San Diego Coastkeeper


California Paddle

Paddle for a Plastic-Free Ocean Accomplished

San Diego Coastkeeper, along with our local sponsors Reef through the Reef Redemption Program, welcomed extreme endurance athlete Tom Jones on November 3, 2007 at 9am as he celebrated the beginning of the last leg of his 1,250 mile world record-breaking expedition to bring awareness to the plastic pollution problem in the ocean.

More than 200 volunteers and paddlers came out to take part in this event in Ocean Beach. As Tom paddled down the coast from La Jolla outriggers and stand up paddlers joined him along the way to meet up with the paddlers at the Ocean Beach event.

The Geriatric Surf Club lead the paddlers into the water to form a healing circle as they joined with Tom and the other paddlers while many who didn’t paddle out waited on shore for their chance to meet him. Tom, who traveled on nothing but a 14 foot paddle board, finished his journey at Borderfield State Park on November 9, riding his last wave before he finalized this legendary, yet at times, risky journey.

Along the way Tom endured 50 mph winds, the cold water and rugged coastline of Northern California, swells that took his board, the smoke from the California wild fires, and safely avoided the great white sharks near Santa Cruz. On the upside, he was visited by pods of killer whales, elephant seals, schools of dolphin and escorted through many ports by friendly locals, lifeguards, coast guard and supporters. This epic three-month journey was supported by legendary surfers such as Laird Hamilton, Rob Machado, Mickey Munoz, and Jericho Poppler.

The California Paddle was more than just a paddle; it drew world-wide attention to an ever-growing marine debris problem that our oceans face. More than 50 percent of marine debris is made up of plastic; in parts of the Pacific Ocean plastic outweighs plankton by a 6 to 1 ratio. Plastics in our natural environment pose many problems. They are harmful to the marine animals that depend on the ocean; many animals are killed by plastic marine debris through starvation, entanglement and suffocation. In addition, plastics are extremely toxic and as they break down they release many toxins into our ocean and natural environment.

To find out more about plastics and how you can be part of the solution to reduce plastic pollution click here.

Coastkeeper would like to thank Tom Jones and his crew for making the journey, all the paddlers and volunteers who participated in this event, Second Delivery for their live music, and local vendors Reef, Ben and Jerry’s, Surfshot Magazine, Revolt Magazine and Collectic T-Shirts and Whale Tail for supporting our event.

Coastkeeper still has paddle shirts for sale for those who were unable to purchase at the event. Click here to view. The proceeds support Coastkeeper and the Tom Jones Foundation. If you would like to purchase contact Danielle Miller at danielle@sdcoastkeeper.org.

Download the Dirty Facts on Plastic fact sheet.