Now, Keith has never entered the competitive realm of surfing, and Tina’s last comp is nearing over half a decade ago, but the swell forecast and the chance to catch up with old friends over a few clean waves was an opportunity they were not about to miss. Just to fill everyone in, the Malfunction, is a compact festival of sorts. Consisting of 3 action packed days, with 40+ heats including 7 categories, the Malfunction has been organised by the fine folks from Super 8’s Gold Coast Malibu Club for decades. The organisation is clean, precise, and friendly, with competitors asked to judge their peers and lend a hand in set up, pack down, and most importantly, line up patrol. I’m sure many of you would have heard about the Coast’s famed “Superbank”, with waves breaking behind the rock at Snapper and running through Little Marley to Rainbow Bay before the tube section from Greenmount down through Coolangatta. It was decided Rainbow Bay would be the bank to set up shop, so on went the jersey’s, out came the strategists and off we went.

Tina ended up finished 4^th overall in the women’s category and I, well let’s just say I enjoyed being part of the event.All in all, it was a weekend to get out and meet other local enthusiasts and share the stoke. We immensely enjoyed our weekend of clean swell, large crowds, and high calibre surfing. The Malfunction’s 30^th running will be remembered as one of its finest and already the participants and organisers are looking forward to next year.

Thanks for all the great photos by Suzi McAllister.

March 2013. Wild west Tasmania. Three fishing boats. Eight days. Twenty keen as mustard crew. 35,000+ pieces of rubbish. Epic is too small a word.

The great Southwest Marine Debris Cleanup takes place every year on the wild beaches of Tassie’s World Heritage Area. A small crew of lucky volunteers spends a week or so sailing the high seas off western Tasmania, grabbing a few waves here and there, and picking up rubbish from some of Australia’s most spectacular and inaccessible beaches. Each night, team cleanup empties that day’s haul of trash onto the deck to classify, count and document every last piece.

The cleanup has been cranking along since 1999. In March 2013, the crew picked up a record 35,408 pieces of rubbish, bringing the grand cleanup total to over 150,000. Plastic debris – in the form of small plastic pieces, ropes, bait box straps, bottles etc – is by far the worst offender, accounting for over 95% of all rubbish collected in 2013.

Marine debris is a global environmental issue that impacts some of the most far-flung ecosystems in the world, like these remote and uninhabited beaches in southwest Tasmania. For more information about the cleanup & to find out more about how marine debris is trashing our coastal and marine ecosystems globally, visit wha-marinedebris.blogspot.com.au/

Assessing the frequency and severity of plastic ingestion by Australia’s seabirds – Dr Jennifer Lavers, Monash University & Ian Hutton, Lord Howe Island Museum

A global perspective

Despite the implementation of strict international legislation aimed at reducing the amount of marine debris originating from ocean– and land-based sources (e.g., MARPOL Annex V), debris, particularly plastic, continues to accumulate worldwide with an estimated 20 million items entering the ocean each day. In 2012, the United Nations Environment Program listed plastic pollution as a ‘global emerging issue’.

More than 265 marine species have been reported to become entangled in or ingest plastic debris, presumably mistaking it for food. Plastic debris attracts and accumulates toxins such as heavy metals at more than 1000x ambient seawater concentrations. Once ingested, debris can block or rupture the digestive tract and leach contaminants into the animal’s blood stream resulting in stomach ulcerations, liver damage, infertility, and in many cases, death.

On our doorstep

In Australia, the ingestion of plastic debris by marine vertebrates is listed as one of only a handful of Key Threatening Processes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. As a group, seabirds are the most heavily affected marine vertebrate with regards to plastics (more than 60% of species are at risk). Not surprisingly, seabirds are declining faster than any other group of birds. On Lord Howe Island, repeated years of low breeding success by Flesh-footed Shearwaters has been implicated in the serious and ongoing decline of this population, likely the result of high mortality due to the ingestion of plastic.

