Giving back to Mother Nature

This is the story of a great friendship beginnings and how "The Cove - Clean Up" came to exist, all together in the year 2010.

Friends & family @ 2nd The Cove - Clean Up - June 2011

Back in 2010 I had been trying to find waves in the Great Lakes. I had joined a forum called Origin Surf back then and met a few people who made it clear surfing the lakes was definitely possible. Nevertheless, I still had to learn where to go and when, learn to read the weather information and don't even mention buy the proper equipment to go out surfing in the cold water.  All I had was
my board (thank you Maria L. for helping me out with this one!) and the support of some very important people in my life.

One day browsing over posts on that forum I came across one post that talked about a great wave in Peru - the wave of Pico Alto (High Peak). To my surprise the person who posted the article was Peruvian like me! His name is Larry Cavero. We both were trying to get into surfing the Great Lakes and decided to meet up ASAP.

While trying to find a good place to meet and balance it out with our family commitments and other things Larry came up with a suggestion. He had surfed The Cove a couple of times before and said there was a lot of garbage in the water as well as in the lake shore. He thought that this surf spot was such a great place and that we were blessed by being able to surf it, that there had to be something for us to do. Something to somehow, thank mother nature or God for this magic place to exist in the Lakes.

With no hesitation we decided the date for the 1st The Cove - Beach Clean Up to be September 11, 2010. It was a Saturday and the perfect time and place for us to meet, get to know the area that I was going to be surfing from now on and at the same time clean it up as a way of saying 'thank you'. Larry brought his two daughters, I came along with my girlfriend and more people also came along that day. We thought of this event as a family, networking & recreational event.

That Saturday I showed up at Dundas and Yonge to meet up with Larry and get a ride to The Cove because I had no idea where it was. Once at the location I took out the Colombian Sausages and Larry installed the electrical engine to power up the blender to make those amazing 'Pisco Sours' that we all love. The kids drank Kool Aids and the grown up Pisco Sours!! They were so good!

Antonio A. & Elias R. @ 2nd The Cove - Clean Up

 - June 2011

We spent the day talking about Surf back home in Peru and in our new home Toronto, Canada. He was stoked about everything. He spoke with such an emotion about surfing back home, surfing in the lakes and having met each other. I had never seen anyone as stoked as him about life! I have never met anyone who can express this passion for surfing so well as he does. I thought I was a fanatic and got very excited when talking about surf (you can ask anyone in my family or friends) but Larry, it is special with him. I think that is why we both get along so well. He is always trying to give me a hand if I need it and so am I. It is like there is no age difference between us. When it comes down to surfing, we both become 12 year old kids who all we want to do is have fun surfing and enjoy life.

After having met each other, we decided it was time to do the most important thing of all. Start the Beach Clean Up! And so, we started to clean up the beach with the garbage bags and recyclable plastic gloves we had. We all cleaned up the beach at The Cove and some people walking around the park area talked and joined us in our first The Cove - Beach Clean Up as well.

After such a successful event, Larry and I decided we would continue to do this over the following years as a way to thank for this beautiful place, take care of it and pay respect to mother nature & the lake.

Keana & Nailani selling lemonade to donate profits

We had our 2nd The Cove - Clean Up on June 19, 2011 - this date is a very important one as it is the International Day of Surfing worldwide and numerous beach clean ups are organized around the world! The event was a success as well as the first one but this time even bigger. Larry and I decided to publicize it some more and invite friends and other surfers as well. Among this surfers was Elias R. who we had met that very same year and joined our crew instantaneously. Another improvement we did to the event was that we decided to sell lemonade and with the funds collected make a donation to a charity.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

This year, we are planning to have our 3rd The Cove - Clean Up on June, Saturday 23, 2012. Follow the link or click here to read more about the event. 3rd The Cove - Clean up