Isla Vista’s Surfrider Presents Out There

The Isla Vista chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, in its continuing efforts to bring a wave of change to the town’s treatment of its beaches, will host a free screening of Out There – a surf film with a pro-environment, anti-pollution message – on Wednesday, March 4 at 8 p.m. in I.V. Theater. The film screening will help promote RecycleMania, a nationwide waste-prevention competition among colleges and universities in which more than 35 California schools participate.

Out There, produced by Teton Gravity Research, features action sports footage of famed surfers Ian Walsh, Shane Dorian, and others tearing up the waves of Trestles, Hawaii’s North Shore, southern Chile, and other prime surfing locations currently in peril from manmade pollutants.

Michelle Petitsils, cochair of I.V. Surfirider, said pollution is especially rampant on Isla Vista’s beaches, where periodical beach cleanups have turned up everything from beer bottles and grocery bags to syringes and razor blades. “You’ll be surfing, and you’ll look over and see a whole bunch of plastic bags,” she said. “After Halloween, we did a beach cleanup and it was – it was horrible.”

She added that one of Surfrider’s goals is to limit plastic waste in I.V. and she hopes the film screening and other such events will further that cause. “[Plastics] don’t degrade; they’re always there,” she said, “and so, it’s a big deal, because I don’t want to get sick. And all the sea animals and marine life – it’s really bad for them, too – and I want to still be able to see the marine life there and be able to surf, too, and see the beautiful beaches and not have to worry about pollution.”

For more information about Surfrider events and causes, visit surfrider.org/islavista.