Surfers, ocean activists honor one of their own
SEA raises $5,000
at annual dinner to
support organization
More than 100 surfers and ocean activists got together to honor one of their own last week. The Fifth Annual Kahuna Awards, held at The Quay on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright, raised almost $5,000 for the Surfers Environmental Alliance (SEA), a grass-roots environmental organization based out of Long Branch and Santa Cruz, Calif.
Tom Eadon, a local surfing hero, is the "kahuna" for the year. In the 1960s he and his brother Gordon took surfboard-making from a hobby to a business when they created Rise Surfboards. Although the local company is no longer operating, Eadon still shapes surfboards, working out of his basement. But along with his love of surfing, Eadon also loves the ocean and is active in SEA.
Scott Thompson, SEA member and Eadon’s lifelong friend, said, "Tom is truly an inspiration, to not only the community, but to each and every one of us. We are all here tonight to share memories with him. He inspired me, and my son as well."
Brian Unger, the regional director of SEA, said, "In Hawaiian, the word "kahuna" means priest. Tonight we are going to honor someone for being, in a sense, a priest for the sport of surfing. Tom has made a lifelong commitment to the sport, and is someone who embodies the aloha spirit. That is the spirit of welcoming, and the spirit of respect."
Besides honoring their friend, attendees also wanted to raise money to help protect the ocean and the local beaches. Rick Donovan of Sea Bright said, "The last couple of years, I have been getting involved. I love the water and the beach. I am also here to honor a great friend. We live by the shore, so we need to protect it. If we continue to pollute it, we will never get it back."
Explained Unger: "We are extremely active in the ongoing fight to stop the ocean dumping of contaminated waste from New York Harbor. We are proud to be one of the few groups in the region able to provide a professional scientific evaluation and comments on the government’s plan. We have also been very active over the last couple of years critiquing the federal sand-pumping project that’s built up the beaches from Sea Bright to Manasquan."
While the general public sees only bigger beaches from the project, it has caused some problems for surfers.
Walter Frattin, the first recipient of the SEA’s kahuna award, said, "I have been surfing longer than anyone here. I live a block from the beach in Long Branch. When they pumped the sand on the beaches, they ruined my lifestyle. Now I have to go to Deal to surf, and soon they’ll be pumping there too."
"The project was done without a major environmental impact statement. It wiped out huge amounts of habitat for marine life. It wiped out at least one million dollars’ worth of commerce related to surfing, fishing, diving and other ocean-related businesses, while saving Sea Bright at the same time. There were better ways that this could have been done. We offered alternative proposals. They wiped out seven adjacent surf breaks, and the culture that went along with it. They were the seven top surfing breaks in Coastal New Jersey for the last 50 years," explained Unger.
The shore environmental community is close-knit, and their groups work closely together. At the dinner, Unger thanked everyone for their hard work and dedication. "If it weren’t for the other organizations that started the whole environmental movement, people like Cindy Zipf from Clean Ocean Action, people who have a love and a dedication to the ocean, I don’t know where any of us would be right now," Unger said.
SEA is a voluntary charitable organization with no paid employees. All money raised is used to fund its projects, according to the organization.