Globalistic - Yoshi's San Francisco - 3/3/2010

by Keely Gerhold, Surfrider San Francisco Music Outreach Program volunteer

Surfrider helped kick off the Globalistic series at Yoshi’s Restraurant in San Francisco March 3rd with a little help from the band Mucho Axe.


photo: Mucho Axe

Mucho Axe was full of South American flavor and brought great live music to Yoshi’s Restaurant. Globalistic is a live music series at Yoshi’s every Wednesday that brings global music to San Francisco by featuring local bands with a knack for worldly music. Before the band takes the stage, a Bay Area DJ spins a few tracks to get the crowd into a dancing and festive mood. This week is was DJ Beto.


photo: Neel and I at the Surfrider table.

The Music Outreach Program was represented at the entrance of the venue and got a shout out from our accommodating host, Robin Applewood, so the crowd knew what we were all about. Neel Singh and I represented Surfrider and had a few interested folks stop by to chat and get a reusable Surfrider tote bag. Thanks to Yoshi’s for allowing us to be the first non profit to rock it at Globalistic, the band Mucho Axe, our tabling friend Lindsey, the Yoshi’s staff and Robin!


photo: Lindsey and Neel.

Rogue Wave at the 9:30 Club

The Music Outreach Program represented Surfrider at the 9:30 Club last Friday. Thanks to Ed Stack at 9:30 and Justin Little at Zeitgeist Management for allowing us to be at the show! Beth Gunter and Matt Gove talked up the crowd about plastic bags and other garbage that ends up in our waterways and ultimately the ocean. Rogue Wave sounded great and a full crowd was on hand!

MOP at Rogue Wave this Friday!

Surfrider will be representing at the Rogue Wave show this Friday March 5th at the 9:30 Club! Thanks to Ed Stack at 9:30 and Justin Little at Zeitgeist Management for allowing us to be a part of the show. Come check out RW's great music and say hi to our Surfrider volunteers!

State Radio Brings It

by Matt Gove, Surfrider DC Music Outreach Program Coordinator

Thanks to State Radio and their volunteer organization Calling All Crows for partnering with Surfrider DC for a great stream cleanup last Saturday February 27.


photo: Surfrider and State Radio fans with members of the band and Calling All Crows staff

We had great turnout for the cleanup and State Radio lead singer Chad Urmstom was kind enough to stop by and rally the crew.


photo: Chad and Surfrider DC Chapter Chair Julie


photo: Surfrider DC member Christina Elefante collecting trash

There was an enormous amount of trash - including a boat, many car tires, and more chairs than we could count.



photo: Jody, Matt, and CR English from the Calling All Crows/State Radio Tour crew.

Later that evening State Radio put on a great show and gave a shout out to the cleanup volunteers and to DC Surfrider. Thanks to Surfrider DC Chapter member Jason Rubin who helped me out at the show!


photo: State Radio on stage at the 9:30 Club

Much thanks to the 9:30 Club for letting us put out some information during the concert. We look forward to working with Calling All Crows again in the future--thanks everyone for coming out!

And this 2009 Surfrider Wavemaker Award goes to ...

Congratulations to DC Surfrider Chapter Chair Julie Lawson, amazing supporter of the Music Outreach Program, who is the recipient of the 2009 Surfrider Foundation Wavemaker Award for Chapter Leadership.

The Surfrider Foundation's Board of Directors gave out several 2009 Wavemaker Awards in different categories. Here's a photo of all of the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients. It was taken by Marketing Assistant Kyle Lishok at the February 2010 Awards Dinner in San Clemente, CA.


photo: Back Row (L-R): Jerry Collamer, Brock Wilson, Randy Renick, Julie Lawson, Rick Saveri, Kerry O'Bryan, Manase Mansur, Julie Steinleitner. Front Row (L-R): Belinda Smith, Kirk Holmes (AVEDA), Robb Havassy.

Read about all of the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients here in this Surfrider HQ press release. Here's an excerpt:

Chapter Leadership Award
Julie Lawson – Washington, DC Chapter

Julie’s efforts have made the Chapter a viable, credible and well-organized group. Her work has included a leadership role in the passage of the Washington, DC Bag Tax Bill, and assistance on other bag bans and bills. Additionally, Julie has worked tirelessly to recruit and train new activists, served as a mentor to other chapters and participated in numerous EarthShare presentations, leading to a 35% increase in pledges for the Foundation.


photo: Julie giving her award acceptance speech at the 2009 Wavemaker Award Dinner.

