Calling all pros, ams, shopowners, reps, Surfrider members, natives, visitors — any surfer who loves the Outer Banks. The National Park Service holds the final public hearings next week on how to handle access inside Cape Hatteras. They’ve suggested several alternatives. All of them will limit chunks of beach, but Alternative C is the most surfer-friendly (i.e. keeps the best sandbars open the longest). Please attend one of the meetings below and voice your support for Alternative C. Also, suggest the NPS continue studying how these closures are affecting species survival in hopes of looser, more effective restrictions in the future. Tell your friends. Show up en masse. Then make a clear, logical plea emphasizing just how important surfing “down south’ is to surfers — not just in NC, or the East Coast. But around the world.
See dates below for meetings from Ocracoke to VB. If you can’t make it in person, submit a comment by May 11, here:
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=358&projectID=10641&documentId=32596
This is your last chance to stand up for your rights as a user group.
Public Hearing Schedule
Ocracoke, NC – Monday, April 26, 2010, 9:00 am to 11:00 am
Ocracoke School, 1 Schoolhouse Road, Ocracoke, NC 27960
(Doors open at 8:30 am for sign-in, the meeting will begin at 9:00 am)
Buxton, NC – Monday, April 26, 2010, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Cape Hatteras Secondary School, 48576 Hwy. 12, Buxton, NC 27920
(Doors open at 4:30 pm for sign-in, the meeting will begin at 5:00 pm)
Kill Devil Hills, NC – Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Wright Brothers National Memorial First Flight Centennial Pavilion,
1000 Croatan Hwy., M.P. 7 ½, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948
(Doors open at 5:30 pm for sign-in, the meeting will begin at 6:00 pm)
Raleigh, NC – Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
McKimmon Conference & Training Center (NC State University Campus),
1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, NC 27695
(Doors open at 5:30 pm for sign-in, the meeting will begin at 6:00 pm)
Hampton, VA – Thursday, April 29, 2010, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Holiday Inn & Conference Center,
1815 West Mercury Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23666
(Doors open at 5:30 pm for sign-in, the meeting will begin at 6:00 pm)
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2 Comments
Comment by Rob Giroux — May 5, 2010 @ 4:29 pm
The hearing in Hampton went well. It was a very emotional and energetic crowd of about 150 people. About 60 people spoke and were allowed 3 minutes each to comment on an 800+ page plan and its effect on their families, business, and way of life. (An insane concept) About 95% of the speakers were pro beach access and about 4 bird brains spoke against beach access.
All of the speakers were good and a few grown men actually cried in front of a room full of people.
Nearly all of the speakers were fishermen and retired people. Sadly out of the 10′s of thousands of surfers in Virginia less than 10 spoke. Nobody from the local surf industry, which is huge including the Eastern reps for every brand, no shop owners, and no one from the Surfrider Foundation showed up. Several surf industry guys did manage to make it to a Roxy party that night at the Block. Hopefully this does not send a message to the NPS concerning whose interests they need to worry about in the future.
I think this should send a message to NC surfers about VA surfers. They want your waves but could care less about your way of life.
Now that the hearings are over every effort must be made to get people to submit comments to the NPS by May 10th or you will not recognize Hatteras a year from now!
Rob Giroux
Comment by Rob Beedie — May 13, 2010 @ 12:47 am
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
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