SACRAMENTO – If it was going to happen, it was going to happen in California.
With the approval of a resolution in the California state assembly on Monday, the state's lawmakers officially declared that June 20 will be International Surfing Day, the Los Angeles Times reported.
While many surfers around the world will probably not need any encouragement to take a day off work to head to the beach, Surfrider Foundation Chief Executive Jim Moriarty hailed the California lawmakers' decision and drafted an official-looking permission slip for surfers' bosses.
"You have my permission to call in sick this coming Wednesday and go surfing," Moriarty wrote on Twitter.
"If this isn't a good enough reason to skip work & head to the beach, we don't know what is," he added later.
California lawmaker Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara), a longtime surfer, introduced the symbolic measure Monday as "a way to celebrate California's surfing heritage and raise awareness about the need to protect our oceans, waves and beaches," according to a statement from the Surfrider Foundation.
The approved resolution cites the importance of California's $42.9 billion "ocean economy" as a reason for recognizing the importance of surfing to the state.
