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Bringing Back Kirra
Us human beings are a pretty wild species. For whatever reason, we’re having a pretty tough time figuring out that trying to “play god” usually doesn’t work out very well. Hence, the latest campaign by our friends at the Surfrider Foundation- Bring Back Kirra.
“We all know that Kirra’s one of the iconic seven wonders of the world, and it’s buried under sand. But I like to think that it’s not dead, it’s just buried and we need to do a bit of an archaeological dig and reclaim the mysteries of Kirra.” – Rabbit Bartholomew
While on the outside the Kirra campaign doesn’t appear to have the environmental impact as that of the Trestles campaign, it’s still worthy of the spotlight it’s been given lately, recently climaxing in a massive paddle-out that saw the likes of Mick Fanning, Rabbit Bartholomew, Dean Morrison, Joel Parkinson, and over 1500 other passionate supporters of the cause take part to show there support in restoring one of the world’s truly great waves to what it once was.
“Just looking back, I think the last time we had it good was 10 years ago. Now you walk where you used to surf. You know, it’s really sad. There’s a 1000 people here, probably even more backing everyone to getting in the right frame of mind and hopefully getting through to the government.” Mick Fanning
If you’re a bit unfamiliar with the history of the situation at Kirra, Surfrider CEO Jim Moriarty recently posted a smoothly informative article on just that, and had this to offer up to 5ones when asked why it is that the Kirra campaign is so crucial- “Kirra, like Pipe or Rincon, was a natural marvel. Unfortunately, the last time it achieved perfection was earlier this decade. The loss of Kirra is a classic case of people thinking they can control nature. The campaign to Bring Back Kirra is a fight to reinstate the break to its former glory.”
So how can he help restore this marvel to what it once was, especially when most of us find ourselves thousands of miles away? It’s actually pretty simple-
1. Sign the petition to build international recognition regarding this issue.
2. Understand why Kirra was lost in the first place. When your local town talks about managing their beaches with “nourishment” and seawalls… a flag should be raised.
Tags: Surfrider Foundation
Posted by Shaun on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 in Surfing.
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February 9th, 2009 at 7:54 am
An interesting point is made on the Kirra issue over at Kurngabaa:
http://kurungabaa.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/kirra-teaches-us-an-environemntal-and-ethical-lesson/
It’s got some quotes from Fanning and Parko in a 2002 issue of Tracks on the Superbank. It raises the issue of surfers supporting coastal protection actions when it suits their personal needs, but when the waves are gone, it’s much harder to reverse those efforts.
I’ve seen the same thing locally with a proposed artificial surfing reef. Most local surfers blindly support it without thinking 5-10 years down the road and possible negative effects and how much harder it will be to reverse them once they are set in place.
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