Well, the BLUEMiND panel at Okeanos (you know, the event plastered all over my Facebook page the past few weeks) was pluckfastically fantastico!  Dancing fish people squirming and worming about the stage, weird scientists dissecting brains, thoughts and memory with their words, and a Brown Girl Surf TM all female crew clad in spider lilies selling T-shirt  to white, male, non-surfers.  Can ya dig it?

Seriously though, yesterday was awesome.  It was also Brown Girl Surf's TM first public debut, so I was especially interested to see just how people would embrace our pioneering journey around the world, name and all.  After catching the attention of passer byers with our bright smiles, aloha spirit and impromptu "you don't have to be brown!" slogan,  people walked up to the table full of intrigue and wonder. (Note: brilliant sales tactic from our lead sales person, Marshea.  Pay attention to my blogs and you WILL get some good entrepreneurial advice now and then.)  Once people  heard about the journey to find trailblazing women and girls around the world, and the context of the name Brown Girl Surf TM, they too were SOLD.  Quite literally. OH YES.  And I have to let you know how STOKED I was when the bartender next to our table (who was a tall, white male) announced he dug the project so much that he had dibs on the Brown Girl Surf TM men's white cotton T.  (OK fine, so he also added to that how much he loved white t-shirts and surfer girls in general, so it was an easy sell to him.  But whatever.  It's all fair game in my book.....and fascinating market research at that).  So to all the naysayers who said men would not wear these.....SOLD!  Nanny nanny boo boo.  Kidding.  But we felt the love and were grateful for the good vibes, exquisite performance, and the great company.

Here's our jolly table....definitely the most colorful one of the night!  Thanks to all my friends and my mom (far right) for helping make this so successful!  I don't have much else of intellectual significance to share at the moment (mostly because  I'm recovering from running around all day yesterday with one leg), but stay tuned for some exciting news about my new mobile device....and by that I don't mean phone.  You'll just have to wait and see. The journey continues.......

It has been about a week now since I ruptured my achilles tendon while doing sprints at the gym.  It's been a real bummer but lucky for me I have the crappiest health insurance plan known to man so everything is just peachy.   Just kidding.  Sorta sucks I'll be down and out for the count for the next 4-6 weeks.  FYI I'm going with non operative treatment of the tendon vs. operative treatment, but more on that later.  So no surfing for me for a bit.  Whaaa!!!!  Oh the humanity!  So much for my adventurous surf stories. 

I know life could be much much worse.  I mean, I could have had my arm chewed off by a shark, or worse yet, been born without any limbs and never had the opportunity to surf or dance.  I know how lucky I am in life and understand things happen for a reason.   So in the true spirit of Bay Area San Franciscan, new age, granola-ness, I am taking this injury as a sign that it's time to focus on other aspects of life, like um, other aspects of  Brown Girl Surf TM!

So the past few days I have been doing some prep for the upcoming Okeanos performance at Fort Mason in San Francisco.  Described by Ariel Schwartz in her article for Fast Company, as the “The Cirque Du Soleil Of Environmental Science“ Okeanos artistically melds science, movement, dance, and acrobatics together to create a theatrical performance of a living ocean.  I know.  How cool is that? Being a dancer myself, I really can't wait to see how they use the human body to recreate the experience of the ocean.  As well, part of this weekend's production is meant to raise awareness around ocean issues. So in addition to the performance, there will be a lot of cool environmental groups on display at the event.  And yes, Brown Girl Surf TM will have a presence there too (so come check out our table).  But it gets cooler yet.   On Sunday I'll be participating on a pre-show panel with my BLUEMiND friends to discuss the relationship between the brain and the ocean.  The theme will be “Our Mind on Ocean, Our Brain on Memory." 

So given this is Brown Girl Surf's TM first public debut, there has been quite a lot of tasks to get done around here.  It's a little challenging to do it with one leg, but I'm getting used to it.  In the spirit of movement and theatrics, I thought I'd share with you this awe inspiring video on Brown Girl Surf's TM behind the scenes one legged prep for this awesome occasion. 

I know what you're thinking-- Target!?!?! OK, fine. I wish I could have chosen a more sustainable store as part of my quest for hangers, especially on a post about the living ocean.  And well, you know how I feel about plastic. But they did scrounge up their extras for me.  Qualified reuse? Please love me, don't judge me (just for the moment....just this once).   Perhaps this is your opportunity to chime in and let me know where I can get more enviro friendly stuff going forward.  Perhaps you couldn't give a crap.  Either way, I hope you laughed. 

So hope you'll join us this weekend for Okeanos and the BLUEMiND panel at Fort Mason at 6:30 pm on Sunday.  Click on the link below for more information and to buy tickets! 

Hope to see you there!  (FYI I got my new rolling scooter this morning.  It's almost as cool as a skateboard.....sort of.)

