California Coastal Cleanup Day is the premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment in the country. In 2009, more than 80,600 volunteers worked together to collect more than 1,300,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes, and waterways. California Coastal Cleanup Day has been hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest garbage collection” (1993). Since the program started in 1985, over 800,000 Californians have removed more than 14 million pounds of debris from our state’s shorelines and coast. When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by The Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events of the year.

Coastal Cleanup Day is the highlight of the California Coastal Commission’s year ’round Adopt-A-Beach program and takes place every year on the third Saturday of September, from 9 a.m. to Noon. (The 2010 Cleanup will take place on the fourth Saturday of September so as not to conflict with Yom Kippur.) Coming at the end of the summer beach season and right near the start of the school year, Coastal Cleanup Day is a great way for families, students, service groups, and neighbors to join together, take care of our fragile marine environment, show community support for our shared natural resources, learn about the impacts of marine debris and how we can prevent them, and to have fun! Coastal Cleanup Day is also the kick-off event for Coastweeks—three weeks of coastal and water-related events for the whole family.

Participating in Coastal Cleanup Day is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Pre-register with your local Coordinator, simply show up at any of the drop-in sites, or find your nearest site here.

Montara’s Clean up crew will meet as usual in the Northern dirt parking lot at 9.00am on Saturday September 25th, see you there! More details on the Montara Beach Coalition website.

I took this video on Sunday morning, extremely high tide, many sneaker waves washing in. Several people nearly got washed out while trying to take photos. Note the amount of sand moved on the beach, the stairs and life ring station are half buried under sand.

These shots were taken by me from the bluffs which are about a mile from the wave, thanks to the Canon 600 mm lens my buddy Michael has lent me I was able to get some half decent shots of some of the first heat waves. It’s great to see shots of the pit from a boat close up, but these distance shots really give you a sense of the scale and magnitude of these waves. The surfers truly are modern day gladiators! Enjoy my photos, by clicking the full screen viewer.

Plastics: made to last for ever, designed to throw away.

Plastic garbage in the Ocean. (Photo in public domain).

I received this email from Dan Jacobson, Environment California Legislative Director.

“The Pacific Garbage Patch has grown to be twice the size of Texas. That’s why we’re calling for simple steps to cut the waste that’s fueling this enormous floating patch of trash. Unless California does something about our plastic trash it will only get worse. That’s why we’re calling for simple steps to cut the waste that’s fueling this enormous floating patch of trash. Every year, California uses 19 billion plastic bags – many of which find their way out to sea and ultimately to the Pacific Garbage Patch. – many of which find their way out to sea and ultimately to the Pacific Garbage Patch.

We’re calling for a small fee on plastic bags at the grocery store, to encourage reusable bags to encourage reusable bags. Join the call. Ask Gov. Schwarzenegger to put a fee on plastic bags. Environment California has launched a new effort – The Great Pacific Cleanup — to cut the waste that’s ending up in the Pacific Ocean.

Churned slowly by ocean currents, more than 100 million tons of plastic bags, bottles, toys, containers, packaging and other junk are swirling together, forming a moving island of trash off our coast that’s known as the Pacific Garbage Patch. Approximately 80% of that waste came from land. Cleaning up the mess poses an enormous array of challenges, but a few things are dead-certain: To start the cleanup, we have to stop generating so much ocean-bound waste. And California can lead the way.” Environment California has launched a new effort – The Great Pacific Cleanup — to cut the waste that’s ending up in the Pacific Ocean.

This is not breaking news for me, I have been following this story for some time now. It just gets more and more disturbing every time I read another article. So please click the link in the story and take some action right now! For a really informative low down on the pollution of the planets five gyres click here.

This is my latest photographic project, I hope you enjoy my work, I had much fun making it. Big shout out to by buddy/photographer Michael Winokur for lending me his badass Canon 300mm lens. Most of these shots where taken either from Montara Beach or Surfers Beach. Make sure to click on the window and view full screen to get the full effect.

Volunteers gather for the briefing and split into teams.

State Parks Chet Bardo helps dig a post hole

Around twenty volunteers from Montara Dog Walkers, the Coastside Horse Council, Montara Mountain Chain and Sprocket Society and The Montara Beach Coalition joined State Park Rangers to work on various trail maintenance projects this Saturday morning for the first of the rejuvenated ‘Montara Mountain Trail Volunteer Day” meets. After rallying the wife to get up at 7.30 a.m. we walked across the open space to the meeting point by the Martini Creek Bridge. An enthusiastic crowd was gathering ready to get to work. [Read more →]

One of Montara Mountains many trails. Photo ©KStokes 09

I’m passing on a message from Gary of the Montara Mountain Trail Volunteers, please help if you can.

“In the face of budget cuts and their resulting threats to parkland, several people are floating the idea of resurrecting Trail Day (TD). You’ll recall this local effort to put in a few hours, one Saturday morning each month, to help repair the trails, clean up brush and do whatever needs to be done to help maintain McNee Ranch. TD was a terrific community effort and great fun.”

“If you use this incredible resource to hike, bike, walk dogs, ride horses why not give a few hours of easy labor each month to help maintain it?  Even if you don’t use McNee often but value its capacity to preserve nature and give wildlife a place to thrive, please join us. In a real sense, McNee is our commons—we all benefit from it.  How about giving back just a little and getting a lot in return.”

Since then, representatives of the Montara Dog Walkers, the Coastside Horse Council, and the Montara Mountain Chain and Sprocket Society, along with park officials, have met and put together a plan. The consensus is to meet on the first Saturday of each month to join in a community effort to maintain the trails, facilities and other resources at McNee.  With the state’s crushing budget shorfalls, few funds remain to keep the parks from ruin.  We need to step in here if we hope to enjoy continued use of McNee, a valuable community resource for all to enjoy.

