news release
    11th June 2004

SAS Quiksilver Eco Tour 04

For the 5 th consecutive year Quiksilver has teamed up with Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) and toured the country spreading the message cleaner seas for everyone. As with last years tour, SAS and Quiksilver aimed to get to kids and sow the seeds for a future of environmental aware people. This year however, SAS and Quiksilver took it to the beach. (Insert A +s talk with caption "Andy and Sarah talk with St Agnes Groms") By targeting kids who already surf (groms) we will be teaching groms who love the beach and sea and will hopefully be spending the rest of their lives around the marine environment. These groms can go on spreading our message for the rest of their lives.

The message was shocking at times and this was evident on the groms faces when they learnt that a plastic bottle can stay in the marine environment for up to 450 years and the harm it can do to wildlife during those 450 years. The tour was not about shocking the groms though, it identified what the marine environment is made up of, how it can be harmed, who can protect it and how. Then the groms were split into teams captain by one of the Quiksilver team riders. The Quiksilver team consisted of 3 times World Masters Champion Gary Elkerton, 2 times European Champion and multiple British and English Champion Spencer Hargraves, Multiple Welsh Champion Nathan Phillips, British Cup winner Shaun Skilton, local legends Mark Vaughan and Greg Owen and 2 of the hottest groms on the Quiksilver team Harry Cromwell and Tom Butler. As well as these hot rippers Quiksilver team rider and British team member Sarah Bentley was helping out with delivering the talk.

Once in their teams the groms would be asked to design a beach poster highlighting how to enjoy the beach and ensure future generations can do the same. Then the teams would be sent off to hunt for 'treasure'. Equipped with bin bags, heavy duty gloves, pickers and their pro surfers the teams would hunt for marine litter. Even beaches that looked clean would yield a health bounty!! Full bin bags with piles of marine litter would be brought back and SAS campaigner Andy Cummins would pull out items found and show the groms how and why it was a problem.

Andy Cummins SAS campaigner says: "I was not sure we would find a great selection of litter at some of the beaches as at a glance they looked clean. The teams were given just over 15 minutes and everyone came back with a bulging sack of plastics, cigarette butts and the some unmentionables. I was shocked! Sitting down and looking through this was a real eye opener and shows that the state of our beaches needs to improve drastically, as does the attitudes of beach users as a large percentage of what we found would have come from them."

After lunch the groms stayed in their teams and with their respective pros they did battle in a fun tag team surf contest . Fun goes out the window when 3 times World Masters Champion is losing to his sparing partner and 2 times European Champion Spencer Hargraves and there were a few interference calls from the water. This did not always help the boys as on occasions when these two were battling it out Sarah Bentley and her team often squeezed into the lead unnoticed. At the end of the day though, everyone had loads of fun, the groms got to meet the legends and they also learnt how to protect their own marine environment.

Everyone who turned up was presented with a SAS Quiksilver Initiative Beach Eco Guardian Certificate and a goodie bag containing SAS posters, caps, stickers, pipeline news's and membership information and Quiksilver stickers, posters, caps and key rings. All were signed by the whole team and everyone left with big smiles!!!

The tour visited St Agnes in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, Porthcawl in Glamorgan, Scarborough in Yorkshire, Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire and finished in Portrush in Northern Ireland. As it finished Quiksilver launched their Grommet series contests which you can find out more on www.quiksilver.com/initiative.

SAS would like to thank everyone involved with this tour, but firstly the groms who had an excellent attitude and a joy to be around. Quiksilver Initiative for their foresight, recognising the importance of this tour and for donating such fun team riders, everyone who helped out at all the different venues, there are too many to mention but you know who you are, thanks!!! Lastly we would like to thank the little fish himself, Minnow, without whom we may not have made it..... a constant source of laughter.

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