The ocean is a fundamental building block of life on Earth – it regulates the weather, serves as a carbon sink, and provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Yet the threats the ocean faces from the climate crisis are profound: acidification, warming and deoxygenation all pose grave threats to humanity. One group that knows the ocean more intimately than most is surfers, yet they have been largely ignored when it comes to figuring out solutions to the climate crisis. At COP 25, Reece Pacheco held an event and presented the World Surf League's climate actions, demonstrating awareness raising in the surfing community as well as it appetite to act.

Surfers for Climate is an Australian non-profit aiming to change that. Founded in 2019 by Belinda Baggs and Johnny Abegg, its CEO is world-class bodyboarder, Chris Kirkman.

He has competed everywhere from Portugal and Chile to Tahiti and Brazil, and it was through surfing that he first started considering humans’ effect on the climate.

Surfers for Climate has four key goals: to mobilize and empower an alliance of surfers to care about the climate; to take climate action; to help the surfing community play a role in stopping coastal and offshore fossil fuel developments; and to make politicians who represent surfing communities take climate action.

Australia is at the frontlines of the climate crisis, with recent years seeing drought, wildfires and flooding across the country. “A lot of Aussies had taken their heads out of the sand when it came to the climate, but then the fires and the floods really stepped up the urgency of the issue. It still a difficult pathway for people, as they don’t know where to start, or where to go,” Kirkman says. Part of Surfers for Climate’s remit is to reach out to surfers and point them in the right direction.

“We are still learning about our audience and how to engage them – figuring out how we take every surfer on a journey of climate action. We refer to it as a wave of engagement with multiple take-off points on that wave,” Kirkman says. Of course, every surfer is different, and a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. “You have to ask yourself which type of surfer am I talking to today, and what are the things they can do?”

That diversity is reflected in Surfers for Climate with co-founder Belinda Baggs a world-class long boarder, while co-founder Johnny Abegg is a talented shortboarder in his own right. So “there is a wide net we are casting, just in our own interests, and in the way that we ride waves,” Kirkman says. “We are able to appeal to a very large cohort of surfers, and approach that group as no other organization has been able to in a very broad, diverse and inclusive way,” he adds.

Engaging Everyday People

The non-profit has done everything from hosting climate-themed pub trivia nights to producing environmentally friendly consumption guides. Last month, they launched a new initiative called the Trade Up, aimed at surfers who are also tradespeople, such as builders, carpenters and electricians.

“We ran a one-day seminar for tradespeople, where we brought in different suppliers of materials and builders who were embracing best practice on their job sites in terms of materials and carbon neutrality,” Kirkman says.

“They had never had anyone engage with them on the environment during their whole working lives. We know there are huge emissions from construction, yet we are not talking to the tradespeople. They haven’t been engaged in the climate movement, but they just needed someone to talk to them and give them examples of best practice,” he adds.

Kirkman also points out the discussion has been quite intellectual for a long time, with “people in suits in big meetings talking about frameworks and emissions, and we have forgotten that there are everyday people who can be involved if you take the time to engage with them, and that’s what we try to do with Surfers for Climate.”

Communicating Climate Action

Communication is vital, as is knowing who your audience is and what they are going to respond to.

“It’s our job as people who aren’t scientists but are passionate about the issue, to figure out how to get that message across and speak to the people we represent and it’s my job to understand them and figure out what makes them tick and what makes them act,” Kirkman says.  

Of course, as the climate crisis gets more intense, more and more people are experiencing the devastating reality of a changing climate. “We had the disastrous floods in the northern rivers of New South Wales earlier this year,” Kirkman says.

“And so many surfers took the initiative to help with the rescue efforts. We had world champion surfers on jet-skis for 36 hours rescuing people and delivering services to people who were stranded in their homes, such as bringing insulin to diabetics,” he says.

“That was a beautiful thing. Charitable acts are wonderful but how can we be pre-emptive? That’s what we are working towards – surfers are really good at reading a surf forecast, we are weather experts, yet we are not climate experts. If you can read a forecast about weather, why can’t you read a forecast on climate change?” 

For now though, there is lots of work to do. Kirkman hopes Surfers for Climate can scale up its Trade Up initiative, engage with politicians ahead of upcoming elections and – like many non-profits – raise money so it can continue to do its work. “It’s the toughest yet most enjoyable job I’ve had,” Kirkman says. “There’s definitely nothing else I would rather be doing.”