Surfers Send Aid to a Former Paradise
Relief organizations delivering tsunami aid to some of the remotest parts of Indonesia this week are seeking help from an unusual ally: a group of hard-core surfers.
Surf Aid International, a nonprofit organization with offices in Encinitas, Calif., has been spearheading the effort to aid Nias, an island off western Sumatra where an estimated 272 died and 2,000 were left homeless by the Dec. 26 tsunami, according to some reports.
To the vast majority of Americans, the island is at most an obscure blip on a vast blue globe. But to a class of globetrotting surfer, it is home to one of the world's great waves, a perfectly shaped right-breaking freight train at Lagundri Bay.
The cruel irony of a wave savaging this island was not lost on Surf Aid's members. And they were in a unique position to help.
The group was founded by surfers four years ago to help the people of the Mentawai Islands, a chain about 175 miles southeast of Nias that is also known for excellent surf. One website called the area "surfing's Disneyland."
Onshore, however, residents have alarmingly high rates of preventable diseases like malaria, which Surf Aid has been combating for four years.
Since the tsunami, Surf Aid has recruited four surfing charter boats from the Sumatran port city of Padang to be packed with medical supplies and sent to Nias with doctors and translators who have worked with local people before.
Six-figure pledges have come from surf-wear companies Quiksilver and Billabong, according to Gary Sirota, Surf Aid's Encinitas-based director of legal affairs. The government of New Zealand recently promised a matching grant of up to $300,000, he said.
"The surfing community is really stepping up to the plate," said Paul Riehle, a San Francisco surfer and member of the group's U.S. board of directors. "They were already on the ground. They know these cultures, the shamanistic cultures and Muslim cultures, and are sensitive to them in terms of bringing aid. And we're using the surf charter industry over there, because the only way to get to these islands is by boat."
The response to the crisis on Nias exemplifies the new connections that tourism has forged between Westerners and the faraway coastal regions of the Indian Ocean. Fifty years ago, countries like Thailand and Indonesia were among the most exotic recreation destinations on the globe. Today, they are accessible vacation options.
