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Surfing Attorney Heads Club's Coastal Program
"My experience has given me a working knowledge of coastal activists," he says, and that includes surfers, farmers and Native Americans from coastal tribes. Massara got an early start in environmental activism. He was 7 years old and living in Santa Barbara when a Union Oil offshore rig leaked 200,000 gallons of oil. He went with his dad to throw hay bales on the beach and collect dead and dying birds covered with oil. He's been a surfer and an activist pretty much his whole life. Surfers may seem like unlikely partners for the Sierra Club, and even Massara says that organizing them "is like herding cats." "But surfers bring to the cause of protecting the coast an intimate knowledge of the California coastline and its many resources, along with a zeal for recreation," he says. "What we're trying to do is get surfers to occasionally leave the beach and go into city halls throughout the state and demand coastal protection. You know, 'Gidget Goes Environmental.'" How does he do it? It's an exchange of energy, in a way. He's there for them, and they're there for him. When a hotel moved ahead on controversial plans to build a seawall that would destroy not only the surf, but a nearby ecosystem as well, surfers in San Luis Obispo called Massara, who fought the battle with them. Likewise, when the California Coastal Commission held a hearing on whether to approve a Hearst Corp. proposal to build a series of resorts on one of that last untouched stretches of coastline, the surfers were there. Massara and other Club activists had organized aerial photos, obtained damning documents about significant Native American resources that would be disturbed by the project and rounded up a crowd of 1,500 to show up for the hearing. Surfers provided signs for protesters and wore wetsuits to testify against the plan. "Whether I'm working with surfers, farmers or Chumash Indians, I listen to them, go to their meetings and immerse myself in their perspective and genuinely empathize with their viewpoint," says Massara. "It helps to walk a mile in someone's shoes." (Adapted from an article in The Planet activist newsletter.)
Photo of Mark Massara courtesy Davis Barber. Up to Top |
