During the 11de stage of the Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour in Petten, the Dutch surf community has joined forces with the North Sea Foundation, the organizer of the Beach Clean-up Tour. Various parties from the Dutch surf scene were present to bring the cleaning of Dutch beaches to the attention of surfers in our country.
This message concerns a report by Olmo van Beurden of Surf travel agency SurfaWhile about the Boskalis Beach Clean-up Tour. We know OImo from writing the #BeSafe campaign for the KNRM. More about this will follow from the KNRM. Olmo, thank you for your initiatives!
This morning at 10:00 am the first participants started to clean the beach of Petten. Plastic bottles, chip bags, nut trays and many other items were picked up from the beach by a total of about 100 enthusiasts.
I fished two sunglasses from the dunes -Martin from Wijk aan Zee
Initiator Olmo van Beurden of the surf travel agency SurfaWhile has together with North Sea Foundation the beach clean-up in Petten has been transformed into a surf stage. ''This idea was born two years ago, we were supposed to do this last year, but the Tour couldn't go on then. The fact that we are here today in Petten with a number of Dutch surf parties is very nice'', says van Beurden. In addition to SurfaWhile, the Holland Surfing Association, De Jongens from Schoorl and the Surf Therapy foundation were among others present to support this day and bring it to the attention of their own community.
Olmo van Beurden says: ''Our beaches look clean, but if we clean up more than 100 kg of waste on a day like today, that's too crazy for words. We as surfers are all connected to the beach and benefit from it being as clean as possible. Hopefully we can get this message across to anyone who has anything to do with surfing. As the Netherlands, we can then set an example in other countries, where beaches are often a lot dirtier than here and where separating waste is still far from the norm."
Beach clean-ups and beach clean-up tour works
Research has shown that beach clean-ups such as the beach clean-up tour help. The North Sea Foundation has a report published (in Feb '21) showing that there is 27% less waste on the beaches compared to 10 years ago. ''How wonderful if we can further increase that percentage, although we will only succeed if we all really stand behind it. We do that for the surfers in the Netherlands," says Olmo.