_ Last night I went to a talk at the San Francisco Patagonia store to learn more about plastic pollution in our ocean.  OK, I admit I also went because, well, it was at Patagonia.  And since I’m a stoked but broke wanna-be pro surfer, I was on a dual mission to learn more about plastic pollution and to get to know the Patagonia peeps as well.  Anyhoo….

After listening to two women give a talk on their plastic research findings from their recent ocean journey, I walked away with a few key points:

1. Plastic isn’t biodegradable (duh!).  It instead breaks up into little particles.  These tiny particles are what make up most of the pollution in the gyres.
2. Some gyres are as large as 270,000 square miles (I know – holy crap!)
3. It sucks to be a creature of the sea. 

_ After the numerous slides and Q&A, the ambassadors got to the activism piece.  It consisted of the token mantra to refuse, reuse or recycle.  It also advocated the need to participate in beach clean ups.  By doing so we are helping to clean up the gyres as the ocean and wind currents eventually wash the plastic particles up to shore.

I started to wonder about what systemic movements are occurring to really address the plastics problem at its core. I asked about the anti-plastic lobbyists in congress.  Nobody really seemed to know if there were any.  So I started to feel like I had just gotten a lecture on how to put a band aid on an issue, but was unsuccessful in digging up much insight on how to really attack the problem from its root….until I met Kathy (that’s not really her name, but for the purpose of this blog post, just go with it).

Kathy is a bright-eyed young woman with a warm smile who came up to chat with me after the event.  She told me she was in a sustainable MBA program and reluctantly admitted that she happened to work for Nestle.  She wanted to inform me that corporations like Nestle and Pepsi are the real active and influential voices in lobbying around plastics. She shared that it was hard for her to work for Nestle because the company does not do business in line with her values.  She was struggling to reconcile these opposing value systems in her work life.  And that’s when it hit me. The solution to this issue (at least partially) was in someone like Kathy.

_ I had once seen Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsi, speak at an event a few years ago. (Side note: Indra is a brown girl from India– EAST SYEEEEED!!!!).   Anyways, her talk focused on leadership and learning to manage a workforce comprised largely of Generation Y employees.  According to her, Gen Y (sorry I know that sounds like a brand of suppositories) peeps tend to have a greater awareness and need to link social values to their work than their Gen X predecessors. I know HR departments and corporate philanthropy departments invest millions of dollars trying to “do good” in the name of keeping their employees engaged and happy.  There’s nothing more costly to a company than having to hire, train and replace workers. Trust me, I KNOW.   And let’s face it, if someone like Indra Nooyi based an entire speech on leadership around managing Gen Y folks, she knows the value of making her employees happy.  Happy employees mean more productive workers (or so they say).

It made me think that employees, if anyone, are actually in a perfect position to be internal lobbyists for the anti-plastics movement- to demand the companies they work for have more sustainable practices like making a business, social and environmental case for alternative packaging materials.  It made me think that what the movement needs is a cadre of anti-plastic CIA Ninjas, working internally and overtly within Fortune 500 Companies to push the plastics agenda up the corporate food chain. This thought of course flashed through my head in a split second after which I found myself encouraging  Kathy to think of herself as a special investigative CIA Ninja, using her role and knowledge of the ins and outs of her company to influence change from within.  Her eyes widened.  She laughed.  But I was serious. 

_ Sometimes you need to get in bed with the ‘man’ to beat him at his own game. I’ve seen this tactic work time and time again in James Bond movies. Based on that principle, I propose the world create a Plastics CIA Ninja Coalition comprised of graduating high school students and top graduating MBAs.  Get a philanthropist to fund a series of fellowships and curriculum, equipping them with anti-plastic agendas and BLUE values before they secure employment at corporations.  Hell why not have a BLUE curriculum in every business school in the world.  Teach these BLUE grads to work within the system to lobby for alternative packaging, in the name of making Gen Y happy and loyal employees.  I mean, they are going to go work for these Fortune 500 companies anyway.Honestly, how many of my friends who work in corporate America wish they could be doing some good for the world?  ALL OF THEM.  Corporate employees want more than anything to make a difference in the world.  It’s where a majority of our volunteers used to come from at C.E.O. Women (the non-profit I founded).  HR is always trying to find meaningful ways to connect the workforce with opportunities to act on their value systems.  It could be a win-win situation. Happy employees.  Less pollution in the environment.  New ideas. Corporation looks good for doing good etc…

_ The solution to the plastics issue, in my opinion, is a lot like hair loss.  You can’t just brush your hair, oil it, put serums and hair masks on it to make it grow.  You need to also take oral stuff like Biotin.  Much like hair loss, you need to treat the plastics problem from the inside out as well…tackle it from all angles.  As we learn time and again from our dear undercover agent, James Bond, the solution is often in the problem! 

Signing off from Oakland, CA

farhana

P.S. - If you would like me to work for your think tank, I am accepting propositions and may even consider being your pre-IPO secretary.

P.P.S. – Since I’m not an environmentalist nor have I ever worked in the environmental field, consider this a litmus test for how well information open sourcing about the plastics issues is being understood by the masses.  I am only basing this off what I know and happen to follow.  Perhaps sharing my thinking on this issue will give you a sense of how deep to go with public education campaigns. 

