On March 10th, during my time on the Basque Coast, I went to meet Charléric Bailly at the Surfrider Europe headquarters in Biarritz. It was an opportunity for me to discover this big association that I knew very little about, and to become aware of marine pollution.

What is Surfrider Foundation Europe ?

The Surfrider association was created in 1984 in the United States by a surfer who was fed up with seeing waste everywhere in the sea and on the beach. The Surfrider Europe branch was created in 1990. It was in the 2000s that the association really started to grow. Since 2010, many other offices have been opened, for example in Marseille for Mediterranean issues, in Bordeaux, or in Paris and Brussels for positive lobbying. In addition to the offices, there are also 50 volunteer branches in 12 European countries. Contrary to popular belief, these branches are not all on the seafront, but also inland, because that is where most of the waste comes from, or tourists who are not very aware of the issue...

So the association acts mainly by educating and raising public awareness, with the presence of stands at events, the organisation of conferences, debates, visits to classes. It also does a lot of lobbying, and has a scientific expertise unit to collect data to present to public authorities.

Lobbying is not just for big industry !

Yes, there is positive lobbying by various associations and NGOs to lobby and help pass environmental laws (e.g. the ban on single-use plastics). Surfrider is currently lobbying at the European level on the new Bathing Water Quality Framework Directive, so that it takes into account more parameters in water quality measurements, especially chemicals (not taken into account at all so far).

Raising awareness, a very important point for Surfrider

Surfrider's European headquarters has an area called the Campus where every year (excluding covid), 10,000 schoolchildren come to visit the educational exhibition. This visit is usually followed by a waste collection on the beach. Since the covid, the rhythm is more restricted, but the teams also visit the schools directly.

An Art’Campus section

For the past 8 years, Surf Rider has also used art to raise awareness, and every 3 months hosts a new exhibition. The current exhibition, Sedimental, talks about sedimentation and in particular about the creation of artificial coral reefs thanks to underwater structures. The previous exhibition was about micro-waste, with microscopic photos of plankton in which plastic could be seen.

Understanding the sea and the waves

As the association is originally composed of surfers, some of the educational tools talk about the ocean itself, and particularly about waves (how they are created, the different types, etc.). The subjects of erosion, sand resources and climate change are also addressed.

The Campus section is full of awareness-raising tools

Waste, more and more, everywhere !

Waste, more and more of it, everywhere!

Waste is everywhere. It is now found in the Mariana Trench (the deepest known place on earth), at the top of Everest, in the human body, and we are even starting to see it in foetuses (yes, traces of microplastic in foetuses...)! And since man needs numbers and visuals to become aware, Surf Rider is happy to provide them.

One of the awareness tools is a 1000 litre water cube. Different numbers are affixed, representing the amount of product needed to (permanently) pollute this cubic meter. For example, one capful of household product pollutes these 1000 litres of water! Indeed, chemical products (washing-up liquid, shampoo, bleach, etc.) go directly to the ocean because sewage treatment plants do not wash the water of chemical products, but only of physical waste, bacteria, oils and sands. This is why the association raises awareness about using as many natural and homemade products as possible.

The surprises of the tide

Numerous surprise boxes, placed on a table, contain natural and unnatural objects found in the sea. Blindly, we try to guess what is in them. The natural objects are there to emphasise that they should be left on the beach and not taken home.

Among the non-natural objects, two stood out for me:

Filter media, used in water treatment plants to increase the surface area of bacteria (so great!) unfortunately often end up on our beaches, because if the ponds are not stirred enough, or if it rains too much at once, these little pieces of plastic tend to go overboard...
Cotton buds, which are apparently flushed down the toilet by some of us. I found this surprising, as it would never occur to me to flush mine down the toilet, but Charléric assured me that during his visits to the stands, 1 in 20 people interviewed admitted to doing so.

Water analyses, data acquired over 20 years to gain credibility

For a long time, the association has collected water quality data and carried out expert assessments, with the aim of collecting a maximum amount of data, creating curves, to gain credibility with decision-makers and stakeholders. Today, water quality is primarily based on the concentration of faecal matter. Surfrider also raises awareness on this aspect. Indeed, during heavy storms, if there is too much rainwater, the treatment plant, in order not to overflow, opens the valves upstream. The water (not yet treated) goes either into a buffer tank if one exists, or directly into the river, and then logically into the sea. You should therefore avoid swimming the day after a heavy storm if you don't want to swim in your own poo... If you don't go anyway, don't forget the beach shower, and clean your mouth, eyes and ears!

Various projects

Ocean Friendly Garden is a project led by the association to study the benefits of revegetating soils, and to stop waterproofing with concrete. The water, by infiltrating, treats itself, fills the water tables and avoids flooding.
Ocean Campus is a sustainable development education platform for schools. It has free online courses, quizzes and teaching kits. Everything is free to access and free of charge, adapted to each level.
Surfrider has teamed up with the Smurfs and Le Loup to create educational tools for children.
Surfrider also offers awareness-raising days in companies (paying service) during teambuilding days on the environmental theme. The programme includes waste collection, masterclasses, DIY workshops, etc.
Une nouveau projet, l’Échappée bleue vient d’être mis en place en partenariat avec le navigateur Paul Meilhat, ambassadeur pour l’association. Le projet a pour but d’initier des enfants issus de milieux défavorisés à la voile, sur plusieurs mois, en les sensibilisant à la protection du milieu aquatique.

To run such a large association, you need funds, but where do they come from?

Surfrider's funds are divided into 3 categories:

1/3 membership (everyone giving x€/month)
1/3 public funding (region, state, ministries, Europe...)
1/3 private funding (partners)

The association is very demanding in the choice of its partners, and prevents them from communicating about their support to the association in order to enhance their brand image.

Among all these funds, only memberships are independent free funds. Indeed, public and private funding is allocated for specific tasks and cannot be used for anything else, which limits the association's financial freedom, as well as the spontaneous creation of events during the year (and therefore not foreseen in the initial budget...).

An association that relies heavily on its volunteers

Surfrider has employees, but also and above all a lot of volunteers spread out in the different local branches and who spread the values of the association. Their training and communication with the different branches is managed from the head office, and requires two and a half full-time employees.

Do you also want to get involved? You can join a local branch, or even organise your own waste collection on the beaches. By informing your ocean initiative on the association's website, Surfrider will send you all the necessary material for the collection, free of charge!

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