Save the Coast

Santa Barbara Surfers Paddle For A Cause: Let’s call it an even 300 miles. A half day’s drive, give or take. No big deal. Now switch your car for a paddleboard. Load up that paddleboard with food, water, clothing, surfboards, and camping gear. And shove off into the cold Pacific at a little beach called Gaviota, just north of Santa Barbara. If conditions are favorable – i.e. you got the wind and swell at your back – you might cover 15 to 20 miles a day. Make sure to set aside some surf time if the waves are pumping in Malibu or at Trestles. Throw in rest days to give your shoulders some downtime. That’ll put you at the Tijuana Sloughs in about three or four weeks, give or take.

To best understand why Nole Cossart and Chadd Konig would set out on such a maritime odyssey, you would need to visit the Gaviota Coast. Ranchlands and kelp forests. Mountain lions and gray whales. Cave paintings and unnamed beaches. Pretty much all 31,000 acres of it a reminder of a vanished time. Very little of Southern California’s coastal acreage remains undeveloped, and the Gaviota Coast is arguably the best of what’s left.

As the population of Southern California grows, a lot of asphalt, concrete, and lumber will follow. And as with most coveted pieces of private property, sections of the Gaviota Coast sit in the crosshairs of development. Naples is among them. 

Nole and Chadd are doing this to raise awareness. Their journey begins at dawn tomorrow, May 12, in Gaviota. They’re stopping at Santa Barbara’s Sterns Wharf on May 13 for a high-noon press conference. By May 16, they should be in Ventura, just in time for a pit stop at the Sacred Craft surf expo to back their buddy John Birchim, who’ll be shaping an alaia from native lumber. Then it’s back in the water, southbound to the border, hoping for the best.

-PoolSnob

Special thanks to photographer Branden Aroyan for the shot.