As CEO of Surfrider Foundation, Dr. Chad Nelsen leads the charge for coastal lovers fighting greed, shortsightedness and oceanic ignorance. As governments come and go, it’s constant political whack-a-mole. But every day, this surfer and ocean defender finds new ways to stay positive.
Chad Nelsen has the robust, unflappable mien of a lifetime outdoorsman. In the TED talk he gave in California last year, he came across as compulsively sincere, a man incapable of reciting corporate platitudes even if he thought they’d help the cause. He is, in short, the kind of person you’d hope to be running a longstanding conservation body.
Surfrider Foundation, of which Nelsen is the CEO, is a grassroots organization: It doesn’t depend on the government for its existence. “It’s the most effective way to get things done,” he says, over a zoom call from his home in Laguna Beach. “The closer to the ground you are, the less ideological people are.”
Taking no money from the government is a great way to ensure you can’t be bought, and although Surfrider does take money from corporations—more of that in a moment—it doesn’t depend on them for its membership or its sense of mission. The foundation is driven by communities.
Founded in 1984 in southern California by surfers (70 per cent of its current membership surfs), Surfrider Foundation now has affiliates in Australia, Japan, Canada, Argentina, Europe, Morocco and Senegal. Nelsen says he would love to expand that further, but “they’re all independent—we don’t control them, we just try to stay aligned.”
“Under Trump we’re playing defense. We’re knocking down bad ideas, like leaving the Paris Climate Agreement and cancelling climate initiatives.”
- Dr. Chad Nelsen, CEO Surfrider Foundation
Nelsen’s been with Surfrider for 27 years now (30, he says, if you count his internship at the start). His father was a marine biologist, a fisher, diver and surfer with an interest in conservation. His brother made a career in professional surfing. Nelsen, a surfer and former lifeguard, was recruited from within Surfrider’s ranks in 2014 to be CEO. He had, by that point, established himself across 16 years as its Environmental Director.
In that role, he had a major win establishing the innovative Tres Palmas marine reserve which now protects Puerto Rico’s world-famous Tres Palmas surf break, along with endangered coral species. And the huge victory of saving Trestles, an iconic wave in San Clemente, southern California, from a proposed six-lane highway that would have destroyed the state park and coast.
While he was Environmental Director, Nelsen was also a leading proponent of what he calls “surfonomics”—the idea that healthy coastal ecosystems, often linked to surfing communities, have an inherent economic value of their own which can outweigh the profit argument for damaging developments.
Surfrider’s early model was welcoming of all beach users, but based upon surfers protecting surf spots, principally along the Californian coast. Now that remit’s opened out to include all sorts of coastal and coast-related activities such as ocean swimming, paddling, kayaking, fishing and free diving, and taking on companies and causes recognizable to non-surfing Americans, like the expansion of fossil fuel exploration.
There are other US based bodies doing similar work from a coastal or maritime base—scuba peak body PADI do conservation work—but none have achieved the reach that Surfrider has. As Nelsen puts it, “Nobody else has a national network of activists with 80 chapters who are advocating for coastal conservation across the country.”
When he was appointed CEO 11 years ago, Nelsen saw the organization’s priority as adapting to climate change; a monumental task, but one he thought a confident and forward-looking America would tackle in a co-operative spirit.
The obvious question to ask in late 2025 is, under a Federal administration committed to fossil fuels and heavily pro-development, how much harder has that work become?
“Under Trump we’re playing defense,” Nelsen says. “We’re knocking down bad ideas, like leaving the Paris Climate Agreement and cancelling climate initiatives.” That “knocking down” is done through a suite of different tactics, tailored to the nature of the challenge—pressuring regulatory agencies, lobbying formal decision-making bodies such as governors’ offices, and through legal action. “The Williams gas pipeline, to connect New Jersey and New York City (first mooted back in 2015) is a bad idea that will lock in future fossil fuels usage for 50 years. We knocked it out, but it’s back on the agenda.”
On the very morning he spoke to Adventure.com, Nelsen and the Surfrider executive team had received a leak from inside the US government that the President was looking to open the entire US coast to offshore drilling. Details at time of writing are scant, but obviously such a move would place giant pressures on coastal advocacy groups like Surfrider.
“The Federal scene is grim,” Nelsen concedes. “But we can get a lot done at state government level. California has passed a US$10 billion resilience fund. And surprisingly, we’ve had real success in red states like Florida. 70-80 per cent of Americans have experienced some impacts of climate change—storms, floods, fires or whatever. But there remains a disconnect between that experience and politics.”
