Sustainable Living Bike Tour

The following post is by Danny Sudman, Catalina Environmental Leadership Senior Instructor and Catalina Island Camps Outback Director. Danny is famous for reinventing the role of Captain Compost at a CIC special event.

A few weeks ago I was watching video clips from the Sustainable Living Bike Tour blog and came across an interview with Nicole Briesbois about the origin of the bike tour. Nicole, a former CELP staff and founder of the Sustainable Living Bike Tour put a lot of time and energy into establishing the bike tour as a way to cultivate a better understanding of the students who attend the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program (CELP) by visiting and learning about their communities.

Outreach is an extension of the work we do at CELP to educate students, parents and community members about the importance of sustainability beyond what they learn during their time on Catalina. Catalina Island Camps fosters an environment which encourages students and campers to act as stewards for the environment. Outreach events, such as the bike tour, allow us to see what students have taken back to their communities from their time at Howland’s Landing.

This past winter was my second time on the bike tour, over 750 miles from San Francisco to Mexico. My experience with CIC and the challenge course program has reinforced the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone which allows for growth. The bike tour presents many challenges besides the many miles of rolling coast line, mountainous terrain, farmland and city riding we cover on our journey down the California coast. It takes a lot of organization and team work to make this event successful.

Probably one of the most important aspects of the bike tour was making sure that everyone was getting the right kinds of food to sustain the energy needed to fuel our bodies and power our bikes. Some of our favorite foods were falafel burgers, hard boiled eggs, the boxes of banana’s we went through, fig bars, dried apples, oranges, brussel sprouts with macaroni & cheese, and David’s famous coleslaw salad to mention a few. We also incorporated fresh and local produce into our meals which we found at farmer’s markets all along our route through California.
Stopping at the schools gave the riders an opportunity to talk to students about what it was like to ride down the coast of California while living sustainably. We incorporated what we saw on our ride into the curriculum we taught at the schools. The main curriculum points we covered included: protecting your coast, alternative transportation, gardening and composting, and greening your school. It was fun to see students in their home environment brainstorming with each other and working together to come up with ideas and action strategies on how they could have a positive impact right in their backyards.

We also scheduled some other visits on the bike tour to meet community members and organizations that promote sustainability and environmental awareness. Miah Smith and I had the pleasure of visiting the Kirsch Center for Environmental Studies at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA. The Kirsch Center is LEED Certified and demonstrates the potential of green technology to construct and power buildings with little impact on the environment. It was amazing to walk around a building in which every design element was done in a way to maximize efficiency of energy. A large monitor at the entrance told you how much energy the building was using at any given time as well as the amount of energy offset by the solar panels which covered the roof.
The 2009 Sustainable Living Bike Tour was a rewarding experience that allowed our volunteer educators to meet and work with some incredible people in communities all over California. A big thank you goes out to our family and friends, Catalina Island Camps, Ocean Futures, and the many other organizations that help make the bike tour so successful. Check out the blog for more information and archives of this incredible adventure.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”
-Mahatma Ghandi

Photos by Dan Sullivan