Here’s a screenshot of the “social media news release” we sent out earlier this week.  Click on the image to go to that page to get ALL the details!  And be sure to tweet about it and/or go to our Facebook fan page or event page and post your comment and “likes” — the links for all those are within the release.

Click on the image for all the event details!

Matt Pensyl will be in attendance Saturday, but we are in need of one or two more volunteers to man the table and help tell people about Surfrider’s mission and programs.  Doors open at 6:00, and volunteers should arrive around 5:00 to set up. Hey, don’t forget to wear your Surfrider or Coldwater Surf Fest tee!

If you’re interested, email Matt (surfnsnow70 at yahoo dot com), or call his cell, 763-656-9351. You can also contact our chapter chair, Stefan Ronchetti, by email (stefanronchetti at gmail dot com), or via cell phone at 651-332-4607.

Or, if you just want to buy tickets and show up at your convenience, you can do so online, right here at the Mason Jennings Tour page.  Join us for great music and a good time!

Join us at the Hexagon Bar (2600 27th Ave S in Mpls) tonight from 9:30 on. These guys are hot — heck, they’ve even opened for Dick Dale and the Deltones!  They go on to say:

“This Saturday, Surf Night at the Hex will have some real Gitche Gumee surf, with music from Duluth’s Fractals (members of the Hoot Owls) and *real, authentic MN surfers* in attendance — members of the MN-Superior chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.”

“We’ll also intiate you into the Mystic Order of Reverb and Twang, with M.O.R.T and their fez surf rock.  DJ Rock the Monkey will make their triumphant return, bringing hot wax treasures and the familiar waves of Big Surf will crash over you.  The door is free, the drinks are cheap, and the surf is rockin’ — so come out to Surf Night at the Hex, Saturday, November 7th!”

This is a recurring monthly event.  Tonight, our own Matt Pensyl will be there, with a table set up to spread the good word about the Surfrider Foundation. Come have some fun, and hear some really great sounds! 

Chapter chair Stefan Ronchetti (at right in photo) accepted the award, and plans to scan the document so we can post it on our web site. We’ll use the grant to help fund some of our initiatives locally, including helping to advance Surfrider’s “Rise Above Plastics” national initiative.

Here’s a shot of me with Ellen, the manager of Patagonia’s St. Paul store.  We’re really lucky to have a store here in Minnesota! And we want to sincerely thank Ellen and her crew, as well as the entire Patagonia organization, for supporting the mission of environmental organizations like ours. We also have to remember to thank our now-relocated member Dr. Jim Perry  (he just moved to San Diego) for taking the time to apply for this Patagonia grant. He’d been through the process once before, with the Connecticut chapter, where he helped that group get off the ground.  Jim, thank you — we couldn’t have launched our MN-Superior Chapter without you!  And we hope you’re enjoying the great (warm) waves out in North County right now…

And I just can’t end this post without including this great shot of Stefan, Ryan Patin, and Sean McNally after we received our grant. Ryan brought his laptop and showed us some awesome footage of them surfing at Stoney Point in epic wave conditions, about three weeks ago — along with several other of our local and Duluth-area surfing friends. Ryan’s friend Dana shot this extended video, and I’ll be sure to post links to some clips when I get them. Ryan, Stefan, and their ladies are headed out to Southern California later this week, to camp at San Clemente State Park and surf at San Onofre. Have fun, guys!

Everyone is welcome — come hang out, and bring your friends!

This will actually be the first time Big Surf Band has played at this particular venue: it’s JJ’s Dry Dock at 401 N. 3rd St, Minneapolis, MN (map), and Happy Hour is 5:00 to 9:00 pm. JJ’s is a music destination, a post-Dome game destination, and a food destination, and Big Surf Band tells us they’re doing up a special “surf menu” with Surf N Turf and Fish Tacos in honor of the band’s first appearance there — and their first one with the Surfrider Foundation MN-Superior Chapter in attendance, too!

Big Surf Band would like to show JJ’s the great surf scene we have going here in Minnesota, so come out for a surf supper and the soothing sounds of Big Surf!  We look forward to a good time, and meeting lots of new people….

What’s “Voice Your Choice” all about? Here’s how our local store describes it on their Facebook page:

“Put Patagonia’s money where your mouth is! Cast your ballot in our second annual ‘Voice Your Choice’ campaign and help Patagonia St. Paul decide how we should distribute $5000 in grant money to three local environmental organizations.

By the way, you can “fan” that Facebook page here. And you can also follow them on Twitter at @PatagoniaStPaul.

We were honored to be invited by our local store to be part of this program!  It gives us the opportunity to win one of three possible grants: $2500, $1500, and $1000. Our part of the program entails committing to manning a display table in the St. Paul store on two days during September-October to distribute information, and encouraging as many votes as possible by talking to customers and inviting our friends to stop by the store. So, please drop into the store and vote, as many times as you can ! (One vote per visit.)

Some of our members manned our table in the store today — Saturday, September 26 — and they will be again on October 17. All MN-Superior Chapter members and interested volunteers are invited to come and join some of our chapter officers that day, check out our display, and stay as long as you like!   Also, please tell all your friends to visit the store anytime over the next few weeks (not just on October 17), explore this really great Patagonia store, and vote for Surfrider MN-Superior!