There was a public meeting held at the Water Rescue Hall in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
on December 16, 2004. This meeting was held by the Hamilton Port Authority a government agency that wants to build a marina on top of "The Bridge" surf break. There is a Comment Booklet regarding that meeting and the proposal called "Fisherman's Pier Development Plan: Coordinated Environment Assessment. The area that is proposed will cover all the surfing area with break walls in all four compass directions.
Surfing will without any doubt be
permanently ended forever.
The Comment Booklet from that meeting says, "The Hamilton Port
Authority is conducting a coordinated environmental assessment process under
the Canada Environmental Assessment Act and the Ontario Environmental
Assessment Act for the Fisherman's Pier development Plan. As the proponent
of this project, the Hamilton Port Authority wishes to identify and involve
all interested stakeholders in this environmental assessment process. Please
use the comment booklet to submit your comments about this project."
you will require ADOBE ACROBAT READER to view these files.
HAMILTON PORT AUTHORITY COMMENT BOOKLET (PDF FILE)
The is NO PETITION that I know of at this time opposing this destruction to
surfing at "The Bridge." An online and hand passed petition should
be started. The wheels have just started turning to stop this anti-surfing
project.
The Bridge" is a historic Great Lakes Canadian/U.S. surfing break. The Wyldewood Surf Club and "The Bridge Crew" continue surfing there now. Surfing started there well over forty years ago. The Gillie brothers from Bowman street, Derek Richardson of Cedar Avenue in Burlington, Tom Nelson also who lived on Bowman street, Vernon Ferster of Holmes Avenue and Joe Slack of East Bend Avenue the founding members of the Wyldewood Surf Club were riding there in the sixties.
(see
newspaper article below)
The
break has seen hundreds of surfers from the Great Lakes and across the
world riding there one time or another over the years. A walled marina
instead of the wild beach that we surf is not an improvement but a set
back for the surfing community and for public access to the waters and
waves of Lake Ontario.
This is of the utmost significance. We need help from as many as possible from the surfing and non-surfing community to stop this folly of a project from getting beyond the drawing board. The project stinks for Great Lakes surfing in every way imaginable.
A letter is on the way to Canadian surfers with a form that needs to be filled out and returned by January 7, 2005. Please find the time to fight this project. The Hamilton Port Authority is sharpening their knives and getting ready to carve up and break wall in all of "The Bridge." Apathy during this Christmas period is what they are counting on. Take the comment forms and make copies of them and have your friends and family fill them out and anyone who supports surfing's continuance at "The Bridge."
Please
send a copy of my letter and the form to David Suzuki. "The
Bridge" is a historically established Great Lakes surf break and an
area for surfing like St. Catharines is for rowing.
The alarm has been sounded. They want to end surfing at "The
Bridge" and put a marina where we surf. This is all coming at us
during the holidays but don't be lulled into complacency. Give Great Lakes
surfing and yourself a gift and fight this project.
The Bridge has been surfed since the 1960's and we want to keep it that way.
