Riding the Waves of Change at the WSL US Open of Surfing 2024

At the world's largest surfing competition, Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) and members of our community joined our partners at WSL One Ocean during the annual Lexus US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California for a week of ocean restoration, advocacy, and community building. 

Every year, hundreds of thousands of surfing enthusiasts and professional athletes gather in Huntington Beach, California—fondly known as 'Surf City USA'—for the annual US Open of Surfing competition. The event hosts two World Surf League (WSL) competition divisions: the second stop of the Longboard Tour and the fourth stop on the Challenger Series—the main qualification pathway to the WSL's elite Championship Tour. 

From August 7-9, Sustainable Ocean Alliance headed to the sunny shores of Southern California to join forces with WSL One Ocean—the League's global initiative committed to inspiring, educating, and empowering ocean protection—for three days of coastal restoration amidst the competition, intersectionally weaving ocean sustainability with the global surfing community. 

We were honored to be joined by fellow ocean champions Surfrider Foundation, WILDCOAST, Shiseido Blue Project, and OC Coastkeeper as well as members of SOA's community: Ecopreneur Network Members Sway and RePurpose Global, Marine Science Communicator and SOA Young Ocean Leader Mckenzie Margarethe, and members of the SOA Dream Team. 

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Together, our organizations and members gathered as one to fulfill our collective mission: restore coastal ecosystems, provide ocean education & literacy among visitors, cheer on our favorite surf athletes, and build community around our common love and appreciation for the ocean. 

Activation Day 1, August 7: Beach and Watershed Cleanup

Our first day of ocean restoration began with a local beach cleanup led by WILDCOAST and Shiseido Blue Project. We were thrilled to be joined by actor, activist, and Shiseido Ambassador, Nina Dobrev, who participated in the community beach cleanup.

"This whole operation is so inspiring and amazing… It takes every single person to do their part to make a bigger difference throughout the world."

— Nina Dobrev, Actor and Activist

With 75 volunteers, we removed more than 30 pounds of trash and hundreds of microplastics from the sands of Huntington Beach. 

Members of the Shiseido Blue Project, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, WSL One Ocean, and WILDCOAST participated in the on-site beach cleanup

Actor and Activist Nina Dobrev spoke to the community and event participants prior to the beach cleanup

Actor and activist Nina Dobrev participated in the on-site beach cleanup in Huntington Beach, California

Professional surfers Sage Erickson and Eli Hanneman showed their beach cleanup collection efforts

Teams SOA and WSL One Ocean joined forces for the WILDCOAST beach cleanup

Lindsay Kenefick of rePurpose Global joined SOA for the week to support the event's ocean restoration projects

Volunteers for the WILDCOAST beach cleanup celebrated the event's impactful cleanup efforts

In between our restoration activities, the SOA Team greeted hundreds of eventgoers at our pop-up booth, where we had the opportunity to share more about our mission and showcase some of the ocean-positive solutions from members of our Ecopreneur Network—including samples of seaweed packaging from Sway, materials from plastic action platform RePurpose Global, and seaweed straws from LOLIWARE. 

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Later in the day, we ventured a few miles inland to the Santa Ana River for a watershed basin cleanup, led by the Surfrider Foundation North OC Chapter. Running nearly 100 miles from the San Bernadino Mountains to the ocean in Huntington Beach with over 50 tributaries, the Santa Ana River is the largest watershed in Southern California. This critical ecosystem is home to numerous native species and supplies 85% of the water demand for north and central Orange County, making restoration key to conserving this important community resource. 

Surfers, community members, and volunteers gathered together to remove more than 800 pounds of waste—from plastic bottles and wrappers to bed comforters and shopping carts—from this protected watershed basin and divert pollution from reaching the ocean. 