As an example of Julie's work, check this out - on April 1, 2009 the DC City Council held a hearing on Bill 18-150 "The Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009." Julie was invited to testify at the hearing, on behalf of Surfrider DC. This is her testimony -



Julie also testified at the January 20, 2010 DC City Council Committee on Government Operations & the Environment's hearing on Bill 18-521 "The Human and Environmental Health Protection Amendment Act of 2009."

Watch her testimony here. She is introduced about 23 minutes into the start of the hearing.


Another 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipient, also a friend of MOP, is Belinda Smith from the Surfrider San Diego Chapter. Belinda received the Distinguished Service Award, in part for her leadership on the development of a brand new Surfrider film “The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water." This film coincides with Surfrider's "Know Your H2O" campaign.


photo: Belinda

Here's the film's trailer -

The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water - TRAILER 1 from Surfrider Foundation San Diego C on Vimeo.

“The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water" will premiere on March 21st, World Water Day, in San Diego.



Congrats again to the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients!

Thanks to Kyle, Laura, Vickie, Belinda, and Ed, who all helped me gather the photos for this post.

Calling All Crows & Surfrider DC Service Event - Sat Feb 27

From today's DC Surfrider Chapter e-newsletter -




From the Calling All Crows Facebook Page -



The link takes you to this page -



If you are a Surfrider member, then to sign up to volunteer at the service event go here.

If you are not a Surfrider member, but are a State Radio fan or a member of the public then sign up to volunteer at the service event by emailing Matt, Calling All Crow's Co-Director at matt(@)callingallcrows.org, or see the Calling All Crows outreach table at State Radio's Friday night show at the 9:30 Club to sign up for the service event.

Matt and Jason from Surfrider DC will be representing the Chapter at the State Radio show at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night. (Surfrider will not be there on Friday night.) If you go to the Saturday night show then stop by the Chapter's outreach table to say hello!

Coming Up - Globalistic - Yoshi's San Francisco - Wed March 3

The Surfrider San Francisco Chapter will have an outreach table at Globalistic next Wednesday, March 3rd. The event will be held at Yoshi's in San Francisco's Fillmore District.

We will be represented by Neel, a superstar MOP volunteer, and a new member of our Chapter who hails from the Minnesota-Superior Surfrider Chapter that she helped found in 2008, named Keely. Welcome, Keely!

Every Wednesday Yoshis SF’s new weekly live music series, “Globalistic,” brings the best in local world music to a world-class venue. Reggae, Afrobeat, Afro-Brazilian, World Jazz and Latin-themed parties alternate each week.

Speakers from green orgs and humanitarian NGOs educating awareness of Global responsibilities, plus worldly drink specials on Leblon Caparinia, Don Q Cuba Libre and Fat Tire, round out the Globalistic experience. Stamp your passport to global groove every Wednesday at Yoshis SF!!!

$5 Every Wednesday
Doors 9pm
Music 9pm-2am

Produced by Bay Vibes, Maisha Productions, Beyond Jazz, and another friend of our Chapter - Bayonics Manager Jimmy Vargas.

The 2010 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival - Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf - 2/5 & 2/7/2010

by Nicole Parisi-Smith, San Francisco Chapter MOP Coordinator

Several amazing San Francisco Chapter volunteers volunteered to help out at this year's all volunteer-run San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.


photo: volunteer in the bright yellow vest! Guests checking in at the SF OFF box office at Pier 39. Courtesy of SF OFF Facebook page.

Most of our Chapter volunteers helped out on Friday night, February 5th, for the inaugural SF OFF "Surfing" program. One of the films shown during "Surfing" was "Surfbus."



I was unable to make it on Friday night, so I helped out on Sunday afternoon, February 7th. One of the films I caught during my program was "Free Swim." Watch the trailer here.


photo: Packed House for the "Surfing" program. Courtesy of SF OFF Facebook page.

A big thanks to our San Francisco Chapter Volunteers who helped out at SF OFF - Christy O'Connell, Dan Robinson, Sam Diamond and Brooke Tessman!!


photo: Dan Robinson on the right. Courtesy of the SF OFF Facebook page.

Thanks to Frank Firmat and Chris Connors who coordinated the SF OFF volunteers, including the Surfrider crew.

Thanks, too, to SF OFF for listing us as a "Community Partner" in the SF OFF program that everyone received when entering the event.

