There’s a lot that could be said about this year’s U.S. Open of Surfing – about the big-name surfers who showed, the massive crowds who flooded the sand, the record prize money given to the female surfers.
Looking back at the big event, it’s all sort of a blur.

But one thing is clear in my mind – as crystal clear as a crisp glass of water – and that was the big blue tent set up on site introducing the world to Waves 4 Water.

It was a sight that literally stopped me in my tracks, made me smile, and brought tears to my eyes.

You may remember a few articles I’ve done on Jon Rose, a professional surfer from Laguna who has been on a one-man mission to get clean water to impoverished countries for the past year.

It all started less than a year ago, when he was on a surf trip in Indonesia and a 7.6 earthquake hit Padang. He happened to have a few water filters he was going to take to a nearby region, but instead ran straight into a crumbled city to help.
Since then, he’s been going full speed. He sent filters to Chile after an earthquake hit there, and has been to Haiti ten times since the devastating earthquake killed 200,000, and injured 250,000 more. He teamed up with actor Sean Penn, and they are coordinating efforts with the United Nations to get the water filters distributed from the military bases and into the communities. They’ve brought 10,000 small, portable filters to Haiti – meaning clean water for about 100,000 people.
So where Rose found time to meet with surfwear giant Hurley boggles my mind, but since the start he’s always envisioned teaming up with the surf community to get the filters in the hands of surf travelers who can distribute them to poor regions around the world.

You know how sometimes things just align in a strange, cosmic way?

It just so happens that Bob Hurley had been talking for years about getting into the clean water movement, and approached employee Ryan Sirianni – who happened to be a good friend of Rose – to head it up. The connection was instantly made.

“We sat down and had (Jon) tell his story, and I think they were instantly sold. The next thing you know, we’re working together,” Sirianni said.

When I sat down with Hurley during the U.S. Open of Surfing, I asked him about the collaboration.

“We decided that water is probably the single most important issue on the planet, and then you say to yourself, ‘what can we do about it’? Hurley said. “Well, we can educate people about it.”

“There are people who die from not having clean water, little kids, it’s just tragic,” he said.
Then Rose came along with these filters – which cost $20 – and a solution sat right in front of them.

“It’s really inexpensive. Twenty dollars can give a family clean water for a year,” Hurley said.“Who doesn’t have $20 – you go to Starbucks and spend that.”

It’s always been my biggest gripe that these big surf contests that have access to the masses don’t use their power and influence for enough good – that so much stock is put into the prize money, the athletes, and the scene itself.

But here, we saw history in the making.

The event didn’t sell plastic water bottles, but instead sold re-usable canisters that people could refill at the Waves 4 Water booth, with proceeds from the $5 bottles going toward the purchase of filters.

The bright blue booth was an introduction of things to come.

First, it was there to educate – to let people know that one out of six people in the world don’t have clean water, and that some people have to walk three hours each way, every day, to get water and spend another three collecting firewood to sanitize it. Those are hours they could be working, and making a living for their families.

The second piece of the puzzle will come in October, when Rose will take an educational trip with pro surf celebs such as Rob Machado to Indonesia to show how the filters work, and how easy it is to spread them to regions in need.

Then, it’s a call for troops – anyone who is traveling on a surf trip to an impoverished region can hook up with Hurley and Waves 4 Water and stick some of the filters in their board bag or suitcase. The “Clean Water Couriers” can either team up with partners on the ground, or figure out who needs them when they get there and literally set up the filters themselves – an easy process that only needs a paint bucket.

“Millions of people are now turned on to this, that I wouldn’t have been able to reach,” Rose said about the partnership. “And now, we can get 10,000 filters somewhere. It’s a bigger level, with more people, and more lives saved. Bottom line – there’s kids out there who are dying, who don’t have to die.”

More info, go to wavesforwater.org.

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