Serge Dedina, Executive Director of Wildcoast and author of Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias travels to the remote coast of Baja Calfornia.
About Wild Sea:
Many people have lamented the pollution and outright loss of beaches along the coasts of California and Mexico, but very few people have fought on behalf of beaches as hard—or as successfully—as Serge Dedina.
Whether taking on an international conglomerate or tackling a state transportation agency, Dedina is truly an eco-warrior. In this sparkling collection of articles, many written for popular magazines, Dedina tells the stories as only an insider could. He writes with a firm grasp of facts along with an advocate's passion and outrage.
Sprinkled with just the right mix of humor and surf lingo, Dedina's writing is weapons grade—surfer speak for totally awesome.
Dedina grew up in Imperial Beach, California, just north of the Mexican border, and he feels equally at home in Mexico and the States.
An expert on gray whales, he eloquently describes the fight he helped to lead against the Mitsubishi Corporation, whose plan to build a salt-processing plant in the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California would have destroyed the world's last undeveloped gray whale lagoon.
With similar fervor, Dedina describes helping to construct the unlikely coalition that succeeded in defeating a proposed toll road that would have decimated a legendary California surf spot.
In between, he writes about the first surfers in Baja, the Great Baja Land Rush of the 1990s, Tijuana's punk music scene, the pop-culture wrestling phenomenon lucha libre, the reasons why ocean pollution must be stopped, and the way HBO took over his hometown.
Anyone interested in what's happening to our natural places or just yearning to read about someone really making a difference in the world will find this a book worth sinking their teeth into.
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Praise for Wild Sea:
"Serge Dedina writes with both passion and clarity about a subject he knows like the back of his hand. For anyone with an interest in the
issues that define life on the U.S./Mexican border, Serge's book is indispensable. For anyone with an interest in Southern California
Surf lore, with its attendant iron men and holy goofs, Serge's book is a pleasure to read." -Kem Nunn, author of Tijuana Straits
"In Wild Sea, Serge Dedina tells the true story of a wondrous world that's become his life's work. Dedina's eloquent narrative leads us on a harrowing journey through the complex and evolving realities of a threatened and forgotten land." —Drew Kampion, author of The Way of the Surfer: Living It 1935 to Tomorrow
"From San Juanico Bight to the HBO series John from Cincinnati, Serge Dedina details the trials and tribulations of a desert coast under assault by man and nature, from land and sea." —Benjamin Marcus, former editor for Surfer magazine and author of Surfing USA! An Illustrated History of the Coolest Sport of All Time
"Serge Dedina has dedicated his life to preserving the coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife of the Californias, researching, writing, fighting battles, and working with local residents to conserve their precious natural heritage. . . . You must read this inspiring book by one of the country's most articulate and courageous defenders of the environment to find out what's happening now in Baja California and on the southern California coast, and what we can do about it." —Homero Aridjis, Founder and President, The Group of 100; Former Mexican Ambassador to UNESCO
"In an era when our last pristine places are being threatened by rampant development, Serge Dedina's account of his ongoing battle to preserve the Baja Peninsula should inspire environmentalists everywhere. With a surfer's passion and ingenuity, he takes on the corporate powers -- and, along the way, gives us a fascinating history of others who ride the waves." —Dick Russell, author of Eye of the Whale
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