The highly acclaimed research team at Surf Monkey Fellowship has uncovered what might just be the missing link in determining the origin of this remarkable species found almost exclusively in the Tijuana border regions.
This journey of discovery started 30 years ago, when Beth Slevcove, a San Diego surfer, mom, wife, writer, teacher and lover of all things Surf Monkey, first came across a lone plaster-of-paris, chimpanzee permanently affixed to a rather small egg-nosed surf board at the congested border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico.
“It was love at second sight,”
she admits. Her first thought being, “Who would ever buy that tacky thing?” It didn’t take long for her to be hopping out of whatever vehicle she was traveling in to scour the border stalls for as many surf monkeys as she could find. “What are you doing here amidst the ceramic Jesus’, plaster-of-paris pythons, serapes, churros and chicle sellers? she wondered, and “How did you get here?”
Beth loves camping, surfing, visiting old friends and making new ones in Baja. A few years ago when crossing the border after another great trip, Beth noticed that the surf monkeys were few and far between.
“They were nearing extinction and I knew that something had to be done.”
In 2010 she launched Surf Monkey Fellowship, a surf company, online store, and community for those who love the surf monkey. She imports the authentic monkey directly from a factory in TJ, has even gotten to help make a surf monkey at the factory (perhaps the only gringo with this honor), and wholesales them along with a full t-shirt line, and surf stickers throughout Southern California and beyond.
With Beth’s help, along with her great team at Surf Monkey Fellowship, and the hundreds upon hundreds of fine folks who have adopted one of these beauties, the surf monkey has established new homelands throughout the country and will thrive well into the future for our children and our children’s children.
[pause provided to wipe away tears of gratitude and relief]
Now that the Tijuana Surf Monkey is, at least for the time being, ‘out of the woods’ as they say in terms of extinction, the fine folks at Surf Monkey Fellowship have put their energies into discovering the origins of this species.
And you won’t believe what we have uncovered!!!!!
Stay tuned, more to follow—-
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