Santa Cruz Surfer Kyle Thiermann Wins Earth Island Institute's 2011 Brower Youth Award

PRESS RELEASE

21 year old Kyle Thiermann will accept a prestigious
Brower Youth Award from the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco as one
of seven 2011 winners. Thiermann will be honored for his work protecting
oceans through educational environmental films.

He was chosen to win the Earth Island Institute's highly competitive award,
now in its twelfth year, by a distinguished panel of judges including author
and eco-activist Paul Hawken, the legendary global human rights activist Dr.
Vandana Shiva, and founder of Newman's Own Organics, Nell Newman.

Thiermann created a five-part video series called Surfing for Change that
shows people who don't consider themselves activists how to adjust simple
daily actions to strengthen their local communities and protect the
environment. Kyle's first movie called Claim Your Change explains the link
between large national banks and environmental threats such as the coal
industry. Thiermann visited one of the best surf beaches in Chile for the
film, which is threatened by a proposed coal-fired power plant bankrolled by
Bank of America.

The video inspired hundreds of people to transfer their money to local
banks, where a higher proportion of their savings are invested in local
economies. In total, $340 million dollars worth of lending power was moved
out of Bank of America and other coal-funding banks.

Kyle was encouraged by his success to continue the series: "The proposed
coal plant is now on hold and people who never felt engaged now see the kind
of change they can make."

Thiermann's other videos focus on the environmental, economic and social
benefits of shopping locally and reducing single-use plastics such as water
bottles and plastic bags. His work took him to Hawaii and Sri Lanka where he
discussed environmental problems with locals, and he plans to focus his next
film on the dangers of nuclear power plants along South Africa's surf
beaches.

Over 20,000 people have viewed the series and Thiermann has collaborated
with music great Jack Johnson and Story Of Stuff creator Annie Leonard. The
Discovery Channel has profiled Theirmann's work, and in addition to this
award he has been honored by organizations such as the Blue Frontier
Campaign, co-founded by Jaws author Peter Benchley.

The award ceremony will take place on October 18th at 7:30 pm in the Herbst
Theater. The other six awardees are between the ages of 15 and 21, and
include fellow environmental educators, urban farmers and activists, and
youth fighting to protect endangered species.