Transcriber: Sebastian Guerraty Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
I had this dream last night where I came up here naked and it was so close.
Um... I love to surf.
And I've been fortunate enough to travel
around the world surfing, from a really young age.
When I was a senior in high school,
I learned about something that really
caught my attention.
I learned that when you put money into a bank,
that money doesn't stay there.
I learned that banks actually use your money to lend out and make loans.
So just like when you need a home loan
to buy a house, big corporations also need big loans
to move forward with the projects.
So, when you look at this system, banks relay on
us for our money and corporations relay on banks
to move forward with the projects so we are actually the ones in the driver seat here.
When I was 18,
I took an awesome trip down to Chile.
Chile is like California but like 100 years ago
and the waves are great, the people are friendly and the landscape is beautiful;
and I was surfing in a place called Constitución
and there's a proposed coal power plant going in on the beach,
right in this town,
and all the locals were against this coal power plant.
And one of the locals actually took me out to the sight of this coal power plant
and it was a really heavy experience for me because I was able to see first hand the unfair
destruction of a corporation coming into a community against the citizens will and destroying it
and that experience of going to this sight of the coal plant
this is right near there --
that's me there, surfing,
and it really affected me --
and I thought back to what I had learned in school
about how banks make it possible for corporations to move forward with projects.
So I did some research and I was wondering what bank is making this possible
so I did some research and found out that Bank of America was the funder of this coal company
and it was a weird experience because I was able
to see for the first time that it was our money being used to fund
the destruction of this community down in Chile
and I felt like,
if it's our money that is making this possible, then we have the power to stop it.
And I felt like if other surfers could see
what I could see first hand, then it might affect them in the same way
and so what I also learned is that not all banks are the same.
So you put your money in a bank like Bank of America.
And it is sucked out of your community to fund say -- a coal power plant.
I learned that Bank of America is one of the largest funders of coal power world wide.
If you put your money into a local bank it is also lent out
but it is lent out within your community.
So it is really exciting because in a time when our national economy is in trouble
we have the power to keep our money within local banks
and have strong resilient local economies even when the national economy is in trouble.
Which is really exciting because you have the power to stop funding the problem
and start funding the solution all in one move.
So I made a form of a movie...
about my experience down in Chile and it encouraged surfers
to move their money and open accounts at local banks
and this movie went up on YouTube and a bunch of surfers started passing it around
and then surfers started taking action and inspiring other surfers to take action
and then surf companies started moving their money
and the people who didn't surf started moving their money
and I released this movie when I was 19, and I am 21 now.
And to date I've documented over 340 million dollars
of lending power being moved out of Bank of America -- (Applause) --
and into local banks around the county. (Applause)
And this experience in Chile totally lead me on the path that I'm on now.
Now, I run a free on-line TV series called "Surfing for change"
where I take a surf trip and document a social or environmental issue happening in that town
and tie it back to Santa Cruz.
And show a systemic action daily decision that we can take
that will then have a systemic impact on both our community
as well as the lives of people on the trip that I went on.
So I hope that you check that out:
Surfingforchange.com,
You know, since my experience in Chile,
what I have really learned and taken with me is that
through your daily decisions you have the power to change your community
and through your daily decisions you have the power to change the lives of other people
around the world.
And this change starts with something as simple as opening an account at your local bank.
Thank you. (Applause)