A Message to The Surfing Community

The Lost Coast, and the surfing opportunities here, are no longer secrets. Overnight visitation to the King Range Wilderness has doubled in the past 3 years. There are more and more of us discovering this amazing and beautiful landscape and it will take all of us to help keep it as pristine as it should be.

This time of year, when people head out here to ride the waves and camp out on the coast I find A LOT of abandoned property. Tents, tarps, household pots and pans, sleeping bags, food items, etc. 

It's always the same type of gear that folks leave behind: cheap and heavy. They haul it out here and then decide that it's too heavy to hike back with them. To justify leaving their junk behind they say that they are either going to come back for it and/or leaving it for others to use. 

The truth is this: You can justify it however you want but abandoned property is the result of laziness. 

Over the past 7 years we've removed enough abandoned gear (all from the surf spot) to fill a dumpster. 

Inside of the tent (pictured above) there was a note that read, "for the next campers that need it." 

Are the five empty food cans that were scattered around the site also for the next campers that need them? It all looks like a bunch of garbage to me that someone was too inconsiderate to pack out. 

Too common: Multiple pots, heavy tent, huge tarp, and a large, cheap stove designed for car camping were left behind (along with several empty fuel canisters) - most notably from surfers 

Several Large tarps, household pots, empty booze bottles, surfboard bag, broken tent poles

NOW, all this being said, I've met a lot of really awesome people in the surfing community who care about their public lands, keeping things clean for other visitors, and who have actually helped me clean fire rings and collect garbage. 

One of these people I've met that really stands out in my mind is Aleks, the owner of Aqua Surf Shop in San Francisco. He's all about spreading the message on keeping the place clean and has helped me pack out other people's trash. 

This is everyone's space. Let's keep things wild, natural and pristine so we can all enjoy this place now and for generations to come.