15 Nov 09
With Paige Hareb’s success on the world stage a once in a lifetime opportunity presented itself to Taranaki, a WCT event at home. Womens surfing has blossomed over recent years and the overwhelming majority of New Zealand’s women surfers are stoked to see a major Womens event come to NZ.
Some in the taranaki surfing community have expressed opposition
to the 2010 event. Some locals oppose it citing increased crowds in
their breaks as a problem.
Some have questioned the wisdom (including Surfbreak Protection)
of the organisers securing sponsorship from the likes of local
chemical producer Dow Agrosciences and oil and gas exploration
company AWE for a surfing event.
Surfing Taranaki sees it quite differently and points to what they
see is a "bigger picture" in their coastal management aims.
Surfbreak put the following questions to Craig Williamson, CEO of
Surfing Taranaki so they could express their reasons.
1. How did the Taranaki idea of hosting a Womens WCT event
come about?
This 'one in a lifetime' opportunity has come about because of
Paige Hareb's success, breaking into the exclusive Top 17 in the
world. We are riding on her coat-tails and the momentum that she
has established. Paige has put Taranaki on the map and the
possibility of hosting a leg of the Dream Tour has arisen because
of this. Taranaki, and the overwhelming majority of NZ women
surfers, are extremely excited about getting behind Paige and
hosting the other girls right here in our own back yard.
2. There has been blogging done from an element of the
locals negative attitude re protection of breaks. What does ST say
to this?
Everyone has a right to have their say and express their own
opinions, and some long standing issues have been brought to light
as a result of the discussions we've been having recently. Surfing
Taranaki will now be even more focused on actively working
alongside the district councils and the regional council to improve
the infrastructure and amenities on the coast. This will hopefully
result in better managing, and help spread the regular summer
influx of visiting and traveling surfers in the future.
3. A couple of the sponsors, namely Dow AgroSciences and
AWE, have raised a few eyebrows and generated some negative comment
from within the surfing community (including Surfbreak Protection).
What is the nature of your relationship with such companies and why
did they become involved?
AWE are only a very minor sponsor, but were thrilled with the
concept and were happy to contribute a little bit of seed money
right at the start. Following their 23,000 litre oil spill AWE
realised that they could not operate 40 kilometres off the coast
and not take responsibility for the environment. To their credit
they put far more effort into the clean-up than was legally
required; not that the Government was interested anyway; and they
now want to demonstrate their commitment to the coastal arena.
Since Dow AgroSciences (DAS) took over full ownership of Ivor
Watkins Dow in the early 1990's they have made strenuous efforts to
right the wrongs of yesteryear. The most significant is the
installation of ground-water monitoring wells at both their
Paratutu site and their test farm at Omata. The results from the
monitoring wells have been closely followed by some of the more
active people in the surfing community and for the last 11 years
have shown the ground water to be clear of contamination. It was at
one of the annual public reporting sessions that ST approached DAS
and suggested that it was time they put something tangible back
into the surfing community. A request that has obviously been
embraced.
4. How do they treat coastal protection and water quality
issues? See above for DAS. Our members who work for AWE
and related industries report that AWE has made substantial changes
to both the infrastructure on board the floating production station
at Tui, and also the manner in which the process is monitored to
ensure that the likelihood of any spill is lessened and if it
should occur then the TRC is notified immediately, not three days
later as was the case for the last spill.
It is obvious that Surfing Taranaki and local Surfbreak Protection
committee members work increasingly more closely with large
companies and local/regional authorities that can impact our
surfing quality and local authorities.
This is a model that appears to be paying dividends with the
likes of recent results we have previously posted on this website.
Unfortunately there is a large amount of apathy with surfing
towards the surfing environment. Surfbreak Protection Society
commends ST for their ongoing efforts and successes in coastal
protection in the Taranaki region.