The goal of Jennifer’s research on Lord Howe Island has therefore been to assess the relationship between plastic load, contaminant levels, and mortality of Flesh-footed Shearwaters. This project, now in its 8^th year, and is one of the longest studies of plastic ingestion in any marine animal, globally. Monitoring the frequency and severity of plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters over many years has provided worrying, but much needed insight into the changes in the condition of the marine environment in Australia. These data will be presented at a public seminar held at the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium.

WHEN: Wednesday 8th May

TIME: 6.30 – 7.30pm

WHERE: Reef Theatre, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium

COST: $10 online or SLCF Members, $15 at the door. Under 12s free.

You can purchase your tickets here.

All proceeds go to Jennifer’s research.

For more information check out http://www.sealifeconservation.org.au/events-2/meet-the-scientist/

Taylor’s rock cover band, Chevy Metal, blew the roof off of the venue. Taylor Hawkins, Wiley Hodgen, Mick Murphy and John Lousteau plus fellow Foo Fighter Nate Mendel blasted out Van Halen, Black Sabbath and more to an amazed audience who knew this was a once in a lifetime experience.

At their Lollapalooza Santiago show two days later, Taylor told Perry Farrell and thousands of fans that Pichilemu, the band’s Chilean tour HQ, is one of the most beautiful places he had ever been and that Ramon Navarro is one of the coolest and craziest big wave riders he had ever met.

“It was fitting to throw a party for Ramon in his hometown, and having Chevy Metal there made it unforgettable,” noted Chris Evans, Patagonia’s director of Latin America. “In the same way that Ramon doesn’t hold back in his surfing, Taylor and the boys gave their absolute all — they could have easily been playing for 50,000 people.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to have Ramon as part of the team,” added Jason McCaffrey, Patagonia’s director of surf, “Ramon lives the Patagonia philosophy, charges hard in any and all conditions and most importantly is a solid human being in and out of the water. His addition and involvement with our team has been seamless and I liken it more to finding a brother than hiring an athlete.”

Making it global, Patagonia arranged to have a series of “welcome to the family” videos sent in from all over the world. The Malloy brothers, Dan Ross, Kohl Christensen, Jake Setnicka, Fletcher Chouinard and surfing legend Gerry Lopez recorded heart-felt messages for Ramon, adding to the excitement of the night.

“It was a great event. Thanks to Taylor, the band, and to Patagonia for this huge night. To receive such a warm welcome from all over the world while at home, with my friends & family, enjoying amazing music… I couldn’t ask for more,” noted surfer Ramon Navarro.

Since then momentum has been growing fast, and we have benefited from the support of some 140 different volunteers and picked up over 3.5 tonnes of rubbish from the sand, including over 31,700 cigarette butts, 5,940 recyclable beverage containers, 4,230 straws, 3,600 bits of plastic cutlery, and 5,900 plastic bottle caps. Chapters have since sprung up in Coogee, Manly, Rose Bay, Bronte, Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, and soon Perth and as far away as Florida in the U.S. The initiative is aimed at raising awareness among beachgoers and members of the public in a discussion around waste and overall consumption behaviours by advocating for nationwide container deposit legislation, engaging local government to phase-out plastic bags and improve beach rake operations, signage, fines and bins, and encouraging local businesses to improve sustainability by incentivising the use of reusable water bottles and coffee cups, etc.

We’re also collecting hard data for the Australian Marine Debris Initiative as part of our clean up and the subsequent sorting process, have clocked literally thousands of squats and kilometres of soft sand running, and enjoyed the many colours and weather conditions each clean up has thrown at us. This, plus the social connections and laughter of a bodysurf afterwards are all part of the rewards of running ‘responsibly’.

To learn more about Responsible Runners or to join a group near you visit their Facebook page.

Chartering Antarctic waters on board the MV Ushuaia is absolutely spectacular.

