The Rock Report - January 2008

Surrey's two nude-recreation groups, SUN & Skinnydipper Services Inc., teamed up this year to co-host the second annual Polar "Bare" Plunge at Crescent Rock Beach on New Year's Day.  This clothing-optional swim attracted double the people of last year with 16 participants ranging in ages from 25 to 58 from Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Langley, and as far away as Thompson, Manitoba.  Over a hundred spectators lined the naturist shores of Crescent Rock Beach to cheer on the swimmers which included 7 female participants.
 

BRRR...ringing in the 2008 Nude Year!

Skinnydipper Services Inc. awarded 4 T-shirts for best costume (Tim Monchamp, Kokanee Sasquatch), longest swim (Chris Luckwaldt, Richmond @ 10 min.), plus oldest (Carol Wong) and youngest swimmer (Raji Sahota).  Congratulations to all of those brave enough to enter the 2 degree Celcius waters of Boundary Bay off Crescent Rock Beach. 

This was a charity event with $168 in donations being collected for the War Amps PLAYSAFE and CHAMPS programs benefiting childhood amputee victims, highlighting the danger to pedestrians from the nearby BNSF railway.  A record of this swim has been forwarded to the Guinness World Records for their consideration as the largest clothing-optional polar bear swim.  SUN and Skinnydipper Services are hoping that we created a new record for this year and look forward to breaking it in 2009 at the next Polar Bare Plunge.

On January 8th at the Vancouver Area Control Centre (VACC) meeting held in Newton with Delta Mayor and Council that SUN President Don Pitcairn attended, Nav Canada revealed changes to their "GRIZZ" STAR flight path over Boundary Bay.  THE GPS route has been moved 2 km. west from the shore of Tsawwassen at Centennial Beach and Boundary Bay Regional Park into the waters of the bay.  The visual flights will be now directed to fly north through the centre of the Bay and across Burns Bog.  While these changes that go into effect on Feb. 14th may placate South Delta and South Surrey residents concerns about noise over their homes, the environmental impact has not yet been considered.  As it now stands, the northern shore of Boundary Bay, the Serpentine Fen, and the ecological preserve of Burns Bog will be routinely subjected to low-flying jet airplane noise at all hours of the day and night.  We'll have to wait until this summer to gauge the level of noise pollution heard on the formerly quiet shores of Crescent Rock Beach.
 
Transport Canada has been alerted by SUN that the BNSF Railway is not properly repairing or maintaining the landslide detector fence (LDF) across the bottom of the Ocean Park bluffs.  Earlier damage from mudslides last spring was improperly fixed with what is best described as a "baling wire" repair job.  This has resulted in the LDF trigger wires being easily pulled from the metal posts by slides, where due to the extra slack, they can then be pinned to the bottom of the ditch next to the tracks without the system being tripped.  This is what happened near the Coldicutt Trail where a recent small mudslide from last year's biggest slide site pushed the wire to the ground without the warning lights being activated.  When the trigger wires were finally freed from the muck weeks later by BNSF maintenance crews, they were never reattached to the posts leaving the tracks vulnerable to more slide activity.  It is hoped that Transport Canada will ensure the BNSF corrects these alarming deficiencies in their LDF safety system that protects the freight trains from derailment and the shores of Crescent Rock Beach from the threat of a resulting chemical spill.
 
On a sad note, SUN closed its Community Forum this month due to an overload of spam, pornography and other materials unrelated to either naturism or Crescent Rock Beach being posted on its website.  If you happened to view this material while visiting the SUN Forum and were offended by the content, we wish to apologize and have you realize that it was beyond our control and done against SUN's policy.  We are hoping in the future to find another forum software that people can use which will eliminate this problem.  In the meantime, if you have anything you would have wanted to post on the SUN Forum please send them to sun@crescentrockbeach.org and they will be added to the monthly "Rock Report" if the content is appropriate.