MORE DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD & 2023 REFLECTIONS [FEAT] ZACH PLOPPER

Jan 31, 2024
[OG CKTH AMBASSADOR & CKTH.ORG EDITOR AT LARGE: ZACH PLOPPER AKA THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION’S ENVIRONMENTAL DIRECTOR]

Laid out like that

 

After a feverish 2023, I thoroughly enjoyed that calm period of time that bridges the end of Holiday festivities and the stretch of days after New Year’s – before things get busy again and we go back into “work mode.”

Thankfully, Mother Nature got the sun shining during this moment of Zen. The surf pumped in Southern California. My travel agenda was paused. And I turned 43.

The only constant is change. 

 

Via the most recent Baja Surf Club Invitational: The author finished with a respectable third place performance

 

Alas, in addition to spending this quiet time at home with the family, I also wanted to reflect on the cities and beaches that I visited throughout the 12 months prior: Cape Disappointment, Delray Beach, Vancouver, Nazare, Playa del Carmen, Port Aransas, Todos Santos, Santander – and a few stops in between.  

Naturally, as is often the case in this “always-on” predicament that we call modern living, other things crept up and occupied my mind. Namely, my kids, wife, parents, holiday parties – and the waves.

No rest for the gifted, the weary or the wicked. 

 

Mucho Aloha and in the moment

 

Then a few days into 2024, the New England coast was inundated with storm surge, right on the heels of the most massive waves and severe coastal flooding seen in California in decades. Considering my professional role in ocean protection – and my personal passion for riding waves – I couldn’t help but think of the inevitable challenges that our coastlines face.

Even on my time off.

The signs have obviously been there for a long time — and I wish that it wasn’t all so real. But they are accelerating.

Sea levels are projected to rise a foot, possibly much more, over the next 25 years.  Storms are increasingly intensifying. Our coasts are eroding (25-70% of California beaches are projected to disappear by 2100). Last year, ocean waters reached above 100-degree waters off the Florida Keys. A turbo-charged hurricane slammed the Mexican-Pacific, decimating what we knew as Acapulco. 

The climate anxiety crept in for me – as it does while we slide deeper into the Anthropocene, the new epoch of geologic time during which our human activity is having significant impacts on the planet's climate and ecosystems. 

Shout out to Mr. Paul Crutzen — for suggesting nearly a quarter century ago that we have entered this new phase on our planet’s history. 

 

Stanford Professor of Earth System Science, Paige Chamberlain, says high-waters are imminent

 

But back my holiday moment of Zen: There is a 22-mile dirt trail that winds through the oak hills around my home. The first mile, a 45-degree incline, is my usual quick hit for exercise and escape. 

And one chilled, wet January morning I went for a run up the winding grade. Yearning for warmth and an element of the tropics I queued up some reggaeton … Bad Bunny to be exact. 

 

Big ups to Bad Bunny for making good music and for putting an artful twist on the human experience

 

Combined with the lyrics of Bad Bunny,  I finally reflected on one of my journeys in 2023, while the climate chaos on our coasts bounced around the back of my mind.

 

“Hey,
They say the world is going to end, I hope it's soon
Sometimes I ignore it and play dumb”

 

Washington DC, March of 2023

It was my first advocacy mission to our nation’s capital. The objective: advocating for the protection of Puerto Rico’s coastline to the US congress. I was in DC with Surfrider’s Puerto Rico Programs Manager, Hector “Tito” Varela-Valez.

Ben’s Chili Bowl, 9:45 pm, Wednesday

That morning, Tito arrived in DC on a red eye from Aguadilla, a coastal city on Puerto Rico’s northwest corner, where we are working to create a new marine protected area. Tito had a long night of flight connections. Meanwhile, I had a leisure-direct from LAX. 

Tito and I rendezvous at the famous chili dog DC establishment, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Messy, hot, heart stopping delicious chili dogs. We had two half smokes, fully loaded, under photos on the wall of Obama, Clinton, GW, Reagan, and Carter… all mowing down the same messy bliss. 

 

Keeping it moving like Ad Meliora means onto better things — or Chili Dogs in D.C.

 

Tito and I indulge in this meal, surely taking a year off our lives, but worth it. Next time you're in DC, I encourage you to check it out. Kind of a must. 

We talk about tomorrow’s activities. Hopefully there are some congressional leaders that can help Puerto Rico’s beaches, reefs, wildlife, and waves. Puerto Rico needs help – against hurricanes, coastal erosion, habitat loss, and public access to its beaches.  

Tito appreciates Bad Bunny. And, as a 40-something year-old Puerto Rican should, has taught me a thing or two about reggaeton and Puerto Rico. Said lessons usually happen over a few beers and after a surf at Jobos or Marias. 

Metro Red Line, 6:45 am, Thursday

We ride the metro from Farragut North station to the Capitol and bump along DC’s subterranean rail tunnels. Tito pulls out his phone and shows me Bad Bunny’s doco-music video associated with his song Apagon, or Blackout. It’s titled after Puerto Rico’s chronic blackouts associated with the hurricanes that have ravaged the island in recent years. 

For those who do not know – Puerto Rico’s energy grid experiences a total lack of power — often lasting for weeks to months after a big storm. This dynamic on the island also occurs spontaneously – even without a natural disaster. And it is due to the inept private energy company that runs utilities for the people there.

This predicament is what Apagon is really about: how the Isla del Encanto, the Enchanted Isle, is at the end of the line to get the resources it needs to not only recover from hurricane destruction but also to meet the basic living requirements of its people as well. It is a U.S. commonwealth after all. 