Can’t quite wipe the smile off my face, there are few words to describe the experience and surrounds, we are simply dwarfed by the landscapes.

It’s a very white and icy world on the Antarctic peninsular – it’s hard to know where the point the camera next but interviewing one of the Ushuaia’s guides Valerie, was a must.

Local wildlife are there to welcome you on every landing. Not shy, they will come up to you as you stay simply mesmerised by the opportunity.

It’s chilly on the decks of the Ushuaia, but luckily we have our Patagonia gear to stay toasty – we wouldn’t want to miss any of the action happening outside!

All of us on board were a little comforted knowing we were joined by Jesse Martin. Jesse had a constant twinkle in his eye, and we suspect he even wanted higher seas on our crossing through the Drake Passage! We were thankful for what we were given, but Jesse is always thrilled by a little adventure and we could all tell he was in his absolute element down here in Antarctica.

A photographers paradise. By day 4, many people had already snapped more than 1000 photos. One of them being avid photographer Jesse Martin!

Learn more about Places We Go and follow there adventures.

For more from Kimi and our other Patagonia ambassadors, see patagonia.com/surfblog.

A young couple is hoping to revolutionise the way we learn. They are cycling 30,000 kilometres and students can join them anywhere online. To find out more on World X Cycle’s adventures and their Learn to Ride Program check out their website — Ride To Learn and World X Cycle.

Patagonia is proud to be involved with this years Backcountry film festival. The Winter Wildlands Alliance created the Backcountry Film Festival in 2005 to help grassroots and professional filmamakers to show audiences their love of the winter outdoors. Since then, the annual festival has become something of an institution amongst many outdoor communities. The Festival is run by non-for-profit hosts, and in Australia, all funds will support Protect Our Winters and Fiends of the Earth climate campaign.

Sydney, May 20^th 6:30pm, 93 Bathurst St, Sydney CBD

Melbourne, May 23^rd 7:00pm, 485 Chapel St, South Yarra

We just ask our guests to make a gold coin donation towards the event, so that organizations like these can continue prospering for their causes. Beverages kindly provided by the good people at Mountain Goat Brewery. Premiering the awe inspiring movie Groundswell.

Protect Our Winters

POW’s mission is to unite and actively engage the global snow sports community to lead the fight against climate change. Protect Our Winters (POW) was started in 2007 by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones who witnessed first-hand the impact of climate change on our mountains. After having been turned away from areas that had once been ride-able and seeing resorts closed due to lack of snow, Jeremy saw a gap between the winter sports community and the action being taken by us all to address the problem.

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is a federation of autonomous local groups who are working towards an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable future. FOE Australia functions both through the activities of its local groups, and on the national level through appointed spokespeople, campaigns and projects

Read more on the Back Country Film Festival on Mountain Journal and Mountain Watch 

See you there……

As guests arrived they were ushered through a short enrollment for the event, they wrote a brief message about the garment they were passing on, received their swishing tokens and weighed their goods. We were curious to see how many garments were registered to be exchanged and what that all weighed, in order for us to take a reading on the physical amount that was being prevented from landfill just out of one event. We came up with over 45kg’s of clothing, over 40 people participated and upwards of 100 items were donated to the cause.

Swap parties are a great way to experience the thrill we all get when purchasing new things, the only difference is it doesn’t involve the bank account. A cool clean way to have some fun, while hearing stories of people’s love for quality clothing that joins them on all these wondrous adventures around the globe. We had a Patagonia jacket donated on the night that had summited Everest and was now making its way on the journey out the door with another adventurer! We had some amazing people help us put this humble little event together, so a big thanks to Helen Spoor and her band of cheerful ladies that worked their magic to make the event a success Another thank you to our wonderful photographer for the evening Becky Hewison and to all the guests that made the evening so enjoyable, cheers.

See you next time…

To see more pics of the event check out one of our customers blogs- http://snapshotsofmyadventures.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/swish-swish-swap-patagonia/