Earth Day: the savior of California’s coast

Since today is Earth Day I want to honor a special man who recently passed away, Peter Douglas. For more than 34 years he protected the coasts of California with spectacular success. “A World Bank team that visited California last year rated it as having the best coastal protection in the world and expressed amazement …

Hello, Silicon Beach – the burgeoning tech scene in Los Angeles

What could be better than beautiful weather, beaches, and your favorite scrappy start-up? Two cities in Los Angeles are slowly becoming hubs of technology, Santa Monica and Venice. In the spread out landscape of Los Angeles these two cities are adjacent close-knit urban areas, with ample office space, coffee shops, restaurants, and apartments. But, not …

Where’s the coldest surf spot in Orange County?

Surfing in Southern California means you hang out in water normally 55-65 degrees. Pretty cold and worth a wetsuit most of the time. Every once in a while the wind gets going and blows away the entire surface of the ocean, revealing the frigid lower layer. As that current comes up (upwelling) the water drops …

Careers on the ocean

A post from Aaron Hartmann, a marine biologist, describes some of diverse of ocean-related jobs out there: Fisheries observers: Want to improve your sea legs? Fisheries observers live aboard fishing boats and ensure that the animals being harvested are big enough and not in numbers exceeding legal catch limits. Their work is critical for managing …

Interesting facts and the full story on James Cameron’s deep sea adventure

“The Challenger Deep is something like 50x the size of the Grand Canyon” “The sub actually shrinks 3 inches at the bottom of the ocean.” “My feeling was one of complete isolation from all of humanity. I felt like I went to another planet and came back.” The pilot is descending about 36,000 feet (10,973 …

Perpetual Ocean – NASA recreates the ocean currents of the world

This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through Decemeber 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience. This visualization was produced using NASA/JPL’s computational model called Estimating the Circulation and Climate …

Ballona Wetlands – 600 acres of Los Angeles coast will soon be restored

In a first step toward restoring one of Southern California’s few remaining wetlands and opening it to the public, the state has approved spending $6.5 million for planning a massive restoration of the degraded Ballona Wetlands. (In the plan) initial proposals call for spending $100 million to remove concrete levees and truck out tons of …

Tickets available for the 2012 Newport Beach Film Festival

This will be my second year attending the Newport Beach Film Festival. Last year I watched a film about sharks and listened to Aaron Sorkin speak about writing. I loved it. This year is looking to be just as good and I’m excited to see movies about the ocean, surfing, design, and drama. One things …

Happy World Water Day! – 3 second water movies from Surfrider

The Story of Water: Surfrider Foundation’s 3 Second Movie Collection In celebration of World Water Day, the Surfrider Foundation, Teva and GoPro challenged our supporters to try and capture the essence of water in just three seconds. These are their stories… Founded in 1993 by the United Nations, World Water Day is a global observance …