The seaside Ohana Festival isn’t just about music – it’s about celebrating the coast and is a chance to educate the thousands of visitors it brings to Doheny State Beach throughout the weekend.
In addition to the slate of bands performing with the beach as the backdrop, the festival’s Storytellers program spotlights speakers who present about a wave of topics such as ocean activism, environmental justice, art, big-wave surfing and indigenous history.
It’s held in the Cove area, where art and photos are also on display for attendees to immerse themselves in the area’s rich coastal culture.
The festivities kicked off on Thursday, Sept. 26, with an invite-only recognition for the Ohana Festival’s Inspiring Activism Award, handed out to San Clemente residents Steve Long and Bob Mignogna, who with the San Onfore Foundation have been instrumental in helping to keep the Trestles and San Onofre areas accessible to the public.
Surfrider Foundation CEO Chad Nelsen, who handed out the awards, talked about the uniqueness of the stretch of coast just south of San Clemente, an iconic area that became a state park in 1971, a place home to endangered species, wetlands and a “beloved place for millions of people” who make it the sixth most visited state park.
“With all of that going on, you would assume this place is safe and protected — but amazingly enough, it’s not. And it has been threatened over the decades,” Nelsen.
There was the proposal 20 years ago to build a six-lane toll road through the park, with Mignogna and Long being instrumental in rallying thousands of surfers to “Save Trestles” — the campaign was ultimately successful.
The duo, who met during a surf trip in Fiji in the mid-1990s, also created the San Onofre Foundation, knowing the federal lease for San Onofre State Park was expiring in 2021, and they working for years before that deadline to connect with high-level officials and facilitate dialogue between the parties.
“It means people are going to have Trestles and San Onofre for the next 25 years,” Mignogna said of the lease deal that was inked in 2024.
It also means that with a lot of hard work and dedication – and a don’t-give-up attitude – one person or just a few together can get big stuff done, Mignogna said.
Also receiving an Inspiring Activism Award was Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
Nelsen, on Friday, again took to the stage with Long and Mignogna during the Storytellers program for a talk called “Inspiring Activism: The Local Legends.”
Surfrider Foundation, based in San Clemente, has 80 chapters around the world, hosting local beach cleanups and advocating for the ocean in government discussions.
“What we try to do is get people who recreate in these places to become stewards and beyond that, help enact state and federal policies that can expand protections at scale,” Nelsen said. “No matter how many strong laws are on the books, we still need local stewards to protect places.”
The Storytellers conversations will continue through the weekend with a range of topics, everything from humanitarian efforts to women and waves.
Laguna Beach native Jon Rose is among the speakers who will be on stage for a “Waves of Change” discussion on Saturday alongside San Clemente big-wave surfer Greg Long, also Steve Long’s son, and South African surfer Frank Solomon. The fellow athletes all found a calling to help others.
In his younger years, Rose was living the pro-surfer dream – but life had other plans.
“I was exactly where I wanted to be, living out my childhood dream. It was awesome, but very much a tunnel-vision mindset,” he said. “I thought I was on this planet to be a pro surfer, and obviously realized that would be one chapter — but certainly not the reason I was on this planet.”
During a fateful boat trip in Indonesia in 2009, a massive 7.9 earthquake ravaged the country, killing more than 1,000 people. In that moment, armed with water filters, Rose’s life course changed as he rushed to help get clean water to emergency responders.
He launched Waves For Water, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing clean drinking water to third-world countries and responding to countries in crisis following earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural catastrophes.
His life would still be filled with travel, discovery and adventure – but with a new humanitarian purpose.
In the past 15 years, Waves For Water has provided more than 4 million people in 40 countries clean drinking water, with offices in five countries.
Big-wave surfer Katie McConnell, who grew up in San Diego, will take the stage twice, first on Saturday during the talk “Women of the Sea,” which will also include Hawaiian navigator Lehua Kamalu, ocean scientist Amber Carter and Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion Carissa Moore. On Sunday, she will discuss “Building a Community for the Planet.”
“It will just be great to just talk story with some really rad ocean women,” she said of Saturday’s Storytellers discussion. “That’s a pretty big and wonderful group to be a part of.”
McConnell said she will talk about the advances for women in big-wave surfing, and also the push toward equality for equal pay and fair representation in contests.
“It really takes, in my experience, being a woman and showing up to represent no matter what, because there still is a lot of lethargy from contest organizers to invite women,” she said. “There’s still a lot of bias against us that we’re not skilled or we’re hazardous, but that really just isn’t the case.”
Her background is in conservation, marine biology and ecology, following in the footsteps of her grandfather, John McConnell, founder and creator of Earth Day.
“I grew up listening to him talk about global unity and peace, justice and care of Earth,” she said. “We have to take a minute for peace, all synchronized around the Earth … especially these days, things can feel so hopeless. But every individual action really, truly does add up.”
She hopes to reignite a connection with the Earth and with each other, she said, because people who often recreate outdoors can sometimes take nature for granted.
“I think once we kind of feel that connection again, we’ll probably start making better decisions for ourselves and the planet too,” she said.
Each day of the festival starts with music from Jonny Roundhouse at 12:30 p.m., followed by the speakers taking the stage until about 6 p.m. For a full list of speakers, go to ohanafest.com