 

“Puerto Rico's fucking great, hey, it's fucking great
From Carolina came reggaeton and the sons' of bitches from Bayamón
Hey, hey, they want to ride the wave and they haven't gone to Rincón.”

45 Independence Ave SW, 7:50, Thursday

We are on the street in front of the Rayburn House Office Building. Cherry blossoms are in early full bloom. It’s sunny and the air is crisp.

This is a different DC for me – as I’ve only experienced DC’s steamy summers and occasional frigid winters. Like the time I spent the night in a Super Shuttle on the George Washington Parkway after flying into Dulles (all because two inches of snow turned the road into an ice rink). 

But I digress.

Tito and I open the lead-laden doors to the 2.4 million square foot office building. It’s Tito’s first time in a federal government office building outside of San Juan. The security line is empty in the early hours.

“Staff?” asks a security officer. “Si,” replies Tito with veteran confidence. They wave us in. I pretend I didn’t hear him falsely acknowledge us as congressional staff members. But I do want to be early for our meeting, in some room, on some floor, in this labyrinth of halls and offices. 

We are confident and move swiftly to the elevator, walking right past the building’s directory, even though we have no clue where we are going.

 

“I'm a champion, Rocky Marciano, Rocky Balboa
Rocky Maivia
Got the route, I got the way, yes
I have the way
Spend it all night, I bill all day”

The Office of Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Thursday, 9:00 am, Rayburn Hall 

I can never tell if Tito is nervous or not. In 2022, during my first trip around Puerto Rico in my new post as Surfrider’s Senior Environmental Director, we ventured deep into the mangrove forests around Bahia de Jobos on the southern shores of the island. 

On that trip, we were greeted with watchful eyes from behind curtains of the village homes – on a narrow spit that runs into the bay on this remote corner of the island. 

Beyond the homes, the mangroves were carved into channels running out to sea. A cluster of new structures precariously sat atop stilts on the sand with the bay lapping on one side and the Caribbean on the other. With the mangroves cut, a natural defense against hurricanes was gone - in addition to the rich habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife, and the carbon sinks these forests provide. 

 

Note: This is not Puerto Rico

 

Given my time traveling in off-the-beaten-track corners of Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America – I could sense that something was “amiss” on this deforested outcrop of sand. And after documenting the recently hacked sea trees and illegal construction, Tito and I turned back. 

As we made our way to the highway, a large, tinted-window pickup truck approached us from town. It slowed. It stopped. The window rolled down – and two menacing faces stared at us. Tito lifted a few fingers off the wheel with half eye contact. 

The guys watched us pass. 

Once we arrived at the gas station in town to fuel up for the rest of our journey, I suggested to Tito that there was something weird going on in that little town. 

“Claro que si,” he said. Of course. 

A few weeks after this visit, the FBI raided that entire site, arresting several people associated with habitat destruction in a federally protected reserve – and drug trafficking.   

Back to the Capitol

Tito’s quiet and confident demeanor was evident that day in Puerto Rico. It is again, now in the halls of congress. I still think he might be nervous so I whisper an expletive-filled verse from Apagon. Tito finishes the line. We laugh. He’s good.

Over the next eight hours, we met with a slew of congressional representatives, Department of Interior staff, the National Parks Service, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration…top people when it comes to federal action, or inaction, in the protection of our coastal and ocean resources. 

Most listened, some may follow up. A few might do something. 

 

No word as to whether this SUV was converted to bio-fuels

 



Thursday, 10:00 pm, Madam Organ’s Blues Bar

The DC bar “where beautiful people go to get ugly” is packed. Steamy with dance sweat and cheap drinks (they still exist if you are looking and willing). The resident band whales on the brass. I heard there is karaoke upstairs but I can’t find the way through the shoulder to shoulder dancing bodies. 

Later I find Tito outside and he’s beaming with enthusiasm. He says he is “muy inspirado, muy emocionado” and wants to come back next month to keep the pressure on. He wants action on his island before the next hurricane hits, before more corruption undermines his peoples’ passion for their coastline. 

 

Puerto Rico is a festive and positive thinking place

 

Tito tells me that the best way to learn, the only way to really learn, is by doing. Even if “doing” doesn’t always work out. Can’t Knock Tito’s Hustle. 

 

“Damn, another blackout
Let's go to the bleachers to light up a blunt”

Friday, 10:00 am, somewhere over middle America

Tito decides to hang out in DC for another day – while I fly home to California, feeling a little poisoned from Madam’s Organ. 

Like the Capitol Hill, the cherry blossoms and the gin and tonics, DC’s systems continue to chug away. For the time being, Tito is there, doing his part, for his island. I am excited to see him again soon; next time though, hopefully on his island, somewhere with reggaeton and some waves.

 

In closing, 2024 will be another testing year for our coasts and our climate. We need to face the facts that things are changing. We have built our cities during a century of climate stability. And now we enter a new epoch that looks far different from the past. The time to adapt is shrinking. If we don’t we will surely see more flooded streets and more vanishing beaches. 

 

Forever grateful for the beaches (and sand) that we can enjoy



 

Tito gives me hope. Puerto Rico gives me hope. Frontline shit. If we can’t figure this out, then what? There’s always surfing, Bad Bunny lyrics and that trail in my hometown. 

 

“Who the hell said that I want to be an example?
Everything good I do, I do it because I want to”