There’s good reason Phillip Island deserves Surf Reserve status.
Australia heralded one of the final declarations of the highly successful National Surfing Reserves program on the weekend at Phillip Island in Victoria, the Australian surfing state where the world’s first ‘surfing reserve’ was seeded in 1973.
While four other Australian breaks have been nominated for Reserve status and yet to be enshrined, wave rich Phillip Island marked the ‘icing on the cake’ for what has been widely regarded as one of the most remarkable environmental and cultural initiatives witnessed in surfing history.
The NSR program, based in Australia, will now focus on expansion globally. A number of surfing nations will join Australia which has 18 NSR, while Hawaii has two.
National Surfing Reserves will continue to develop and partner ‘World Surfing Reserves’ which currently number five. Kelly Slater is the NSR and WSR Global Ambassador.
Discussions are underway with Joel Parkinson who has expressed his interest to become more involved with NSR and the surfing amenity and culture it seeks to protect.
Local PI surfers, dignitaries and NSR representatives enjoy the news.
The Victorian government looks sure to follow the nine legislated National Surfing Reserves in New South Wales, under laws which provide the surfing community with ‘primacy in the decision-making process’.
“This parliamentary law for surfers is a world first and is expected to become a legislative template for other nations to follow,” said NSR founder Brad Farmer at Phillip Island on the weekend.
At ‘PI’, two hours south of Melbourne, surfing legend Layne Beachley hosted the NSR event along with Brad Farmer and the Minister for Environment and Youth Affairs, The Hon Ryan Smith MP. The Phillip Island NSR is made up of four sites along Phillip Island’s coast: Cape Woolamai, Smiths Beach, Summerland and Cat Bay. The day also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the PI Boardriders Club, one of the greatest in Australia.
Local Aboriginals give their blessing with a traditional ceremony of their own.
Spearheaded by coastal advocates Brad Farmer and Prof Andrew Short, the philosophy of National Surfing Reserves is to ‘care, share and preserve’. National Surfing Reserves is a voluntary collaboration dedicated to recognising iconic surfing sites in Australia and assisting NSR sites globally. Self-funded and non-political, NSR will next declare the World’s first Indigenous Surfing Reserve at Wreck Bay Aboriginal community on the south coast of NSW, followed by Noosa in Queensland, Marrawah in Tasmania, and Red Bluff in NW Western Australia.
Australia’s Gold Coast is to be nominated for World Surfing Reserve status in 2014, while Huanchaco in Puru will be declared a WSR in October 2013.
“NSR has engaged many thousands of surfers across Australia over the years and brought them together like never before in good will with law makers, governors, councillors, legends – and most importantly, the average surfer and the surfer kids who are our future,” said the NSR founder.
Find out more at www.surfingreserves.org
