Respect the Beach

Respect the Beach is the name used by the Surfrider Foundation for their educational programs regarding coastal watershed processes, shoreline ecology and coastal areas stewardship. It is also a slogan used on various Surfrider Foundation merchandise including license plate frames, t-shirts and stickers.

Surfrider Foundation developed a series of educational guides for the Respect the Beach program in the early 2000s. The Beachology series, designed for students in grades K-6, uses a variety of learning formats to explore many aspects or our sandy shores including sand processes, beach ecology and human impacts. The Watershed Works series, intended for students in grades 5-12, utilizes activities designed around simple models that simulate land and water features to explore the processes that create our watersheds and landforms and how they relate to environmental problems. The program has been implemented by many Surfrider chapters around the country, including the Cape Fear, North Carolina chapter and the South Orange County and Santa Cruz chapters in California.

The video Sea To Summit: A Journey Through the Watershed was created as part of the Watershed Works series. This video traces the entire hydrologic cycle, using a mix of computer generated graphics and filmed footage to illustrate the process as water falls to earth in the form of precipitation, before filtering down through watersheds into urban and agricultural areas and finally flowing out to sea, where it eventually evaporates into the atmosphere to start the entire process over again.

Activists in Surfrider Foundation chapters around the country use these materials and other, locally-developed materials to interact with students and adults in a variety of settings to increase environmental awareness and promote a stewardship ethic for our beaches and the ocean.

Although Surfrider Foundation is no longer producing and printing the Beachology and Watershed Works series booklets, the Beachology modules and user guides can be downloaded from this EPA website. The Sea to Summit video can be viewed on YouTube and Vimeo.

More recently, Surfrider Foundation has created another video The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water as part of their Clean Water Initiative. That and other Surfrider videos can also be viewed at this Vimeo site. The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water can also be purchased as a DVD.