I’ve been to Mexico many times, always typically as a dirty surfing traveler. I’ve gotten sick. Whether it’s the water, the food, the fruit in the market, I don’t know, but Mexico isn’t a country that typically agrees with me. It’s a land of contradictions and uncanny juxtapositions. Just on the outskirts of four star hotels in Zihuantenejo is an old Mexico where life is slow, poor and dirty. The town where I am, Saladita, is far away from the glass bottom boat rides and fancy resorts, but it’s been marked by old surfers looking to retire in a surfer’s paradise. But just back off the beach, a few miles inland is the land of serious drug violence. Tourists, even dirty ones with surfboards, are largely shielded from this reality. Drug fighting is bad for beach tourism, especially when it produces a surfeit of bodies being dumped into the ocean. Just a year ago, there were an inordinate amount of shark attacks on swimmers and it was surmised by marine biologists that these attacks may be happening because sharks have gotten used to the taste of human flesh because so many bodies end up in the ocean from different sides of warring factions. No joke.

But where I am, it’s a different world. Saladita is known for a perfect wave that breaks consistently. It’s the kind of wave that surfers dream about – long, peely, and easy to catch. I’ve surfed my guts when we first got here but I haven’t been in the ocean for two days. Why? The rain came. Everywhere, the smell of burning plastic on the beach carries on the wind, and the deluge of trash that comes out of the river makes the ocean off limits for many hours after wards, especially for someone like me. Everywhere I go in the world, I look at places through an environmental, water quality lens. I look at behavior. I look at systems. I see many people unaware that they are poisoning themselves. I wish I didn’t, but you can’t un-know reality once you engage in perceiving it.

Just yesterday, walking around, documenting the human stain on this divine land, I asked a guy spraying chemicals on weeds by the river bank what he was spraying. Paraquat. Paraquat is a non-selective herbicide (meaning it kills everything) and it’s extremely toxic to humans. He filled it from an even bigger tank on the back of a truck, over and over again. Never mind the septic tank leaks, never mind the straight dumping of feces into the river in very poor areas, never mind the animals crapping on the river bank, and never mind all the garbage sent out to sea. Chemicals freak me out. Even taking a small swig of Paraquat and spitting it out can cause death. Sure, it’s diluted a bit, but no matter what, it’s getting into my body. Because everything runs down hill.

But what do you do? And is it a gringo’s place to do anything? That’s the rub. By all standards other than environmental, surfers spending cash and building houses is a good thing for the local people. They make money. And good money.

Right in front of the wave, there is a surf camp called Lourdes’s. Lourdes is a woman about 35, a regal Mexican goddess who makes it her job to know everything that happens in Saladita. Her surf lodge is basic, includes clean sheets and ceiling fans, but otherwise no luxury. I see the money she makes – all cash. I see the car she drives. Surfers are good for her quality of life. But don’t piss off Lourdes. You want to build a vacation Palapa with an infinity pool? Or you just want to buy a cheap bag of ditch weed? You must first pass the ‘pinche gringo’ test with Lourdes. She owns the place and she will bring a hammer down on anyone not in her good graces.

To wit, just up the road sits a half finished Hacienda that was being built by a guy from California. He pissed Lourdes off, and the next day the workers building his place quit coming and stole all the building materials. The guy can’t get anyone to finish it and he’s persona non-grata around these parts. As a traveling surfer, it’s something I like to see: Mexican ownership of Mexican resources.

But how long will it be before people quit coming here to surf because the water is so dirty? With all this gringo infusion of cash, why is there so little infrastructure to manage the waste humans create? It’s all about margins and people in power that control those margins. It’s overwhelming, indeed. Constantly, the environmental movement is chastised for being too ‘doom and gloom’ and enviro non-profits all that want to remain solvent try to balance bad news with hope. But sometimes, looking at the challenges that face a place even as beautiful as this one, you realize quickly that hope is not an effective strategy. Oh Mexico, my heart is still hopeful for you, but I fear for you.

Image: ripkas

The surf’s up as June gloom melts into July fry in Laguna Beach – the wet and rocky Orange County artist colony and funky-swank seaside town. Natural food stands hearkening the 70s granola-happy daze, surf shops and funky mid-fashion boutiques still abound here, setting it apart from the polished corporate chains of neighboring Newport Beach and the vintage frozen banana stands of Balboa Island.

Here are a few tips for a tide and true Laguna getaway:

Where to stay: A good choice is the Pacific Edge Hotel because of the diverse lodging opportunities, from one-bedroom ocean view apartments with full kitchens to beachfront kings with connecting rooms for family and friends. “The people who have been coming here for 30 years always book the junior suites,” shares Carlos, the front desk clerk, who accommodates guests with requests throughout their stays from sending a toaster or microwave to the room or additional yellow Adirondack chairs for the expansive decks.

The food at the property’s Beach House restaurant is very good although a bit pricey, yet upon check-in you’ll receive an Edge Card for discounts at the restaurant as well as local businesses partnering with the hotel. You also get complimentary access to the Laguna Health Club and are invited to join a Code Pink Bootcamp for early morning workouts on the beach. You can score rooms for as low as $169 a night with these perks, and save money by eating many of your meals on your deck. I highly recommend heading to the nearby Orange Inn for morning coffee, muffins and egg sandwiches and to The Stand where people line up for the best smoothies around. Pacific Edge is dog friendly, but the beach is only open to Fido before 8am and after 6pm.

