Life & Work with Richard Busch

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Busch.

Hi Richard, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My love of the ocean, waves, and beaches started before I could have memories. As my father was in the Army, we relocated nearly every year during the best years of my childhood. In those summers, I would be sent to stay with my grandparents in San Clemente. A short half-mile walk to the sand.

Almost every single day I was with them, we would set up a couple of chairs, towels, and an umbrella. I would dig into the sand looking for sand crabs, jump waves as kids do, or get buried in the sand by my grandfather. Beaches had swings and a merry-go-round back then, where he would sing to me. After storms, my grandmother would take me on walks along the shore to find seashells brought up by the angry waters.

I would be taught how to bodyboard on the days my aunt and uncle came with us. I even had my own boogie board. I still have memories of dropping in on people purely by accident, as I was just a kid riding a wave with no control.

I could not wait to go back every school year telling classmates of my adventures.

Then as things often do, life happened. For nearly two decades, I would not be on the beach regularly, but I never forgot my love of the sun, sand, and surf. I longed for it. Where the water meets the land. Where you look out into the incoming swells as mesmerizing as staring into a campfire.

Then fate intervened. A friend who lived in Huntington Beach was moving to Miami and wanted someone to take over his apartment a mile away from the beach. I could not say ‘No’. That was seven years ago.

On a beach cruiser ride from HB to the notorious Wedge in Newport, I saw two beach cleanups taking place. One in HB and the other in Newport. To me, it did not make much sense. I had no memory of the beaches of my youth being dirty nor did I pay much attention as an adult. I ended up going to the next cleanup in Sunset Beach. I was stunned. The beach was trashed. Debris was everywhere. The one item I will always remember will be a Squeeze It bottle. Partially chewed by a sea creature. I thought to myself that I have not seen a Squeeze It since I was a kid. Sure enough, after a quick search, it turned out that they had not been produced and sold since 2012. It was 2017 when I was at this cleanup.

From then, I started showing up to all cleanups and chapter meetings. I knew nothing about the environment, watershed, nor the amount of non-essential single-use plastic waste finding its way into the ocean. After months of showing up, I was nominated into becoming the Beach Cleanup Coordinator. Since then, I have spent years talking and educating hundreds if not thousands of people from beach communities to people from around the globe. We often get people driving or flying in from all over the country and spending half a day to help pull trash off the beaches.

For the last four years, I have been the representative of the chapter to speak with members of Congress in Washington, D.C. The original focus of those conversations is educating them on pollution on our beaches, in the ocean, washing down the watershed that includes storm drains. This year I shifted focus to the health issues for both marine life and us humans as studies are now coming out routinely that plastics are practically in us all, causing some serious mental and physical concerns.

Late last year, I was elected by my chapter to be Co-Chair of the North Orange County chapter and began this year by aiming to get cities that fall into our area to pass ordinances that will phase out non-essential single-use plastics. Discussions have been primarily with the City of Irvine, and we feel strongly that once they pass their ordinance that other cities will follow. We even got the attention of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to encourage all cities in the county to include it into their Climate Action Plans.

My grandparents are no longer here with us. Their ashes were scattered in the ocean just off the San Clemente Pier. I would like to think that they are proud of me for trying to protect the things I loved as a child because of them while I try to clean their final resting place.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No. The true beauty and power of the Surfrider Foundation is that as a long-time environmental nonprofit, we get involved in politics by having meetings with elected officials. We give testimonies, data sets, local stories, etc. The sad truth is that a majority of them do not have a relationship with the environment, let alone the ocean. Therefore, they are like me before I started attending cleanups. Oblivious to the harm being done.

They will run to the press and cameras when an oil spill occurs to rail against Big Oil but say absolutely nothing when a storm comes through, trashing our beaches with plastic which is made from oil. We see both as tragic, but because one happens more frequently than the other, it never gets the same attention from politicians as it should. Trash on our beaches is treated as just an everyday thing that we should just live with.

This is the reason all Surfrider chapters need as many individuals as possible to help be a voice for the coast and watershed. We are stronger with more people pushing for a cleaner, better future.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have this unexplained ability to attract people. To recruit. To keep people around. Maybe it’s my personality. Comedic timing. To joke about something serious. To absorb knowledge. I love being the dumbest person in a room, just listening and learning. Seeing how pieces fit together. Capacity to evolve. I know I am different. I just don’t know what all it is that sets me apart.

I am also a reluctant leader. I answered a call to be the leader of the North Orange County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation as no one else stepped up, and I knew if we were to grow and try new things, then I would need to fill that role. I never want to ask someone to do something I would not be willing to do myself.

I am proud of my crew. We have been successfully growing in numbers, with more joining us each month. They are coming from all walks of life. From the coastal cities to as far away as Ontario (CA). We have expanded a lot of programs and are committed to being part of many community engagements. Thanks to my team we will hopefully see the results of our work within a couple of years as cities come onboard with the reduction of their waste.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Show up and continue to show up. It’s the easiest and hardest thing to do. In that order.

There is a non-zero number of bottle caps, straws, utensils, balloons, etc. that if you picked up or saw at every cleanup, you would stop using or at the very least avoid for the rest of your life. Even if thrown away properly, trash can find a way to the water. Finding a way to relate that to people is the difficult part. Share with people images and videos of what you see.

Seeing results will come. It took seven months after the bag ban for us to stop seeing them regularly at our cleanups. It took less time than that for people to stop complaining and getting used to bringing their own bags to stores. Now a generation of kids are growing up with the new normal, and these kids don’t like all the trash they are seeing.

Pricing:

• >$5 for an annual Surfrider membership

Contact Info:

• Website: NorthOC.Surfrider.org
• Instagram: @SurfriderNorthOC
• Other: Surfrider.org