Encinitas-based SurfAid International no stranger to helping islanders

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Saturday, January 15, 2005 8:12 PM PST ∞

The islands, villages and towns devastated by the Asian tsunami last month were geographic mysteries for many Americans, but for some international surfers who will go to no end to find the best waves, they were paradise.

"Nias is pretty famous for a couple of well publicized breaks there," said Encinitas resident Chris Lacy about the island off Sumatra where at least 340 people were killed and 10,000 left homeless by the disaster.

Lacy, 42, is a volunteer with Encinitas-based SurfAid International, which sent a 12-person team to Nias on Jan. 8. The quick response was not surprising, as SurfAid has been sending medical volunteers to the region since 2000, when the group incorporated in New Zealand.

Since Dec. 26, when the tsunami struck, SurfAid International has raised $500,000 from donors, surf-wear companies and the government of New Zealand. More money is expected to be raised this week at the Action Sports Retailers trade show at the San Diego Convention Center, where SurfAid will auction a surfboard autographed by Mickey Munoz and other professional surfers.

Encinitas attorney Gary Sirota helped open the U.S. branch of SurfAid International in 2002. Other branches are in Australia and Indonesia.

"It's a pretty intriguing story," Sirota said about the group's New Zealand origins. "Dr. Dave Jenkins (of New Zealand) was working in Singapore. He's a surfer, and in his time off he'd fly over to Padang and jump on a boat and go out to the Mentawai Islands."

The trip to the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra takes 10 hours by boat, but it is worth the trip for surfers seeking an exotic location.

"I've been there a couple of times," said Sirota, an attorney specializing in business and nonprofit organizations. "It's tropical, clean, warm water. White sandy beaches, palm trees, hardwood and monkeys. It's extremely remote and difficult to get there. It's like a tropical paradise, kind of like Hawaii without any buildings made of concrete."

The isolation that made the islands a tropical paradise came with a cost, however.

"The government medical system is very underfunded because they're living on the edge of the world," Sirota said.

Jenkins paddled ashore one day and told a village chief that he was a medical doctor and could examine anyone in need of medical attention. He returned with his medical bag an hour later.

"When he came back, there were about 100 people there, including people wheeled up in wheelbarrows," Sirota said. "Many of the diseases were very preventable, but the islanders didn't have the means to prevent them."

The island inhabitants often suffered from malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio.

At the time, Jenkins was earning $170,000 a year working in corporate medicine. He quit his job, used his own money to start SurfAid International and moved to the jungles of the Mentawai Islands for a year, Sirota said.

The primary goal of SurfAid International is malaria control, which is most effectively done through education. Sirota said islanders are taught about the connection between mosquito bites and malaria and other diseases.

Gaining the trust of the indigenous people was itself a challenge, he said. As a solution, SurfAid asks its doctors for a one-year commitment, beginning with three months of language and culture studies.

"We generally have two or three working," Sirota said about doctors who travel to the islands. "We train indigenous nurses, or just people from the villages who come forward and want to be part of our staff. We train them to use microscopes, and teach them about sleeping under mosquito nets and keeping records."

SurfAid International has a 75 percent success rate in reducing malaria in the islands, he said.

Sirota already had been president and chairman of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation when he was approached by Encinitas resident Brian Gilmore. Gilmore had just returned from the Mentawai Islands and felt compelled to help the people he saw there.

SurfAid International's first U.S. office opened in space donated by a La Jolla brokerage firm in 2002 and relocated to a modest office in Encinitas last year.

Lacy, owner of a technology marketing company, has surfed around the world and is among the local volunteers who knows firsthand about the areas devastated by the tsunami.

Last year, Lacy published his first book, "Wave Hunters," a modern-day retelling of "Treasure Island" with surfers cast as the pirates. The book, aimed at 10- to 15-year-old readers, is set in West Sumatra and the Andaman and Nicobar islands, some of the areas hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunami.

Even before the disaster struck, Lacy had dedicated all the book's proceeds to SurfAid International.

"I had decided to read 'Treasure Island' again, and as I was reading, I couldn't believe how well it translated to surfing," he said about the inspiration for the book. "The pirates reminded me so much of surfers. The whole attitude pirates have. The tattoos, the swarthy characters."

"Wave Hunters" ($8.95, www.PageFreePublishing.com) is available on Amazon.com, book stores and some surf shops, including Hansen's in Encinitas and Surf Ride in Oceanside and Solana Beach.

For more information on SurfAid International, visit www.SurfAidInternational.org.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.

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