O.C. surfer helps Japan get clean water
Laylan Connelly
The Orange County Register
04/11/2011
Laguna Beach surfer Jon Rose has just returned from Japan, where he said the scene was like something out of a Hollywood movie.
Rose was there bringing water filters through his non-profit Waves 4 Water, so the people in the devastated areas can have clean water. Rose in an interview on Good Day LA today said the area – just hit by a 6.6 magnitude aftershock after already grappling with the aftermath of a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 – was worst than he thought it was going to be, and looked like something out of a Hollywood movie set.
Rose said the people were in amazing spirits, despite having their world crumbled around them.
"I have photos of three girls playing in the street, right next to the devastation," he said on the segment. "They are such disciplined and strong people."
The hardest part is answering the question – where do you even start to rebuild, when everything is gone?
Waves 4 Water does its part by going into regions "guerrilla style," in a van with buckets and filters. They enter communities where electricity and power are out, where they found people boiling water over fires.
"You have a million things to worry about, let us help you with this one thing," Rose tells them.
You may remember articles I've done in the past on Rose and the non-profit he founded "Waves 4 Water," which aims at getting clean water to regions hit by disasters. Rose started the effort in October 2009 after an earthquake rocked the region, and the pro surfer was out on a surf trip and happened to have filters on him. He rushed into the crumbled city to help.
Then, he sent help down to Chile after they were hit by an earthquake, and spent two weeks of every month is Haiti trying to help after that earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people.
The idea behind Waves 4 Water is to empower people in need with the education and tools to use the filters. The idea was spawned by the notion that surfers would pack the filters in their suitcases when they traveled to impoverished surfing regions – but it has grown so that anyone traveling to these areas is encouraged to pack a few, then connect with government agencies or non-profits in those regions.
