Bored Competition

One CEO who did show up was Shaun Tompson, who was so concerned about ocean pollution that he drove down to OCSD meetings several times from Santa Barbara, where he runs a little surfwear company called Solitude Clothing. But even with his reputation and world surfing titles, his impassioned words from the podium during public-comment sessions didn't carry the same clout to the politicians on the board.

Nobody from the ASP made so much as a peep.

"If surfers gave a shit, they would be a powerful environmental force," says George, the Surfer editor. "But they don't. On the whole, surfers are probably the least environmentally concerned faction living along the coast of California, and they get no support in that area from their multibillion-dollar industry."