Fun out of the sun: July 5 marks the opening of the Laguna Art Festival’s famed Pageant of the Masters, and the Sawdust Art Festival features booths displaying the crafts, gems and hemp fashions of local artisans. You can walk from the hotel to just about everywhere in good shoes, and there is a free bus service from North to South Laguna. Not to be missed: The new ENC (Environmental Nature Center) a living classroom in Newport offering hands-on interpretive nature program built around the ecology and history of California and its biodiversity. Locals, like Kristen and Tony Petros helped raise money for magnificent LEED platinum modern structure (a former trailer) and park-like grounds now visited by local schools and tourists alike to get closer to butterflies, reptiles, gurgling streams and even a life-size replica of a Coast Live oak tree.

Fun in the Sun: In terms of bumming it, you can buy a good boogie board for $40 (fins are useful too), take a surf lesson (the hotel offers packages) or simply beach yourself on a white chaise under an umbrella and listen to the surf pound while you finish that summer read. Dunk in the pool or hot tub or treat yourself to a healthy pedicure at Queen Nails (OPI Mod About You is the flavor of the month here) or shop second hand at Trash Pretty down the road. You will find life truly is a beach, at least till you are back to work in the fog on Monday.

Image: Kevin Zollman

When Liz Clark was nine years old, she started a piggy bank with a sign taped to it that read, “sailing around the world fund.” From that day forward, she set in motion a plan to follow the route sailed by Robin Lee Graham, who circumnavigated the world at age 16 and wrote a memoir of his travels entitled, Dove. 

Throughout college, Liz studied environmental policy and surfed on the University of California, Santa Barbara women’s team. Her skill as a surfer was noticed by sponsors and it was assumed that she would join the women’s pro tour, traveling the world to surf and compete on the global stage. But that wasn’t quite in the tea leaves for Liz.

After university, Liz lived on a sailboat that her father kept in Santa Barbara harbor. Living rent free, she saved for several years to eventually purchase her own ship, Swell. Then, with the help of several sailing friends, Liz completely overhauled the 1976 Cal 40 sloop that now serves as her home. At a scant 110 pounds, she redesigned the systems aboard Swell to be run by a woman of her size.

Now, she’s three years out to sea, currently somewhere near Tahiti in the South Pacific. Her surfing has improved to a level on par with some of the best in the world, and she’s now regularly riding one of the most dangerous waves in the world, Teahupoo – a deep water shelf in Tahiti that throws one of the heaviest walls of water on earth, so naturally Teahupoo surfers are in a very elite club.

Even on a slow boat, it doesn’t take three years to sail from San Diego to Tahiti. But Liz is in no hurry. She never understood the concept of sailing as fast as one can to circumnavigate. If she pulls up to a spot and the surf is on, she’ll hang for weeks or months, breathing the local culture, doing odd jobs, even learning to pearl dive.

I was lucky to have the chance to sail with Liz in Mexico a few years back. Though I’ve sailed my whole life, I hadn’t done any serious offshore sailing at that point and I was a bit nervous. I remember a story that demonstrates the beauty of Liz’s nature; everyone aboard was asleep and I was on watch at night, looking for ships that may cross our path. Captain Liz had instructed me to wake her up if I saw anything alarming. She was a little ill, so I wanted to make sure that she got rest. On the horizon, a light was emerging and it was becoming brighter and brighter. Soon, I was convinced that some massive freighter was heading for us and I yelled down for Liz to wake up. She sprung into action and the second she got on deck, a full moon broke the horizon. I felt like an idiot. But what did Liz say? “Ah Stiv, thanks for waking me up to watch the moonrise, it’s so beautiful.” Yeah Liz, the beauty in that moment wasn’t the moon. Thanks for letting me live a part of year dream.

You can keep up with Liz’s travels at her blog, The Voyage of Swell.

Image: Photos courtesy of Mackenzie Clark

Surf’s up!

As the northern hemisphere heads into summer, what better time than to learn how to surf or practise your technique? Diehard surfers were probably out riding the waves all winter long, but if you are like me, the warm weather is a definite prerequisite.

Surfing is fantastic exercise and many surfers report spiritual as well as physical benefits. Being out in the ocean paying close attention to the waves and your own body within them can’t help but bring you closer to nature. Many surfers are passionate environmentalists because they see firsthand the effect of any sewage or litter on their playground.

Sadly though, the average surfboard is very far from green. Despite numerous attempts over the years to create an eco-friendly surfboard , the majority of surfboards are pretty much made how they always were. That means a urethane foam blank (with a wood stringer), fibreglass and polyester resin. Or in short, non-renewable petrochemicals.

The latest eco-surfboard comes not from Australia or Hawaii but from Cornwall in the southwest of England. Cornwall is both a fabulous place for eco-tourism and the hub for surfing in the UK, so it’s not as surprising as it might sound. Five years in development, the surfboard traces its history back to a fallen balsa tree in the rainforest biome in the Eden Project in Cornwall. It is at least 50% renewable, with some 15-20% of the foam core made from plant-derived material and a resin developed from linseed oil to coat the board.

My dream is that one day all surfboards will be sustainably produced. If consumer demand grows and research delivers continuous improvements to the product and price, this could become a reality sooner rather than later.