P.P.P.S. – Ok if you liked this post, buy a brown girl surf TM T-shirt in its honor. I promise you they’ll be vintage and you’ll want one when Indra becomes the first brown girl CEO to rid plastic packaging in her Fortune 500 Company because of this post. (OK, fine.) 

_Last I left you I was headed on the path to big-wave surfer-dom with a brilliant idea in the works, about to be disowned by my parents. Thank you for all the positive feedback and words of support you sent my way.  And thank you for still being my friend. Really.  It means a lot to my once sad and pathetic, soul.  Now, back to the story at hand.   
 
At some point I decided to put my big wave aspirations aside not because it wasn’t what was in my heart, but because I did not want to contribute to my mother getting more grey hairs.  Instead, I decided to go in the opposite direction.  What would that be, you ask? Longboarding.  Longboarding is a classic style of surfing where you use a bigger board on smaller waves (mostly).  It’s like a dance as the surfer walks up and down the board.  It’s not as treacherous as dropping down a 50 foot wave, but has its own set of technical challenges.  Oh boy, does it.    

Everytime I had watched longboarding, it always reminded me of a dance.  I spent the past 15 years training in North Indian classical dance, so I guess the dancer in me couldn’t help but wonder what types of connections there were between Indian dancing and surfing – both aesthetically and technically.  I wanted to explore this.  I also figured getting in on the competitive circuit for small wave riding could be a fun alternative challenge to the near death experiences of charging big waves. I’d still charge the medium sized surf for fun but dancing on water would be it for me!

_I didn’t even own a longboard, so that just gives you an idea of where I was starting from.  I decided to find a coach to help work with me on this newly refined delusion of a dream.  I started working with a pro who spent most of his life short-boarding, and eventually transitioned into longboarding later in life. So he could understand, at some level, my challenges.  And let’s face it, after I shared my ideas with him, I’m pretty sure he also thought I was challenged.  I would spend a lot of time talking to him about some of my competitive surf ideas - everything from my thoughts on infusing dance into longboarding to my girlish aspirations of one day being the great brown hope of surfing for my community. 

One day, my coach sent me an article.  It was about a surf competition in India and it boasted a fascinating mention – India’s first female surfer. The combination of those three words together was more than intriguing.  The only other female surfer of Indian descent I knew of was my friend Camille here in California and she was a rare anomaly at that.  I started doing some research and found more interesting discoveries.  A group of girls in the Gaza Strip were taking on surfing. China had a first female surfer. A young girl in Malaysia became their country’s first sponsored female surfer.  I was having a hard enough time piecing my surf aspirations together here in California, land of the global surfing empire. And here were these women and girls in countries with such limited surfing infrastructure, making waves of change in their communities and learning to surf under such interesting and oftentimes, challenging, circumstances.  It was more than fascinating; it was literally, history in the making.  

_I began to think that if these renegade women and girls were taking these types of risks and figuring out how to surf in their communities, that they might in fact be real trailblazers for change. So I decided I’d go on a journey to find, support and share the stories of the first female surfers from around the world.  In doing so I would also share my own crazy journey of my pursuit to go pro.  I’d be a certified surf explorer, storyteller come competitor extraordinaire!   I fittingly named this idea Brown Girl SurfTM, in honor of the first female surfers who were brown girls from Polynesia (and possibly the Seychelles).
 
I decided to get in touch with the Big Kahuna of female surfing research - Dr. Krista Comer from Rice University.  Krista spent the past decade studying female surfers and surf subculture partly as a way to study globalization and its impact on women in surfing communities. She ended up coming onto the project as well.   I continued to share the idea with other key activists, including ocean scientist Dr. Wallace 'J.' Nichols.  He too was interested in partnering on this project for his BLUEMiND work on the relationship of the ocean's impact on the brain.  (more on that to come!) I also got in touch with India’s first female surfer (Facebook is amazing) and and told her about our plans.   Soon, a Brown Girl Surf TM community of supporters started to form around this project.

The proceeds of the T-shirts would support our journeys and would also be used to support the first female surfers we’d discover along the way.  I felt that the purpose of the project was in the journeys themselves.  So rather than defining right away how exactly we’d connect and support these women and girls, we’d meet them first, share their stories and then support their ideas and desires for change in their communities based on what we discovered. 
 
  Alas, Brown Girl SurfTM is finally unveiled!   Behold! A mermaid!

_

__ Thank you to all those who helped me in the process to give birth to Brown Girl Surf TM.  You know who you are and  you are so friggin' awesome!  I believe so strongly in this idea and that it will have profound social and scientific research implications for women and girls, the surfing world, the ocean, conservation, our brain and our spirits. It also makes a pretty cool T-shirt line too!   Now, I want to personally invite you to hop on board with me for the journey ahead!  It’s sure to be a sick ride!
 
 
Signing off from Oakland, CA
Farhana