Here are some shots of the program.

photo: front of program


photo: community partners page

Thanks to SF OFF, too, for listing us on the "welcome" board on display right inside the event lobby! (Sorry, I didn't get a photo of the board.)

Thanks, too to SF OFF for listing us on the SF OFF website! Here's a screen shot.


photo: SF OFF website

Looking forward to SF OFF 2011!

Oceanroyal - Red Devil Lounge - 2/10/2010

photo: Oceanroyal with Nick and Brooke

by Brooke Tessman, San Francisco Chapter volunteer -

On Wednesday night, Nick Arlas and I were given, well, a musical royal treatment by Bay Area band Oceanroyal. They performed for a crowded house at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco. I hadn't been to a show on a Wednesday night in a while, so I was skeptical regarding the potential turnout.

Nick and I arrived at 7:30pm and set up the Surfrider outreach table in a prominent position close to the front door. The band, Northern Son, opened for Oceanroyal and quickly had everyone grooving to the music. Not a bad turnout for a Wednesday night!

Oceanroyal took the stage around 10:00pm as people continued to stream through the doors. Boasting a mellow, poppy sound, Oceanroyal is reminiscent of the early 90's band, the Gin Blossoms. Oceanroyal is: Kurt Seefeld, Brian London, Chris Garber, and David Chen. Having released their debut album, "Sympathetic Vibrations" last year, the group proved to be in excellent form. You can check out the band's website here.

After Surfrider received several stage shout outs from the band, I learned that Nick was on his school's crew team, along with several of the guys from Oceanroyal.

Throughout the night, current Surfrider members stopped by our table to say hello, along with a lot of new folks looking to learn more about our organization. Between sets, some of the guys from Oceanroyal signed up for Surfrider membership too. Thanks to everyone for your continued support and yet another successful show. Surfrider looks forward to working with Oceanroyal again soon!

Coming Up - State Radio in the District - 9:30 Club, Sat Feb 27

Surfrider will be representing at the State Radio show Saturday February 27 at the 9:30 Club in DC! State Radio has some great tracks, come check them out and say hi to our Surfrider volunteers. Surfrider's DC Chapter has partnered with State Radio's activism group Calling All Crows to host a stream clean-up that day. For more information on the stream clean-up check out the Surfrider DC Chapter website. Calling All Crows has graciously allowed us to represent at the show and has given us two free tickets, which will be raffled as door prizes at the next DC Chapter meeting February 16th. See you there!

Music Outreach Program gets Shout Out from Jim Moriarty!

This is a belated post, but on December 10th the Surfrider Foundation's CEO Jim Moriarty spotlighted the Music Outreach Program on his blog, Oceans Waves Beaches!

I found out about the post indirectly through Twitter - didn't have anything to do with it:)

Coming Up - Oceanroyal @ Red Devil Lounge - Wed Feb 10

Thanks to Nick, one of our awesome San Francisco Music Outreach Program volunteers, we have just added a new band to our list of supporters - the Bay Area band Oceanroyal.


photo: Left to Right: Kurt Seefeld, Brian London, Chris Garber, David Chen

Their bio states that they are influenced by a range of artists, from Tom Petty and Oasis to The Beatles and Hall & Oates. Oceanroyal self-released their debut album, "Sympathetic Vibrations" last year. I love their music - for a preview, check out their website.

Our first show with Oceanroyal is Wednesday, February 10th at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco. Doors open at 8pm. Tickets are $5 in advance or $8 at the door.

The San Francisco Chapter will be represented by Brooke and Nick. If you go to the show then please stop by the Surfrider outreach table to say hello!

Thanks again to Oceanroyal and Nick!

Kapakahi - Slim's - 1/22/2010

By Nicole Parisi-Smith, San Francisco Chapter

Last night Zachary and I represented the San Francisco Chapter at Kapakahi's first show of 2010, at Slim's in San Francisco. It was Zachary's first Music Outreach Program show, and he did a great job! He's an active member of our Chapter's Education Committee. Last night I learned that he has a passion for the trumpet. He is in good company; some of our other active MOP volunteers are also musicians:)

Thanks to Steve, Kapakahi's Drummer and Manager, Zachary and I were given a prime spot for Surfrider's materials at the Merch Booth, which is located to the left of the stage. We were in the middle of the Merch Booth, with Still Time's Manager Jill and Still Time's merch on our left, and Kapakahi's Merch Coordinator Steve and Kapakahi's merch on our right. Zachary and I had a great time hanging out with Jill and Steve during the show.


