Raising An Army Of Ocean Crusaders

“The vital signs of this critical medium of life are showing clear signs of distress./That’s because roughly a third of the carbon dioxide that humans are putting into the atmosphere has entered the ocean. In addition, about 80 per cent of the extra heat being created by climate change has been absorbed by the ocean.” – Alanna Mitchell in Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis
 
To the average person it might seem surprising that Haemish Beaton, a college dropout who once sold all his worldly possessions in two shopping carts on Commercial Drive in Vancouver to become a surf bum, would be fixated on teaching youth about anything. But when he left the regular track, this world citizen delved deep into a different kind of education. From brushing shoulders with VICE and Surfrider Foundation founders in formative years, to developing curriculum for Taiwanese students, to ravenously scouring surf breaks on multiple continents, Beaton went through a different kind of schooling. And though a near death experience caused the water-loving bohemian to scale back his surfing pursuits, the launch of a children’s book he dreamed up is helping him reconnect with the ocean years later – and pass on a passion for protecting it to the next generation in the process.
 
“I went from surfing in California to going to North Van and going to college, dropping out of college and taking my student loan money and surfing the North Shore of Hawaii,” he said, after passing the agave syrup which he stocks in his Vancouver Island home as sweetener. Surfing became more than a pastime, it was an obsession. “It almost has to be like your swimming pool in your backyard – because it's a commitment, a total commitment.”

 
Beaton had watched the Genesis of the Surfrider Foundation while exploring waves along the western US coastline, but really came into his own on a board while voyaging from province to province in Australia. He picked up technical skill, but more importantly he came to love the ocean, with all its harsh instructions and gentle embraces.
 
So when he moved to Taiwan to teach English to locals surrounded by gargantuan industrial factories he incorporated natural elements into his lesson plans.
 
“Especially in Taiwan kids are not connected on an intrinsic level with nature,” he said. “You know, that's the key to understanding what is going on environmentally with the world. You actually have to be out and get connected.”
 
As much as Beaton was into his job, he had picked Taiwan – a place roughly the size of Vancouver Island – for its surfing.
 
“Where it got really exciting was when the typhoons would come from the Philippines,” he said. “We were the only surfers on the beach, and the helicopters were above you – and the military was going up and down to ocean trying to get you out of the water.”

But one day he nearly pushed his passion too far:
 
“The only time you ever got off school wasn't a snow day – it was a typhoon day,” he said, explaining how he ended up on a 50 cc scooter with his board bag trailing on little plastic wheels. He drove 650 km to catch what he hoped was the wave of his life. Instead it almost all ended. “That was the one time that I got held down against a reef. I came into like a calm being – this often happens when you're drowning.”
 
A euphoric feeling passed over Beaton as time seemed to stand still. “I was on the bottom of a reef and I was drowning – I was done,” he said. “I was having a conversation with a fish.” A brief lull in the virtually relentless typhoon output allowed him to thrash his way back above the surface. Beaton had survived, but he was done with the big wave quest.

The sun shines down on a hulking Grumman Olson diesel with a Freightliner chassis. Kelp flames are painted on the large rectangular side, with a complex aquatic scene revealed in behind. It is a visual representation of the next stage in Beaton’s journey – a guerilla marketing project on wheels to help promote a children’s book he spearheaded. The idea is simple: get youth engaged in environmental issues. He boasts the mobile learning station gets better fuel economy than his pickup truck, and is excited about the possibility of creating awareness among kids at a time when scientists still have so much to learn about the ocean. And for Beaton this is his way of reconnecting with it.
 
“To actually have a true empathetic stance on the ocean I had to remove myself from it,” he said. “I'm looking forward to revisiting the ocean.”

He teamed up with Michelle Peters, Alex Witcombe and Jarrett Krentzel for The Great Plastic Round-up, which tells the story of a girl named Cassy who travels to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Along the way she interacts with an albatross, a surfer named Bobby and a personification of the ocean, deciding to become a protector of the Cascadian region in the end. Witcombe, who provided the illustrations, splashes bright colours across glossy pages to bring the tale to life. The attention to detail is intense. For example, on the front cover all the bits of garbage swirled around the corners represent junk found inside a single albatross’ stomach.

So far the promotion has included public library and bookstore visits. In the Comox Valley, where Beaton now lives, an art gallery launch party helped set the movement in motion. Some readers even couldn’t help turn the pages of the book while waiting for Edward Burtynsky’s Watermark documentary to start. Beaton hopes the truck, which follows them to events, will become a powerful symbol to drive a deeper understanding of the ocean. As far as he’s concerned, getting youth on board with ecological protection is the best way to effect change. He already has ideas for a follow-up book.
 
“This is a surf inspired project but it's also an environmental one,” Beaton said. “We're just starting to put this out into the world. It will evolve over time.”