Details for the first Trail Day

Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Place: McNee Ranch by the pump house (next to the trail bridge over Martini Creek behind the horse ranch)
What to bring: A thermos of coffee and work gloves
What will be supplied:  Coordinators, tools
What we’ll work on: 1) Trail prep for the rains 2)  Signs – installation and restoration
Transportation: The gate to Hwy 1 will be unlocked, you can drive in and park or better yet, hike or ride a bike

Questions: Contact Gary at poteenspa@gmail.com

We also will have a brief discussion about meeting times and coffee/lunch options for future TD sessions.

Please help if you can, Montara Mountain needs you!

This time of year is my favorite time to enjoy the beach. Warm(ish), blustery and fresh all at the same time. The surf looks like gigantic wild white horses galloping toward shore as I take my stroll North up the beach, the large swell has the tow-in crowd at Mavericks getting all the pre-competition practice they can. The beach is real steep at the surf line, carved out deep by the relentless pounding waves. This combination of a steep shore and big surf can be lethal (the tragic loss of the Mother and daughter is still fresh in my mind) yet some  parents still foolishly allow their children to play in or near the surf line, choosing to ignore the posted warnings at the foot of the stairs.

As the day wears on the light becomes so beautiful I can’t resist going home to get my camera check out some of the shots in the gallery section. I know these are black and white but I’ll get around to posting the color ones soon.

©Wildlife Studios

This looks like a great place, I wish them good luck with the studio. Come on all you talented local musicians give these guys some support!

Check out the web site by clicking here.

New studio opens its doors to Coastside musicians : Half Moon Bay Review

Posted using ShareThis

Premiere tonight at La Costanera 6-11.00pm movie starts at 7.00pm, no cover. Come and support our local film makers.

Albatross chick dead from plastic consumption-Midway Atoll ©Chris Jordan

Midway
Message from the Gyre

“These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.”

~cj, October 2009

(Reproduced from www.chrisjordan.com)

This guys work is incredible, please click here to check out his web site.

Against the Grain – A MCTV Production. Check out this local production.

Litterbugs are strange creatures, they come from all cultures, can be male or female, young or old. They are for the most part just like me and you, they also look just like me and you. If you walked past a litterbug in the street you would not be able to tell them apart from any other person on that street, they look pretty normal. They like to eat food, drink soda and smoke cigarettes. They go to work, like walks in the park, bike rides and sunny days on the beach. Litterbugs share many things with regular everyday people, that is until they are required to perform one very specific function. This seemingly simple task exposes the litterbug for what they really are. What is it you ask? What is this task? Why are you singling out the litterbug for attack?Listen, litterbugs are very different from me and you, let me explain how and why. Let’s start by classifying the different types of litterbug. I’m going to concentrate today on a particularly nasty and prevalent type, Idontcare leavemyshitanywhereus more universally known as the beach litterbug most commonly found on hot sunny days around the coast, very rarely seen in the winter months. These creatures normally migrate great distances to visit the beach with their offspring in the Summer season. [Read more →]

La Costanera interior ©opentable.com

UPDATE: First full restaurant review here

There is a huge buzz on the coast about chef/owner Carlos Altamirano’s new Peruvian restaurant La Costanera, the former Charthouse in Montara may finally become a successful local hotspot, expectations run high. Mr. Altamirano and his wife Shu have two other successful restaurants in San Francisco, Mochica and Piqueo’s (both also Peruvian). From what I have read the menu in the new establishment will feature up to 10(!) ceviches and as many as 30 Peruvian dishes ($31.00-$50.00, source: OpenTable.com), along with Pisco cocktails, a New World wine list, and beers from the Americas and Belgium, all set in a 10,000 sq three level setting with killer ocean views and a shiney new ‘coastal theme’ interior designed by Michael Brennan.

I have my fingers crossed that it works out for them, so many have failed before them and we really need another good eating place in Montara. Interestingly enough they state that they have ‘55 free parking spaces’. I wonder if they have figured out how to separate the beach visitors parking from their own, it gets pretty crazy there on hot Summer days, and if I understand correctly the dirt part of that lot is Coastal Commission controlled and the far left is Sate Parks. We will see how that one pans out, but I expect the parking to spill out onto Highway 1 as it has at Sam’s Chowder House down the road in Princeton. I am also interested as to how they will control the enevitable increase in litter and trash that the extra visitors will undoubtably generate, it’s bad enough as it is, [Read more →]

I would like to personally thank each and every volunteer that gave up their Saturday morning to come and help clean our coastline for the 25th California Coastal Clean Up day. Over 50 volunteers turned up at Montara State Beach to help out, including a large enthusiastic crowd from Sunset Magazine. We had people travel from far and wide including one couple who drove from Reno and another man from Palo Alto.

So far with just 65% of the cleanup sites results in, the statewide count stands at 66,550 volunteers, which should approach the event goal of 70,000 volunteers. Those volunteers picked up 819,394 pounds of trash and an additional 89,899 pounds of recyclable [Read more →]

My good buddy Mike is a gigging fool. That guy plays so many local gigs it takes up all his spare time. I know he loves to play guitar, and he does it very well, particularly his Spanish style. If you get a chance to catch him play you will not be disappointed I promise you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about his bad joke telling habit!

He has recently started his own blog at MontaraMusic.com make sure to check out his website as well. Mike also plays in a duo with our good friend Mark Kostrzewa as The Fourth Street Experience, check out the interview with them on Montarabeach.com