Out of the Boat Swim

I am the treasurer of the non-profit organization Out of the Boat Swim.

 

It reaches out to an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico and kids in Peru with the goal of making every home a "safe place to play and grow and… build[ing] a strong foundation of water men and women.”

We were founded by San Diego Beach Lifeguards and also work on developing a relationship with the Tijuana Lifeguards as well. I have been involved, in Tijuana, as a surf instructor and raising money to put these kids through swim lessons. It’s an amazing experience.

I encourage anyone and everyone to get involved by contacting me (on this blog) and by checking out our website: outoftheboatswim.org

Procrastinating and Science Fiction

So I'm a dork when it comes to television shows. I just started watching Stargate Universe and it's pretty good. I think I'm addicted to it, especially when I can watch it for free on Megavideo.

Basically 30 or 40 people get stranded on an alien spaceship that is travelling billions of light-years away from Earth and we get to see what happens.

Check it out here or the trailer

If you have ever seen the original series, Stargate SG1, Stargate Universe is a little darker and focuses more on character development. I also don't think it's as corny or cheesy as the original or the 1994 movie but that always added to the entertainment. So I don't know if it is an improvement.

Good for Her 2

Cori Schumacher, Longboard champion, has written about why she is boycotting the Women’s World Longboard Tour:

My decision to boycott this and other World Longboard Tour events this year, is an attempt to use the platform I have to focus attention on the significant movements of the ASP World Tour, surf companies who are currently doing business in China, and those who are in the process of moving their manufacturing there.

She goes on to discuss China’s One-Child Policy and “‘single-minded pursuit of economic growth’” that has created large inequalities specifically for women as well as censorship, low labor standards, and oppression of its citizens.

While her intentions are good I think she’s going about this the wrong way. And by boycotting the World Tour, she is doing nothing but hurting herself. I’m all about taking a stand for what you believe in and she is definitely in a position to be heard, but she can be so much more affective while still competing.

Here are two reasons why what she is doing will not be that affective:

First, if these surf companies want to competitively survive in today’s market, they have to move their manufacturing to countries that provide lower costs. If they don’t, competitors from these exact countries can come in and wipe them out with cheaper products. I don’t think the U.S. Government will be in a hurry to be protecting the U.S. surf industry anytime soon.

Second, this issue is obviously bigger than just the surf industry.  There are many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fighting to make changes in China and in other countries as well. They are making improvements but very slowly.

The problem is money. Almost every policy enacted by a government is influenced by it; without money there is very little support. There are labor standards in the WTO, but they are not always upheld because it hurts the end economic goal.

As I said in my previous post, Good for Her, women’s surfing is relatively small and I don’t think her boycotting will gain much support from surf companies. If anything, she should be working with them (sponsoring, competing, etc.) to make the sport even better. The key to influencing these large surf corporations are the consumers not the surfers. Short of Kelly Slater and a few others, many of these guys can just be replaced. There are so many unknown talented surfers out there. Plus, she can donate her winnings to organizations that have more power.

All that aside, I respect her a lot for standing up for what she believes in. If we all did that than there really would be change.

Amazing, Perfect, and COOLD

Santa Cruz :)

More on Artificial Waves

If you don't remember I wrote about an artificial wave that was created in Spain a couple months ago.

Now there is something even cooler being developed. The First Continuous Circular Wave Pool has been completed, in Poland.

The implications are huge. If you surf, think about a wave that goes on forever!

And I couldn't even tell you about the even greater non-surfing benefits from something like this. I'm assuming this could lead to another source of clean, efficient energy for the world.

Sex on the Roof and the Consequences

How can I not comment on this?

In case you live under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about or haven’t seen the photos, go here. I have no idea what they were thinking. If you’re going to have sex on the roof, do it at night when you won’t get caught. And if they wanted to get caught, I don’t know how anyone could believe that it would end any way but horribly.

I’m more interested in the consequences and what happened afterwards. Not for that Kappa Sig or for that particular house (they are slowly destroying themselves), but for the Greek system at USC. From what I have heard from various sources is that the Row is on an unofficial social probation. DPS will be cracking down significantly on any social function held on weekdays, more so than ever before.

Many are saying that this afternoon delight that occurred last week was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and was among many other Greek related problems going on—that’s why the entire Row is being punished.

I think that this is ridiculous. The entire Greek community should not be punished for the actions of a few individuals, especially when being Greek had nothing to do with this recent situation- nor did Kappa Sigma endorse what happened. In this same way, one could ask, why isn’t the administration punishing all USC students with brown hair because this individual also has brown hair? Obviously this is an exaggeration, but it proves my point.

It’s not fair and the USC administration is using the Greek system as an escape-goat to deter worse publicity. I definitely don’t condone the other things that have happened lately-- especially that email from Kappa Sigma which was very messed up—but it’s not right to punish those of us who are proud of our school, behave respectively, and just want to have fun during the week.

Good for Her

There was an article in The New York Times about the current Women's World Longboard Champion, Cori Schumacher.

Cori is taking a stand for women. Currently, she's "boycotting" the Women's World Tour because a contest on the Tour is being held in China where women don't have many rights. But that's only part of what she's done. For years she has competed without sponsors. She's done this to create an image for herself that she feels comfortable with and that promotes women's professional surfing in a good light.

Some of the complaints about the Women's World Tour is the low salary and poor contest locations. It's hard for women to make a living from professional surfing. Also in general, there is still a lack of respect for women in the water.

First I think that it's super cool that an article about surfing was in the New York Times. Surfing is definitely a sport that doesn't receive the publicity it deserves. Although some would argue that less publicity is better; the beaches are crowded enough.

Second, its always good to see star athletes willing to risk their success and careers to fight for something bigger than themselves. I think in almost every sport, surfing included, women have to fight for equal respect and credibility when compared to men. It's been a problem in our society for a long time but I think that  we're making strides to change this.

One of the problems is that at the moment, there is just not as much money in women's surfing as in men's. It's unfortunate for these large surf companies because in fact, there is a lot of money to be made. People need to be more exposed to the sport and given opportunities to learn how to surf.