It's a no brainer that being surfers we all care about the environment we’re most exposed to - NZ Beaches. A lot of mates and myself pick up at least one piece of rubbish off the beach after every surf- it’s a good habit to be in and in a small way it’s just being a tidy Kiwi.

This week I notched up my own contribution a bit; I’ve donated 50 Beached As - Our New Zealand Beaches Vol 1 books to Sustainable Coastlines for them to use as either fundraising or as prizes during their beach clean ups. I believe all NZ surfers have a vested interest in what the crew at Sustainable Coastlines do. I certainly feel this way as my book Beached As is all about our pristine coastlines and now, with the book’s success, this is a small way of putting something back.

I also interviewed Sam Judd, one of the co-founders of Sustainable Coastlines, for the current 09 Magazine (which you can read in full here) but here’s an excerpt and some pix from the Hyundai Long Board Comps that Sustainable Coastlines have been partnered with all summer.

Sam, it seems last year Sustainable Coastlines really hit its straps, was 2010 a big year and why?

2010 was huge for us. Being just the second year of our operations, the idea behind our charity has resonated deeply with all those Kiwis who love their coastlines.

In December, we launched our biggest New Zealand project to date. It was called 'Love your Coast' and saw over 5,500 people work together to remove over 69,000 litres of waste from the coasts of Rangitoto Island, Te Whanganui a Tara / Wellington, Ötautahi/Christchurch and Te Tai Poutini/The West Coast.

We also picked up a handful of awards and massive exposure for the cause and our part in protecting New Zealand’s coastlines. I guess this shows that people out there are into what we do.

Everyone here wants to look after their coastlines- they just need an excuse to do so. We provide that excuse and in 2010, we showed people that looking after our epic coastlines can be a whole lot of fun.

You keep stats on all the clean-up huh, what's been the biggest surprise for you?

Probably knowing that we removed 201,003 individual bits of rubbish from Rangitoto Island with a crew that was mainly 13-14 year-old school kids. This means each person picked up more than 200 pieces on average, amongst savage volcanic rocks on a very hot day!

Some of the stats are quite shocking. Plastic bottles (which we find absolutely everywhere) were 8346 in number- 5.5 cubic metres of space!

We also removed 24,021 plastic lids, 27,364 plastic bags, 3531 straws and 954 parking tickets/receipts. It is clear that the main offenders here are single use plastics, which is surprising because they generally things that people don't actually need and can choose not to use in the first place.

If anyone out there (schools, volunteers, organisations and businesses) wants to get amongst our upcoming events - we will be at the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour final at Port Waikato on the 5th and 6th of March.

We also have a sweet trip planned for Coromandel Town/Te Kouma Harbour and the Happy Jacks Islands on the 1st-3rd of April. Following that, on the 15th and 16th of April, we will be doing a huge clean-up of Auckland's North Shore.

To learn more, receive updates, support the cause and sign up for events, check www.sustainablecoastlines.org