Mission Statement: Lead by example.
Skip Frye's Surfboards
1161 Cushman Ave #A
San Diego, CA 92110
619-688-9886
Formed: 1994
Membership Cost: not a membership organization
Chapters: 1
Executive Director: Donna Frye (founder)
From the Beach: 100% funded by Skip Frye's Surfboards, owned by Donna Frye and Skip Frye
To the Beach: 100% of funds go toward programs and issues
Roots | Past Victories | Present Battles
Roots
In the corner of Harry's Surf Shop (recently relocated and renamed Skip Frye's Surfboards), there was a toilet decorated in Christmas lights, environmental stickers and the slightly balding head of a man. Looking like some urban legend gone horribly wrong, the head lifted from the center of the bowl with a haunting grin and enthusiastic eyes. The brave soul who dared to get close and flush the toilet was rewarded with a song explaining that the papier-mache head was Congressman Brian Bilbray and being in the can was part of his prize for receiving STOP's environmental kook award. This is as good a representation as any for the San Diego-based environmental group: informal, funny and effective.
Donna Frye and her husband, surfing icon Skip Frye, officially founded STOP in 1994. An environmental activist since the '60s, Frye put a name to her passion more for the politicians and media than anything else.
"A lot of times you're out at press events and they say, 'OK, who are you with?' and I'd say, 'I'm with myself and my friends who are sick of getting sick,'" Donna Frye explains. "I realized that they wanted us to be called something."
Since 1994, STOP has been a significant player in the San Diego environmental scene, working incessantly on issues from keeping jet boat races out of Mission Bay to taking on Congressman Bilbray and his attempt to gut the Clean Water Act.
"I got my own sticker from that one," Frye proudly says, referring to the S.T.O.D. (Surfers Tired of Donna) stickers the Congressman distributed during the Bilbray fray.
While Donna's leadership position and immediate recognition allows her to make quick decisions, organize rapidly and get political, her solo efforts do not carry the same threat of sheer numbers and lobbying power of other groups. However, Frye is accessible. On any given day, someone can walk into the shop and have a STOP meeting with Donna about whatever concerns them. They know that she will listen, guide them and sometimes just take the damn thing on herself. And then there is funding...
STOP is funded entirely by Skip Frye Surfboards; the price of doing business in Frye's eyes. They have no membership list, no newsletter, no web site, no scheduled meetings, no fundraisers for themselves and no real home. While many would see this as a close-out set looming on the horizon, for Frye, it is freedom to get creative and make a difference.
"We are activist based. We are able to get into a rapid response mode without having to go through the chains of commands that the other environmental organizations may have to go through," Frye says. "Let's say someone comes in with a particular problem; I can get them where they need to go very quickly. One of the things we do is cut through the bureaucracy."
Assemblyman Howard Wayne is one of the many who experienced STOP's hands-on environmentalism techniques. While still running for the assembly, Wayne paid Frye a visit and got a lesson in sick surfer syndrome that created a lasting affect across our state.
"She took me behind her store and showed me the storm drains that were pouring onto the beach and from the beach into the water. And she pointed out that storm water running off into the ocean is what's making people ill," Assemblyman Wayne remembers. Thus began the AB 411, the bill that requires statewide water-quality testing.
In the ongoing battle to save the environment, STOP is the Special Forces. They're the troops called on when things are hot and might get dirty and the job needs to get done now. Donna Frye is leading by example armed with education, passion and a singing toilet.
Past Victories
(1996) Led campaign to have warning signs posted in front of discharging storm drains
Nineteen signs were posted throughout San Diego beaches in November of the same year.
(1996) Worked with Terry Rodgers of the San Diego Union-Tribune to get list of polluted water included on the weather page
(1997) Helped create Assembly Bill 411 (the Right to Know Bill)
AB 411 calls for uniform statewide standards and testing and posting of popular beaches. Also required sign postings at beaches that did not meet water quality criteria, i.e. polluted. Introduced by Assemblyman Howard Wayne in February 1997, signed into law in October of 1997, funding was approved in 1998 and testing began in July of 1999.
(1997) Helped create Ocean Illness Survey cards
The cards allow beachgoers to report suspected ocean-related illnesses. The results confirmed what many environmentalists already knew, namely that swimming or surfing near rivermouths, lagoons or outfall pipes will get you sick.
(1999) Supported and encouraged the County of San Diego to perform DNA testing at three storm drains and one rivermouth to determine the source of bacteria that is discharged into the coastal waters
Present Battles
(1994-) Working to control non-point pollution and storm water runoff
(1994-) Implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads for impaired water bodies and the inclusion of numeric sizing criteria in the new municipal storm water permit
(1994-) Seeking funding for science/academic communities to develop rapid detection techniques for human viruses -- Marcos Cortez
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