photo: me hanging out at the booth

The members of Still Time and Kapakahi also stopped in regularly to hang out, too. It was really fun to get to know them, and we really appreciated their enthusiasm for Surfrider!


photo: Mike from Kapakahi and Zachary

DJ Deedot got the party started shortly after the doors opened at 8pm last night, and then the San Francisco-based band Jahlectrik played a reggae-inspired set including some fun Bob Marley covers.


photo: Zachary surveying the crowd

Fans continued to trickle in; it was noticeably crowded in Slim's by the time Still Time took the stage. Hailing from San Luis Obispo, about a 5 hour drive south of San Francisco, this musically-talented band also happens to be a big Surfrider supporter!


photo: Jill and I, with Still Time on stage

Jill told us that Still Time had performed at a recent benefit at the awesome live music SOhO in downtown Santa Barbara for a fundraiser event organized by the Surfrider Santa Barbara Chapter! Nick, who plays guitar for Still Time entered our Surfrider San Francisco Chapter t-shirt raffle, and joined our Chapter's email list. I was excited to hear that Still Time will be touring the country soon.

Zachary and I did some great outreach. We got to introduce Surfrider and our 2010 Beach Cleanups to some new fans, provided a returning beach cleanup volunteer with our new schedule, and even helped a Santa Barbara native re-new her Surfrider membership. She told us that her parents are huge Surfrider fans, and had attended the benefit with Still Time that Jill had told us about. Awesome! It was also sweet to hear from at least 2 fans that they remembered seeing Surfrider at other shows, and were happy to see us at Slim's last night.

However nothing tops the FOUR separate Surfrider Foundation shout-outs that Lansky and Mike Dayao of Kapakahi gave us from the stage last night. Mike made a nice heartfelt statement about ocean stewardship, too.

Kapakahi played my favorite song "She Could Be The One" and debuted some new songs last night, which they hope to record this spring. It was a great set! Zachary loved the new horn section. I also really appreciated that Kapakahi donated proceeds from last night's show to the Haiti relief effort. They are so awesome!


photo: Kapakahi on stage

Thanks to Kapakahi and everyone at Slim's for hosting us last night! Thanks again to Zachary for all of his help.

Coming Up - Kapakahi @ Slim's - Fri Jan 22

The San Francisco Chapter will be conducting outreach at this upcoming Kapakahi show.

Friday, January 22, 2010
Slims
333 11th Street
San Francisco, CA


note: the "click here" option does not work; please see below for show details.

Kapakahi is headlining the show. The openers are Still Time, Jahlectrik and DJ Deedot.

Showtime: 9:00 PM (Doors: 8:00 PM)
Ticket price: $13 in advance, $15 if you purchase your ticket the night of the show
Tickets available on-line here.
This show is All Ages (note that the minimum age is 6)


Here's Kapakahi's write up about the show:

Reggae-Rock band, KAPAKAHI, returns to Slims in San Francisco to debut new songs and a new direction at their 2010 Kick Off Party, Friday January 22nd, 2010!

In 2009, Kapakahi released their Light Up EP, which was featured on the iTunes US Reggae home-page under “What we’re listening to”. Their self-produced music video for the title track reached homes in over 17 countries through channels like MTV, Channel V and ABS-CBN. Following the release, Kapakahi rocked shows with bands like Ozomatli, Blondie, UB40, Iration and SOJA in support of their album….2009 was a good year, but was only a foundation for the future.

Recently, the five members of Kapakahi have added 2 horns (trombone and trumpet) as well as keys to the group to give them a new, fresh, full sound: “We are meant to be an 8 piece band with a full horn section and keys…that’s the sound that we have always heard in our head and to realize it is really something special” states drummer/manager Steve Salta.

The new songs are more uniform, hit harder and involve their emcee, Lansky, more. “He’s become a full-time member of the band,” says Mike Dayao, lead singer and guitarists, “and our music reflects that,” adding, "the new songs better reflect the members of the band and who we are as a group."

“We’re really excited about the new direction of our music. We think it’s catchier, edgier and we think people will respond to it more than our old stuff….of course, we’ll still play our old songs,” comments Chris Jones, bass player and vocalist.
What’s this new direction Kapakahi keeps talking about? Come to Slims on January 22nd and find out. Along for the show will be SF’s Jahlectrik opening the night, friends of Kapakahi from San Luis Obispo, Still Time, and co-producer of Light Up, DJ Deedot on the 1’s and 2’s.


Also check out this great promo video for the show:




We hope to see you there!