Video - The Surf Ecosystem of The Santa Cruz World Surfing Reserve: With Richard Schmidt, Hilary Bryant, and Tony Elliott

Article submitted by Save The Waves

As we head further into stormy winters and face a continued changing climate, we’d like to highlight Santa Cruz World Surfing Reserves’ (WSR) commitment to solving the adaptation issues facing Santa Cruz at West Cliff, Capitola, and the waves, beaches, and cliff throughout this special place we call Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz WSR and its community believe innovative and novel approaches are needed to protect our coastline and infrastructure to preserve our surf resources and waves. We must ensure that efforts to protect public and private infrastructure from sea level rise integrate actions, policies, and mitigation measures that also protect our surf resources and cherished coastline and include robust ongoing monitoring strategies. There are so many great environmental businesses and organizations in Santa Cruz that create great working relationships through communication and meetups like the Blue Innovations event.

As with previous projects, such as the Cowells Working Group (CWG) which is focused on improving long standing water quality issues at Cowell Beach and is celebrating its fifth consecutive year being off the Beach Bummers List. The Santa Cruz WSR aims to find solutions through collaboration, productive dialogue, and participation of the community and relevant agencies. Which is why events like Blue Innovation Day are so important in getting like-minded individuals together towards environmental protection.

The Santa Cruz WSR holds as a foundational policy framework, that any significant alterations to the coastline and the bluffs in the WSR that may have impacts on coastal processes need to have a considerable community engagement process where local surfers, community stakeholders, and members of the public have the opportunity to learn about any proposed projects and can participate to have their questions and concerns incorporated. Therefore we are pleased to partake at this year's Blue Innovation Day 2024 to hear from locals and visitors on what's working and what's not working with the management of the waves and coastal ecosystem in Santa Cruz.

Currently, we are continuing to work with the Santa Cruz City, County local groups, and community members on solutions that ensure the protection of the coastline and waves of the Santa Cruz WSR. The Santa Cruz WSR key working objectives and recent work includes:

WSR Goal #1: Enhance Safety, Access & Inclusion

Capitola incorporated to extend WSR boundary
‘Adopt A Park’ work plan being built with Parks and Recreation towards ocean access
stairway stewardship along West Cliff

WSR Goal #2: Improve Water Quality & Reduce Beach Trash

Cowells Beach receives 5th consecutive year off California’s Beach Bummers List
Participating on Santa Cruz County’s Tobacco Waste subcommittee on the Ban The Butt
campaign

WSR Goal #3: Strengthen Adaptation Response & Coastal Resilience of Surf Breaks

Santa Cruz WSR invited to participate on the City of Santa Cruz’s Ad Hoc West Cliff Implementation Committee as well as the Nature Based Solutions focus groups
Surfonomics study is underway with results to be analyzed early 2025

Additional Resources

Survey - Save The Waves with Black Surf Santa Cruz, Integral Consulting, and California State University Channel Islands are conducting a study to determine the economic value of surfing in Santa Cruz. Please take the survey in the link below to be a voice for the surf breaks: SURVEY
App - Empowering surfers, beach-goers and ocean lovers to report and track coastal threats in real-time, download the Save The Waves Coastal Monitoring App: DOWNLOAD APP

Blue Innovation: Save The Waves Santa Cruz World Surfing Reserve

Additional Resources