VOLUNTEER VACATIONS FOR SURFERS | SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

By: Jaimal Yogis, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Travel Section, Page 1

To the east towered hills so thick with rain forest I was sure dinosaurs were lurking inside. To the west, warm turquoise waves peeled and feathered like a snippet from "Endless Summer."

It was the first day of our monthlong bungalow stay in Punta Banco, Costa Rica (population: maybe 200). And after a bumpy nine-hour bus ride from San Jose, before I even unpacked my bags, I grabbed my board and surfed happily through the waning daylight hours, singing the praises of the Latin surf gods.

All was perfect, at least until the next day. As so often happens on these long-planned surf adventures - after months of poring over maps of beaches you might visit and video footage of waves you might ride - the swell flat died: kaput, gone. The onshore winds picked up, and just like that, my "Endless Summer" scene turned into tropical Lake Michigan.

I wasn't happy. But on any number of previous surf-obsessed journeys, such conditions might have been cause for involuntary twitching, regret or long, expensive drives to the other side of the country to scour for any kind of saltwater lump to slide on. This time was different.

I'd come to Punta Banco with my girlfriend, Siri, a San Francisco art teacher, to surf (as always) but also to help teach environmental conservation to local children through art, an annual San Francisco State summer program called The CommunicArte Project. Over the course of three weeks, we'd be starting an organic garden with Punta Banco's kindergarteners through eigth-graders, making puppets from trash that had washed up at the town's shore, and helping arrange a theater production about the hazards of plastics in the sea, especially to the endangered sea turtles that nest on Punta Banco's beaches. It just so happened that some of the best surf in the country was around (just a teeny tiny perk for me).

The waves were fickle that month. I surfed almost every day, but with a few exceptions, the conditions were nothing to write home about. My time in Punta Banco, however, will go down as one of the most memorable surf trips of my life. At the risk of sounding like an after-school special, almost as soon as I planted my first pineapple with one of those beaming kindergartners, the uncomfortable feeling I've often had on exotic surf adventures - the one of being just a visitor taking advantage of cheap food and beautiful water, all the while contributing to the erosion of local culture - washed away. This time I was at least a little bit a part of that culture, interacting, learning and giving back with more than money.

By the second week, I actually felt bad for the surfers driving their 4x4 rentals through town for a quick wave check, then moving on when it didn't suit them. Just as I'd never gotten to know beach towns I'd visited for surfing, these guys were missing out on the real Punta Banco.

My trip to Costa Rica felt pretty special and unique. But as it turns out, surf-volunteer trips are on the rise, and mine was a sentiment Sam Bailey, founder of a new surf-volunteer camp in Canoa, Ecuador - Eco Surf Volunteers - is getting used to hearing.

"I've had volunteers remark that even if the waves were crummy - which they haven't been! - we would still have this incredible cultural immersion," Bailey told me recently. "And that's the thing about going on a straight surf trip. If the waves are weak, or the weather's poor, what've you got? The combined experience offered with a surf-volunteer project truly can't be beat."

Being a selfish journalist, I coincidentally had to fall into a surf-volunteer trip through my girlfriend's work. You don't have to be so lazy. As nonprofits like Save the Waves, The Surfrider Foundation, and SurfAid International raise awareness about health and environmental issues in surfing locales, and as professional surfers like Dave Rastovich - who has worked extensively to fight Japanese whale hunting - become more visible, volunteer programs like Bailey's are sprouting up all over the coastal world.

"The interest has really increased," says Caleb Cooper, founder of PeacePassers.org, a surf- and soccer-related volunteer program in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. There, surfers are set up with family homestays and work on beach cleanups, improving local recycling programs, teaching English through sports, and building playgrounds. Cooper says volunteers inevitably leave saying the experience surpassed their expectations of a pure surf trip. "Instead of just going somewhere, spending your money, and then leaving with some pictures," says Cooper, "you come home with lessons learned about yourself and the uniqueness of a different culture, not to mention new friends."

Ecuador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are only a few options. In some of the best surf spots in the world - from Peru to South Africa to Indonesia - there are formal volunteer surf programs established (see details in the "If You Go" box) offering short- and long-term stays with work ranging from bringing aid to earthquake victims in the Mentawais islands to giving surf lessons to disadvantaged youth in Jeffrey's Bay. The list goes on.

And while not all surf volunteer programs will be labeled as such, some creative research will usually bring up an opportunity. Bailey, who has traveled to 31 countries, says he could probably find a volunteer position in all of them. (And yes, he's willing to help.)

You don't even have to be an experienced surfer to be a surf volunteer. Of all the volunteers in the CommunicArte Project, I was the only one who knew how to surf. The others who wanted to learn found rentals and lessons for about $20 in Pavones, a town 3 miles north. And with the exception of volunteering as a surf instructor, the other programs mentioned here are open to all levels (though I'd recommend an Indonesia boat trip only to beginners with a fondness for reef scars).

Of course, the question inevitably arises: Are surfing volunteers taken seriously? Spending a lot of time in the water, I might have done less work than some of the other volunteers. But surfing also allowed me to form a different kind of friendship with locals who surfed or wanted to learn (which is often most of the kids in surf towns). There was an automatic mutual respect that broke down cultural barriers.

Bailey says it's not even a debate with his volunteers: "You should see the children running out of their parents' restaurants and storefronts as we walk through the streets," he says. "It's as if our volunteers are instant celebrities. ... I've heard at times that volunteering is 'so cliche.' It's 'one man's effort to save the world.' There's nothing cliche about what we're doing. This is all very real."

In these wacky times, President Obama is asking all of us for service. Might as well combine that service with some good, old-fashioned beach bumming.

Plus, when you don't end up getting that wave of your life - and how often is that going to happen? - you can come way with an even more precious memory. On our last day in Punta Banco, we spent an hour saying tearful goodbyes to a whole classroom of smiling children asking over and again, "When are you coming back?" That's at least as good as a perfect wave.

If you go

-- Sam Bailey's Eco Surf Volunteers weeklong surf camps in Canoa, Ecuador, are only for college and high school students. Two weeklong summer camps are scheduled this summer in June and August, $1,395 per week. www.ecosurfvolunteers.org.

-- Caleb Cooper's Peace Passers in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.

-- In Lobitos, Peru, Waves of Development offers homestays and volunteer opportunities teaching English, art, environmental conservation, swimming, and, of course, surfing.

-- At Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa, home to some of the best waves in the world, All Africa Volunteers has set up a surf school where volunteers teach disadvantaged youth life skills through surfing.

-- In Canggu, Bali, through i-to-i Meaningful Travel, you can get surf lessons, a TEFL certification, and teach English to Balinese children.

-- In Mentawais, Indonesia, through Holidays with Purpose, you can take a boat trip that combines surfing legendary breaks like Nias with bringing medical care and education to earthquake victims.

For those interested in longer stays, some programs, including Waves of Development, offer internships where you can work in exchange for room and board. Others, like CommunicArte offer college credit. And if you don't feel like going through a formal program, you might be surprised by how many local schools, farms, orphanages and playgrounds are happy to have a volunteer just for a day or two. It might just make your trip.

Jaimal Yogis is the author of a new memoir of surf travels called "Saltwater Buddha: A surfer's quest to find Zen on the sea." E-mail comments about this story to travel@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle