Surfrider Foundation Beach Clean-up

There’s no better way to start the day than a Surfrider beach clean-​up! The Surfrider Foundation hosts weekly clean-​ups at both Ocean Beach and Baker Beach. All you have to do is show up alone or with a group and they provide you with gloves, buckets, sticks, and delicious coffee!
I discovered Surfrider last year when I researched volunteer opportunities for my school. I’ve been to clean-​ups at both beaches and I’m happy to help support such a great organization. After taking both Environmental Geology and Oceanography classes, I’ve learned so much about human impact on the oceans and our planet. Try taking small steps like composting, reusing bags, supporting sustainable companies (don’t buy products with nurdles), and volunteering with enviornmental organizations like Surfrider. I challenge you to attend a clean-​up or learn about what you can do to lessen your impact!
Small changes add up :)

This group does amazing work at organizing these meet-​up and clean-​ups every weekend. The cleanup I went to just a few weeks ago had two sessions with the first at 8am and the second at 10am, in which teams of two prowl the beach and record with a little golf pencil and sheet of paper what items they find.
The Surfrider Foundation crew provides the gloves (multiple sizes), bags (one for recyclables, then one for all other stuff) and trash grabbers, donuts for volunteers, and they even conduct a little Q&A session in which you go over common items you may have found and how and why frequent beach cleanups are necessary to keep wildlife safe and our beaches still somewhat pleasant and usable for us humans. At the end, they have a truck that takes all the garbage away.
Surfrider makes it real easy for those who want to and always think about volunteering but don’t really know exactly how to go about doing it.
Top finds of the day: a soggy couch, a bed frame and a crack pipe.

I tend to always give reviews four stars, but it’s really because I only review something when I really love it. I got to participate in a beach clean up with the surf rider foundation and it was fantastic!
I went out with my best friend on a Saturday morning, it was super foggy which is fun, we got our bags, gloves and check list and hit the sand. The only slightly disappointing part was that there were so many volunteers that there was barely any trash left to pick up across the beach.

I took part in a Surfrider beach clean-​up last weekend at Ocean Beach and found them to be very well organized. They had compostable bags to collect trash in as well as lots of gloves (both disposable and reusable), sifting baskets, shovels, and other tools.
Plus, for this event, they hooked up with Barefoot Wineries, so that there was an after-​party with lots of free wine, some food, and the lovely Tristan Prettyman entertaining us.

There’s nothing more satisfying than slapping on a pair of latex gloves and heading out to Ocean Beach with your like-​minded hippy friends to pick up calcified dog crap, stretched-​out scrunchies, sodden underwear, and cigarette butts. Ah, nature.
I occasionally try to make a positive impact on the environment: you know, give up my car (RIP, Alero — we were good together once), plant stuff, harass politicians (hey, how many times have YOU stood up in a crowd and accused your governor of being a Republican, nature-​hating douchebag?) And, much as I love writing legals briefs filled with more acronyms than actual words, sometimes you just need to get your hands dirty.
Anyway, the Surfrider Foundation hosts this cool event monthly. They provide the gloves, bags, and you even get a free shirt! We also had a lot of beach-​goers compliment us for doing it, which made me all warm and tingly inside. My friend met a hot surfer too — ain’t nothing like a bag of trash in hand to land you a hot dude in a wetsuit.
You can find the schedule here: