INVITATION NATIONAL SURFING ENVIRONMENTAL HUI - Raglan

[surf patrol]

This is an OFFICIAL INVITATION from SURFING NEW ZEALAND for you or anyone else that you may think is interested in attending a Surfers National Environmental hui which is to be held on the 29-30 July at the Kokiri Centre, Riria Kereopa Drive, Raglan.

This hui has been organised by SURFING NEW ZEALAND with the aim to form a strong national body or organisation of surfers who are keen to work together towards the various environmental challenges that face the New Zealand surfing community.

Essentially a get together for everyone that is interested in protecting and preserving the long term survival of all of the surf breaks in NZ.

If you have got something to add and you would like to be involved we would love to see you there.

As food will be provided on site can you please RSVP back to Greg Townsend by 25 July 2006 to the email address below.

surfingnz(at)xtra.co.nz


__________________________________

AGENDA
FIRST NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HUI
KOKIRI CENTRE – RAGLAN
29-30 JULY 2006

MORNING SESSION
1. Arrival (8:30 am) – refreshments
2. Welcome/Whakatau (start 9:00 am-9:30 am) – 30 minutes
3. Independent Chairperson – Wayne Brown

· Chairperson to congratulate Paul Shanks on his receipt of the Green Ribbon from the Ministry for the Environment. (10 minutes)

4. Minutes

· Person appointed to take minutes.

5. Attendees’ Records

· All attendees to sign record to be subsequently annexed to minutes.

6. Speeches

· Greg Townsend for Surfing New Zealand. Welcome and outline the way he sees Surfing New Zealand’s role regarding surfing environmental issues. (10 minutes)

· Paul Shanks – Whangamata Marina. (20 minutes)
· Malibu Hamilton – North Island experience and need for environmental advocacy group. Piha, Raglan and Gisborne etc. (10 minutes)
· Rod Rust – Aramoana 1980 – his perception and overview. Publicity of issues via Slide Longboarding magazine. (10 minutes)
· Jonathan McCarthy, Legal Advocate - history surfing environmental movement since 1999, outline of successes and failures, S.E.A. policy – Swell Corridor concept; Kaikoura/Raglan. Development of surfing environmental law as an area of legal expertise, similar to the development of sports law by David Howman. Key aspects RMA litigation. (25 minutes)
· Chairperson to congratulate Johnathan McCarthy on all his work to date regarding South Island issues and the Whangamata Marina. Presentation by Mark Venter and Pete Anderson. (10 minutes)
· Peter Furze – Establishment committee North Island environmental group. (20 minutes)
· Artificial Surfing Reefs (Shaw Mead/Kerry Black). Speech to address the major issue that surfing community faces, namely the increasing popularity of their sport. One response is to expand and enhance the surf breaks through artificial reef technology. Update on New Zealand projects, Mt Maunganui, Opunake and Wellington. (15 minutes)

7. LUNCH BREAK – 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

AFTERNOON SESSION – 1:00 pm start

8. Organisations Strategic Direction

· What’s our purpose, our reason for being?
· What’s our vision?
· Who are we doing this for? Who should benefit?
· What’s the essence, ethos or spirit of this organisation?
· What’s importance to us?
· What do we stand for?
· Where do we want to get to?
· What do we want to become?

9. AFTERNOON TEA – 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Structure

· What kind of structure - Incorporated society or Charitable Trust
· National Organisation constitution
· North and South Island representation
· Iwi / hapu representation
· Regional representation
· Boardrider’s clubs representation
· Name of National Organisation
· National Organisation Board
· Role of the National Organisation
· Legal representation
· Funding
· Media policy
· Surfrider International




DAY COMPLETED – 5:30 pm

TEA TIME - 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm

Videos – 7:00 pm

10. Surfrider USA video.
“Breaking Onshore”, Christchurch mussel farm.

SUNDAY

BREAKFAST - 8:00 am to 9:00 am

Moving Forward

Sunday - start time 9:00 am to 10:30 am

MORNING TEA - 10:30 am to 11:00 am

LAST SESSION - FINISH 11:00 am to 12:00pm

Suggestions to be discussed

· Board. Ten representatives from the South Island and twenty from the North Island, plus the Presidents of all surfing clubs. All surfing clubs to join as a club member. Surfing New Zealand to outline in its next newsletter and Greg Townsend to telephone each President; facilitate.
· Board power to approve filing of appeals/settlements to be advised regarding media statements and to receive press releases, where possible in advance.
· Surfing New Zealand to refer all environmental enquiries to environmental group and act as a conduit for those. This role to be explained in Surfing New Zealand newsletter and confirmation that the environmental group has the full support of Surfing New Zealand.
· Administration Officer. 20 hours per week. Job description: newsletters, public relations, responsible for membership lists, email lists, Community Trust funding/industry funding. Needs to be someone with a significant surfing industry profile. Position to be advertised. The appointment of a part time Administration Officer is the lynch pin to the whole concept of a national environmental organisation.
· Legal spokesperson/lawyer. Jonathan McCarthy to be responsible for the lower area (Invercargill to Wellington). A lawyer based in Hamilton/Auckland to be responsible for the upper area (Masterton to Northland). Legal spokesperson to be responsible for press releases and public statements to the media. This may be through either speaking directly to the media or through providing press releases for the President to read. Where possible, press releases should be first circulated to the Board.
· Clubs. Clubs in New Zealand to join as club members. The President of each club to be automatically appointed to the Board? Club membership: $200.00 per annum?
· Individual membership: $55.00 per annum, with membership card and t-shirt?
· Website – Mark Venter to discuss need for website. Ability to source funding from website? Link to Surfing NZ website.
· AGM – yearly – Raglan etc
· Policy development. Swell Corridor concept. Seek to establish world’s first Swell Corridors at Raglan and Kaikoura. Lawyer/President to try and arrange three monthly meetings with Minister of Conservation, Minister of Environment, Minister of Sport and Recreation and Minister of Maori Affairs in Wellington. Acknowledgement that surfing, spiritual and cultural values are intertwined with Maori cultural and spiritual values. Seek to define surfing cultural and community/environmental values. Seek to protect the total surfing environment within each Swell Corridor. Medium to long term objective: establishing the Swell Corridors and the ability to surf, fish and gather kai moana within the Swell Corridor. Liaise with Forest & Bird. Invite representatives from the Department of Conservation and Minstry for the Environment to attend AGM and also Ministers of Parliament. Liaise with Green Party regarding its Ocean Policy, seek to obtain recognition for surfing values within that policy (this work was initiated in a tentative way, with the late Mr Rod Donald) and encourage other political parties to develop Ocean Policies and support in principle for Swell Corridor concept. Fully define and develop the concept of a Swell Corridor. Advocate for coastal access. Oppose coastal privatisation. USA outcome.

11. Local Action Groups

· In advance, an action group needs to be established in each surfing area around New Zealand. The action group should be centred primarily on the main surfing club in each area, as has been done very successfully with the Sumner Longboarders Club. A similar action group established informally regarding Whangamata Marina issue. S.E.A. is the environmental division of the Sumner Longboarders Club, draws its core support from the Sumner Longboarders Club, but has also provided environmental advocacy to the South Island and, to a degree, regarding North Island issues. The local surfing club, with the responsibility for the action committee, will advocate the fact that it has an environmental division and that environmental division should be given legal effect by the incorporation of a separate society. This society would be activated in the event of a Resource Consent application being filed, affecting the local Swell Corridor or, alternatively, will take action where existing Resource Consent (say, sewage discharge Whangamata) compromises water quality and where there is a need to apply to the Environment Court for an Abatement Notice/Enforcement Order, which can, ultimately, result in the cancellation of the Resource Consent. Although the Dunedin City Council agreed to chlorination and dechlorination through to 2011, when secondary treatment will be added to its 1 kilometre ocean outfall pipe, the beaches to the north and south (Smaills, Tomahawk and St Clair) are still the subject of regular health warnings and closures, facilitated by Crown Public Health. As an example, South Coast Boardriders should be taking up this issue.

12. Iwi Liaison

· Appoint individuals to liaise with iwi. Suggest Malibu Hamilton and others. Members of iwi, preferably surfers, to be asked to join local Action Committees as issues come to the fore. Appointees to this position to provide regular reports to Ministers of Maori Affairs (in office and in opposition) and to build up a list of individuals, within iwi, who have a particular concern for environmental issues in a coastal environment.

13. Charitable Trust

· Charitable Trust status. Obtain charitable trust status from IRD and have IRD pre approve rules to ensure that they comply with charitable trust accreditation.
· Non Profit. Environmental group to be a non profit organisation.

14. Current Issue – Mussel Farm, Christchurch

· This issue has the same present immediacy as Whangamata Marina. An appeal is before the Environment Court and is likely to be heard in four months’ time. An application is presently being made to the Ministry for the Environment for an Environmental Defence Grant. Funding is urgently required to assist this appeal. The New Zealand aquaculture industry regards the Pegasus Bay mussel farm as a test case for the whole of New Zealand. The total area is 10,000 hectares and is larger in area than greater Christchurch. If the Pegasus Bay mussel farm is granted, a proliferation of offshore mussel farms is likely around New Zealand, particularly in the northern lee of peninsulas. Areas that are likely to be vulnerable are Karitane, north of the Otago Peninsula, Kaikoura, Mahia, Coromandel and Northland. Given its immediacy, this project should be the first funded.


15. Conclusion Sunday 12 o’clock - Thank the local Hapu, Surfing New Zealand
and attendees.

[Sweet!]

wow.! HARD OUT!

Anyone planning on going

[Roy Stewart]

Classic (not) that Kerry Black is invited considering that he has already destroyed one NZ break at a cost of a million or so, and also considering that he doesn't surf.



Committees design camels, end of story.

.

[Brent]

At Last!!!
Roy & I agree on something.
Not that I think our artifical reef is a failure (yet) as it is not yet finished, and I reserve judgement on such until it is. But one thing that's always annoyed me is the spin that comes from ASR, it's bloody everywhere, just google up artifical reefs or ASR and see what I mean, there are only three artifical reefs yet created (and ours is half finished) 2.5 reefs to-date. And yet the words imply there're everywhere, cranking perfect waves and the saviour of our sport...

Kerry Black & ASR are smoke & mirrors.

I obviouly can't say too much on an open internet forum Roy, but things are in hand should it remain incomplete or not do what inital design (and ASR) promised it would. PM me if you want further details.

[Roy Stewart]

Hi Brent,

On the last swell it looked like the reef had vanished completely, I wonder if it has sunk into the sand?

Regarding the spin, what annoyed me the most was their propaganda which stated that the mount coast produced only unsurfable closeouts prior to the reef . . .


Roy