Volunteers from Surfrider Foundation, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and WSL One Ocean gathered to clean up a section of the Santa Ana River Watershed

Volunteers removed several shopping carts found in the watershed basin that had the ecosystem growing in and around it

SOA's Mckenzie Margarethe helped to remove waste from the Santa Ana River Watershed

Volunteers removed a large foam comforter found deeply embedded into the watershed basin

Volunteers carried an array of debris out of the watershed, from microplastics and food wrappers to textiles and large objects 

"I am helping solve the global plastic crisis" – rePurpose Global

Teams SOA and WSL One Ocean at the Santa Ana River Watershed cleanup event

SOA Founder & CEO Daniela V. Fernandez was in attendance, where she had the opportunity to speak to our partners at WSL on the importance of creating solutions to the challenges our ocean is facing.

"I feel so incredibly proud of all of these organizations coming together to be united by one cause—to protect and restore the health of our ocean."

— Daniela V. Fernandez, Founder & CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance

Activation Day 2, August 8: Beach Cleanup

Day two began with an early start to continue our beach cleanup efforts in Huntington Beach, led by Surfrider Foundation and Shiseido Blue Project. 

As a manicured and groomed beach with hundreds of trash bins available up and down the 8.5-mile coastline, Huntington Beach should be relatively trash-free. Yet, our coalition of volunteers was able to collect more than 100 pounds of waste from the beach over the course of just two hours—from microplastics and fishing line to broken bodyboards and forgotten beach accessories. 

And this waste isn't just diverted back to landfills. After counting, weighing, and recording the collected debris, Surfrider then utilizes the data to help inform ocean policy, educate the community on responsible waste disposal, and hold polluters accountable. 

Activation Day 3, August 9: Oyster Restoration

On our final day at the US Open, we closed out a successful week of ocean action with an oyster restoration project led by OC Coastkeeper. Volunteers, surfers, and nonprofit partners gathered to help construct new habitats for Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida), California's only native oyster species.

Once a common resident of California's coasts, Olympia oysters were decimated to less than 5% of the species' historic range as a result of overharvesting and loss of suitable substrate throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This keystone species is critical to providing habitat and refuge for other marine organisms, improving water clarity and quality, and stabilizing shorelines. Today, conservation efforts are underway to restore the Olympia oyster across the entire U.S. West Coast through projects similar to that of OC Coastkeeper.

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The project consisted of stringing together discarded oyster shells onto stainless steel wires that, when completed, would be attached to local docks to provide a familiar substrate on which native oyster larvae can settle. SOA Young Ocean Leader and Marine Science Communicator, Mckenzie Margarethe, educated us further on the importance of nature-based native restoration, noting that oysters prefer to settle onto old oyster shells to build their reefs. Together, SOA, OC Coastkeeper, WSL One Ocean, and volunteers repurposed more than 1,000 oyster shells to restore and repopulate oyster reefs. 

Alyssa Pace (Sway), Lindsay Kenefick (rePurpose Global), and Mckenzie Margarethe (SOA Young Ocean Leader) with constructed oyster strings

Bucket of completed oyster strings to be used for oyster restoration in Southern California

Mckenzie Margarethe stringing together oyster shells for local restoration efforts

SOA's Jon Letts and Mckenzie Margarethe constructing oyster shell strings at SOA's event booth

Team SOA during the oyster shell restoration project with OC Coastkeeper

California-born professional surfer and 2x US Open Champion, Sage Erickson, at the oyster restoration event

Oyster restoration project hosted by OC Coastkeeper in collaboration with WSL One Ocean, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and Shiseido Blue Project

We were honored to be joined by elite surfers Sage Erickson, Eli Hanneman, and Jett Schilling who participated in several restoration projects throughout the week to underscore their unified message from the surfing community: the health of the ocean is intrinsically linked to the sport they love, and preserving it is a shared duty. 

Progress Towards a Restored Ocean 

Overall, it is clear that the US Open of Surfing represents far more than a surf competition. Through our partnership with WSL One Ocean, the event highlighted the transformative power of intersectional collaboration, creating solutions, and the unwavering dedication of the global surf community to safeguard our ocean for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations to come. 

Together, for one ocean. 

Read WSL's event recap here.

Sustainable Ocean Alliance would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the following:

Event Partners: WSL One Ocean, Surfrider Foundation, WILDCOAST, OC Coastkeeper, Shiseido Blue Project

SOA Ecopreneur Network Members: Sway, RePurpose Global