海角大神

Glenn Hening has surfed the perfect wave many times.

There鈥檚 a moment of warped relativity in the tunnel. He鈥檚 standing on his board, flying along the surface of the wave, just keeping up momentum. Something shifts, and the end of the barrel is moving faster and farther away. From his board, Mr. Hening feels as if he鈥檚 moving backward.

鈥淭here鈥檚 an experience of time standing still,鈥� says the lifelong surfer, ocean activist, and math teacher. He鈥檚 sitting outside his apartment in Oxnard, California, but his eyes gaze through the tube of the wave that he shapes with his hands in the air.

It鈥檚 a mesmerizing pursuit, but it drives many surfers to localism, says Mr. Hening. Put bluntly, 鈥淪urfers are primarily selfish.鈥� It鈥檚 in the nature of the sport, he says, where surfers are plenty and good waves are few.

鈥淲ho deserves the wave?鈥� he asks. In answer to his own question, Mr. Hening has spent nearly 40 years trying to build a spirit of generosity among inherent competitors. He has advocated a better environment for the sport, for both the health of the ocean and fellowship among surfers in the often insular community.

He started two influential organizations: Surfrider Foundation, a nationally recognized ocean ecology advocacy group; and Groundswell Society, a group promoting surfer camaraderie through competitions.

鈥淕lenn is like this riptide that rips us along in a positive direction,鈥� says Shaun Tomson, 1977 World Surf League champion and a good friend of Mr. Hening since he got Mr. Tomson involved in saving Southern California鈥檚 Rincon Beach from sewage leakage in the 鈥�90s.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 see this energy moving, but you can see the effects of the energy,鈥� says Mr. Tomson, who first wrote his Surfer鈥檚 Code, a list of life lessons famous in the surfing community, for the Rincon Beach campaign. 鈥淗e鈥檚 one of these, I think, mavericks in the way he approaches surfing and also the way he thinks about the world.鈥�

Mr. Hening established Surfrider Foundation in 1984. The organization has mushroomed from a scrappy group of West Coast surfers into a sleek national organization with 81 chapters and over 100 high school and college clubs from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The younger and more under-the-radar Groundswell Society encourages surfers to share the joy of surfing with their peers, regardless of skill level.

鈥淚f Surfrider is about surfers getting sick from the ocean鈥� and the harmful effects of pollution, 鈥渢he Groundswell Society is about surfers getting sick of each other,鈥� he says.

Mr. Hening credits volunteers like 14-year-old Olivia LaRiccia in Fairfield, Connecticut, for picking up the mantle of his legacy after he left the group in 1986.

Olivia was unhappy with the mounds of plastic trash she collected at a 2019 Surfrider beach cleanup, so when the Connecticut chapter asked her if she would speak at a local community forum in support of a bill to limit plastic straw use in Norwalk, Connecticut, she said yes.

鈥淲hen I got there, I was freaking out a lot,鈥� says Olivia. But then she stood at the podium. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 as nervous, and I realized that I was changing opinions of other people and helping the town.鈥�

Volunteers beget action

Mr. Hening recalls Surfrider鈥檚 first success, a story that mirrors Olivia鈥檚 advocacy.

In 1984, state officials planned to drain part of Malibu Lagoon State Beach, also known as Surfrider Beach. Mr. Hening talked legendary surfer Lance Carson into speaking out against the plan at a public forum.

That speech, says Mr. Hening, along with the throngs of beachgoers who showed up in protest, halted the dredging.

鈥淢ost surfers actually love the ocean,鈥� says Chad Nelsen, Surfrider Foundation鈥檚 CEO. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e super in touch with what鈥檚 going on because they鈥檙e out there all the time.鈥�

The parking lot at the organization鈥檚 offices in San Clemente, California, is empty on a Saturday afternoon, except for Mr. Nelsen鈥檚 car, which is rigged on top with a paddleboard.

Mr. Nelsen grew up mucking around in the touch tanks at his father鈥檚 work at the Orange County Marine Institute. Recently he has steered such projects as halting a toll road through Trestles Beach in San Clemente, and researching the economic value of surf spots to their communities. In 2004, he helped establish a marine reserve in Puerto Rico.

The foundation is an institution on the West Coast, where Surfrider Foundation beach clean-ups are ubiquitous and cars zoom down the highway sporting Surfrider bumper stickers.

Among the foundation鈥檚 ambassadors are Shaun Tomson and Tokyo Olympics shortboard gold-medal winner Carissa Moore.

Mr. Hening co-founded Groundswell Society in 2000 with pioneering surfer Jericho Poppler, the winner of the first women鈥檚 World Pro Tour in 1976; and entrepreneur Matt Meyerson. The group fundraises college scholarships and holds a yearly team competition for which judges are picked based on their public service record rather than on how many medals they鈥檝e racked up. Longboard Magazine called the group 鈥渟urfing鈥檚 new voice of conscience鈥� in 2002. Their motto: 鈥淪haring the stoke of surfing.鈥�

鈥淲e just decided that, hey, we鈥檝e got to get to the core of who we really are鈥� as surfers, says Ms. Poppler. Taking care of the ocean means 鈥渁 lot more than just showing up in certain clothing and having a snazzy surfboard to look the part,鈥� she says.

The waves can be an unfriendly place for new or inexperienced surfers when locals stake their claims, says Mr. Hening, but surfers can 鈥渇lip that on its head鈥� and turn the waves into a welcoming place instead of an aggressive arena. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e lucky enough to be a surfer,鈥� says Mr. Hening, 鈥渢hey should also accept some responsibility for the environmental conditions of the surf zone.鈥�

鈥淏esides yourself鈥�

Anyone can be a steward of nature, adds Ms. Poppler. Those who have never experienced the euphoria of speeding along an indigo swell can think of waves like they think of Yosemite or Yellowstone, she says. 鈥淛ust go into nature,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e preserving 鈥� to go into our nature.鈥�

Mr. Hening is as skilled a surfer now as he鈥檚 ever been, he says. But being good means something different to him now than when he was in his 20s and catching perfect waves every day off the coast of El Salvador, where he lived for five years.

The surf world still needs to improve, he says: Most professional surfers and sports brands have fallen short of substantively supporting the environment 鈥� ecological or community 鈥� of surfing.

With surfing as an event in the Olympics for the first time, Mr. Hening watched closely. He says he has heard of Olympians of all sports facing a moment of 鈥渁bsolute panic鈥� after earning a gold medal. Sometimes their first reaction is to be lost about what to do with the rest of their lives.

He proposes a solution to that existential crisis: 鈥淏ring all of that that the ocean taught you, and gave you, that improved you, and bring that back to the other side of the coast highway, and bring it to the benefit of people besides yourself.鈥