked at the other surfing websites, we realized that advertising is integrated into every possible area of the website. This takes away from the overall experience and so we have limited advertising through out the website.
• Third, when we started the redesign process, we also wanted to make sure that we give the website an updated feel, but not lose the atmosphere of the website. So as you can see, even though we created a new logo, we kept the existing colors of the current website.
• Lastly, in our redesign process, we wanted to add more tools to allow surfers to share experiences, and provide a platform to buy, sell and trade surfing products and accessories. To accomplish this we have integrated the following new tools to the website:
  • An Upgraded Forum – The new forum is the most up to date forum offered by the forum software developer and this moves us to a more stable database which will reduce the downtime of the forum moving forward and allow us to grow in the future.
  • A Photo Gallery – A picture is worth a 1000 words and with the advent of high quality pictures being taken on your phone, every one has pictures of their surf trips and experiences. Users can now upload and share their own photos to the website.
  • A Video Gallery – Can you say YouTube for surfing? Give it time, but I am sure that in very short order, we will have a collection of videos to rival any surfing website.
  • A Classifieds Section – Our classifieds section is a direct result of members using the forum to buy, sell and trade surf items. The forum was not exactly craigslist, so now there is a platform to allow surfers to look for and find what they need.
  • Lastly, we have also integrated an E-Zine to give people a platform to write about surfing. We have launched the E-Zine with our first columnist Jeff Kinney (A.K.A….. JK) and will be adding more columnists over the coming months. In addition, we will have a section of the E-Zine for any member who would like to submit articles for other surfers to read.  Anyone who may be interested in writing articles, please contact us at info@surfingsandiego.com

  Well, everyone, I hope you like what you see, enjoy the new tools, and read JK’s inaugural article. As is always the case when you launch a new website, please let us know if you find any broken links or if something isn’t working. We are sure that even after our beta testing, there may be some bugs, so if you find any, please email us info@surfingsandiego.com

  Happy Holidays to all and we will see you on the waves.
  Your Surfing San Diego Team