How does Surfrider bridge that dissonance between policy and real life? Corporate partnerships, alongside being a source of funds, help Surfrider connect. When everyday Americans see brands that they recognize and trust engaging with conservation efforts, people begin to understand their own purchasing power. The corporate money Surfrider receives is subject to strict due diligence, and donors include household names like Rip Curl, Reef, Patagonia and Alaska Airlines, who are on a mission to rid their planes of single-use plastics.
“Chad’s a force of nature. Those roles in environmental groups are incredibly draining. You have to really love what you’re doing and what you’re fighting to save, because you rarely win, and those wins are more a temporary reprieve for a few years before you’re fighting it all over again.”
- Sean Doherty, Surfrider Australia board member
Nelsen believes surfers are changing as a demographic, as surfing grows increasingly mainstream. “I’d like to think surfing’s a thing that inspires you to go out and do some good in the world,” he says. “There are 100,000 people active in the Surfrider Foundation in any given year, from a surfing population of 3-4 million and a national population of 340 million.”
On these figures, 1 in 80 Americans are surfers. (Interestingly, Australia’s figures are 720,000 surfers in a population of 27 million, or 1 in 40 people. That per-capita advantage, reflective of a more coastal population, should translate into greater reach for coastal conservation.)
At time of writing, there are National Seashores and coastal National Parks along the US coast that are affected by the Trump government shutdown, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, but as far afield as Cape Cod and the Outer Banks. Public lands, protected by public money, suffer when politics intervenes. Parking lots are closed, bathrooms aren’t maintained, and the park rangers who ensure rules are followed have been stood down.
How does the Surfrider Foundation direct its priorities while this is going on?
Nelsen says the answer is “a combination of offensive and defensive measures. Defensively—take this morning’s leak about offshore drilling: Ocean and coastal tourism is 12 times larger than the offshore drilling industry. So we’re fighting that. Offensively, our Climate Action Program, which is 12 months old, is restoring dunes, wetlands and mangroves, helping make coasts resilient and sequestering carbon.” Again, independence means these initiatives can proceed whether the government is running or not.
The work is done in coalition, Nelsen says, so there’s some duplication with small local NGOs, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The community model means anyone can contribute. “We do thousands of beach clean-ups every year. Water programs, restorations, even talking to restaurants. You don’t have to contribute money—we’ll train you up to do all sorts of things.”
How do you define the jurisdiction of a coastal advocacy organization? Nelsen talks of “the nearshore zone,” but that’s not just the beach. “We’ll look at three to five miles offshore, and inland to near-coastal rivers and watersheds,” he says. “Single-use plastics are a good example: Communities deep inland are banning them because of their ability to flow downstream to the sea.”
Anyone who lives in a coastal town, he says, or who cares about the health of the ocean—“and that’s just about everyone”—can play an important role.
Nelsen’s got identical twin sons, Sam and Keeler. They’re 24 years old (surfers will be intrigued to hear one’s a natural-footer and the other a goof) and both are environmentally active—one’s studying marine biology and the other works in the solar industry. So the continuity through generations of the Nelsen family goes on.
“Chad’s a force of nature,” says Surfrider Australia board member Sean Doherty. “Those roles in environmental groups are incredibly draining. You have to really love what you’re doing and what you’re fighting to save, because you rarely win, and those wins are more a temporary reprieve for a few years before you’re fighting it all over again.”
It must be an effort, I suggest, to keep despair at bay right now. But Nelsen doesn’t even hesitate:
“You have to be an optimist in this business. Otherwise, why seek change? I get up in the morning and I learn something new each day. I’m bathed in news and extraordinary people. Besides, what’s the choice? Do nothing?”
To learn more and get involved, visit surfrider.org — because the ocean needs more friends.
****
Adventure.com strives to be a low-emissions travel publication. We are powered by, but editorially independent of, Intrepid Travel, the world’s largest travel B Corp, who help ensure Adventure.com maintains high standards of sustainability in our work and activities. You can visit our sustainability page or read our Contributor Impact Guidelines for more information.
Jock Serong is a journalist, screenwriter and the author of seven award-winning novels; most recently Cherrywood. He is a senior writer with Surfing World magazine, the founding editor of Great Ocean Quarterly, and a regular contributor to The Guardian, The Monthly, Patagonia's Roaring Journals and other publications. He is a board member of Melbourne's Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, and lives on Victoria's far west coast.
