New report states that rise in sea lives will affect Santa Cruz surfers

A new report released by "Save The Waves Coalition" highlights the relationship between surfers, the ocean, the economy and specifically the concern of rising sea levels in Santa Cruz.

"Waves are kind of invaluable. You know, surfing is really priceless.," Shaun Burns, a Reserves Network Coordinator for STWC, said.

The report touched on the economic impact the surfing industry brings in equipment rentals, in tourism and more. 

It also recognizes that the sea levels are rising and because of it there needs to be appropriate awareness throughout the 31 surf breaks in Santa Cruz.

"You overlay (tides) with sea level rise and climate change and then you get a percentage of time of waves with a one foot of sea level rise," Burns saud. "Like it says in the study, a certain amount of surf breaks are going to have less amount of time to be surf-able."

Now because of these sea levels rising, surf shops around the area are not able to rent out as much equipment and people who are not as familiar with the area are getting caught in dangerous swells.

"I've seen a lot of really scary things happen to people that are just here, like visiting and a high tide happens and they're stuck out there or something like that," Stacey Alonzo, a Santa Cruz surfer, said. "I think some signs would be helpful. Just to educate people that are coming in that aren't familiar."

Other surfers in the area mentioned that they are always looking out for each other.

"We kind of self-monitor out there on our own," Brenda Calosso, a surfer, said. "We see somebody who's new, we maybe give them a few pointers, or if they're in a critical spot, you know where it's dangerous, We say, 'Hey, maybe let's move over here.'"

Burns said that the goal of the report was to create a methodology for other coastal towns to use.

As severe winters of coastal erosion and sea levels rise, people can learn more and be more educated when it comes to working with the government and community on future policies. 

 "We can use this study on the surf-enomics to put in to those policies to make sure that waves are being looked after," Burns said. "Any type of changes that are happening or construction that's being built up along the coast that surfers are really are surfing and surf waves are taken into consideration."

Burns said that this report is the first-ever integration of economic and physical vulnerability data to estimate local impacts of sea level rise on the surf economy of Santa Cruz.

He also said multiple organizations played a part in making the report.

You can view the report at https://www.savethewaves.org/.