Global Wave Conference 2018
Santa Cruz, CaliforniaUniting & Progressing the International Marine Conservation Community
Featured Photo: Nikki Brooks
The 5th Global Wave Conference from March 4 – 7, 2018 was a joint effort between Save The Waves Coalition and Surfrider Foundation to bring the world’s best NGOs, athletes, researchers, municipalities, and brands together to advance ocean-friendly friendly ideas, technologies, and solutions.
This year’s conference explored three themes: “The Land to Sea Connection; Protected Areas + Surf; and Climate Change and Innovation.” The aim was to drive mainstream surfing into the marine conservation space and explore creative approaches to problems like ocean plastics, water quality, coastal development, and climate change with collaboration and insight from tech communities and research groups.
Hosted in one of surfing’s most iconic destinations in front of the Santa Cruz World Surfing Reserve, the Dream Inn honors this heritage with the Jack O’Neill Lounge as well as local surf history decor and interpretation. Attendees engaged in forward-thinking presentations, workshops, and the Save The Waves Film Festival while surfing breaks like Steamer Lane and Pleasure Point before each day’s events.
For access to the archived speaker presentations and more details on the 6th GWC on the Gold Coast in 2020, visit https://www.savethewaves.org/globalwaveconference/

Commitment to a Sustainable Future
Since its inception, the Global Wave Conference has brought conservation, sustainability, and surfing together. This was the first time a genuinely rigorous event standard that spoke to our community was available to help us ensure the event itself truly reflected these values. So we jumped right in. The STOKE team helped us work through every detail, find solutions, and make the changes we needed to in a low stress and streamlined way. Importantly, our attendees were STOKEd on the results.
Thank you to all our vendors, attendees, speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and especially our venues. The sustainable event management tools and expertise provided by STOKE made this process manageable, especially given its scope. The Global Wave Conference now has a proven sustainability management system that we can replicate and enhance with each conference.
With the 6th Global Wave Conference set for the Gold Coast in 2020, our goals for the next GWC include:
- Reduce our vendor and attendee travel Scope 3 carbon emissions through better planning, coordination, and incentives.
- Find a third-party verified blue carbon offset project to support to be a carbon neutral event.
- Reduce the amount of outside waste brought in by attendees to the event and increase signage and volunteer engagement to ensure attendees properly sort their compostables and recyclables at all times. Strive for 95% or more waste diversion.
- Continue to source 100% renewable energy, but look for a venue with on-site renewables as well.
- Develop a communications strategy that incorporates sustainability messaging and supply chain engagement strategies.
- Host a beach cleanup event and maybe an athlete or professional mentor session with local university students.
We appreciate you wanting to learn more about our sustainable event practices and our community’s efforts to protect coastlines and oceans. We hope to see you in 2020!
Nik Strong-Cvetich, Executive Director of Save The Waves Coalition
Chad Nelsen, CEO of Surfrider Foundation