He’s met heroes from David Attenborough and Paul McCartney to three-times world champion surfer Tom Curren and Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, but what Hugo Tagholm is most proud of is turning a Cornish charity into one of the world’s leading environmental pressure groups.
Hugo, who lives in Truro, joined Surfers Against Sewage a year after it formed in 1990 and became chief executive in 2008.
Since then the man who’s as keen an environmentalist as he is surfer has seen the charity – affectionately known as SAS – become a leading global organisation, which was a leading voice in ensuring supermarket plastic bag charges and is now working on making a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles part of UK law.
Hugo, who has been head honcho of SAS for just over ten years, said: “I’ve got the perfect job as I love the environment, love surfing and love meeting people and bringing people together."
“SAS started in 1990 and I first got involved in ’91. I was a bodyboarder at the time, living in south west France. There was a competition at Polzeath which supported many ocean charities including SAS, which is where I first found out about them.
“Over the years I’ve been an activist, regional rep and trustee with the charity. I had the great honour of taking the helm in 2008 to help shape a new strategy on emerging issues, build a sustainable action plan and community, and - most importantly of all - carry on delivering a high impact to protect oceans and beaches for everyone.”
Perhaps surprisingly for a lad brought up in urban Camden, Hugo started his obsession with beach cleaning as a kid when his dad used to take him mudlarking on the shores of the Thames.
“When I was little I used to scour beaches and the countryside for bones, shells, etc, and bring them home. My heroes were people like David Attenborough and Charles Darwin.”
His love of the natural world even influenced his son’s name – Darwin.
A chat over a coffee with Hugo reveals why he’s the best man for the job. His passion for the health of the world, its oceans and creatures is infectious. However, SAS wasn’t always the globally admired force it is now.
“I thought I’d be there for just three or four years as I turned things around. Physically and metaphorically SAS was a squat when I joined – the charity had lost its way, the office was a complete dump. I believed there was a lot more we could do as a charity.
“We’ve created the strongest voice for the ocean in the UK. Although SAS had an amazing history we could learn from, it was important we looked forward. What could we do next?
“It was important it wasn’t just about surfers in gas masks on beaches. It was also about engaging with businesses, putting on a suit and having meetings all over the world and being active.”
He added: “There was no social media when we started. No petitions which thousands of people could sign just like that. Now we live in a very collaborative time, which SAS has certainly made the most of. The charity is accessible and moderate when it needs to be, as well as punchy. We have a whole suite of tools.”
A lot these tools Huge learned from an unexpected source.
“I worked in the charity sector in London for many years, most notably with the former Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, as programme director for her charity creating opportunities for disadvantaged youngsters.
"Sarah was my mentor, especially the way she dealt with people which was second to none. I learned so much from her. Meeting political leaders and celebrities at the height of Labour’s time in government was fantastic, but I feel much more exhilarated by the work with SAS now – it’s my mission.”
That mission has seen the growth of SAS as one of the world’s leading and “truly impactful” marine conservation charities.
When Hugo started there were just three people in the office in the coastal village of St Agnes, which has now evolved to 24. There were 500 volunteers a year, which has now grown to 75,000, and three reps has built to 175 with the ultimate goal of 250.
“We’re one of the biggest volunteer movements and influencers in the world; influential in bringing the plastic bag campaign to the fore and stopping 10 billion plastic bags ending up in the environment.
“Alongside Greenpeace, we were the leading campaigners for a deposit system on plastic bottle, which has led to legislation.”
In the UK, we are using 38.5 million plastic bottles every single day and struggling to recycle half of those. SAS is convinced a Deposit Returns Scheme will become the next ‘plastic bag charge’ and humanity will look back and wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.
Hugo is especially proud that such ground-breaking work is being done from Cornwall, a place he’s called home for over ten years.
“I love living in Cornwall and Truro, in particular. Cornwall’s often maligned; that old cliché of ‘have you got electricity yet?’, but we are doing innovative work here. We’re turning the world’s heads to the South West of England.
“I’ve been lucky enough to visit some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and I can categorically say Cornwall has some of the very best on the planet. Cornwall is the authentic voice of the ocean.”
He added: “I love to travel and I’ve been very lucky to go to London, Paris, Brussels, New York and LA to build amazing relationships with other leaders in marine conservation.”
His personal highlights include invites to royal weddings after forging a working relationship with Prince Charles. Yes, he was one of the lucky people at Harry and Meghan’s ceremony.
“The prince is a great supporter of SAS and is really passionate about issues and has used his position to call for better protection of the ocean,” said Hugo.
“One of my speechless moments – and I’m not often speechless – was meeting and actually hanging out with Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters, as well as working with a lot of legendary and iconic surfers like Kelly Slater, Tom Curren and Ramon Navarro.”
He was particularly proud to host the Global Wave Conference in 2015 – “that was a powerful event for us”.
He said: “It was a marginal, low impact event before that, but we brought major scientists together with world-famous surfers. It was the first time for decades that that many iconic surfers had been in Cornwall.
“I went to Stansted airport to get them all, thinking there was no way they’d show up, so it was amazing when all these heroes and icons walked out. After the conference, we had a meeting with the Government and I couldn’t believe I was looking out of a window in Parliament with Tom Curren.”
Hugo first met his surfing hero as a young grom (a novice wave-rider, for anyone who doesn’t speak ‘surfer’) in 1986 and asked him to sign a programme, which still takes pride of place in his Truro home.
“And there I was in Parliament with him. It had gone full circle and there I was collaborating with him. Amazing!”
He declared: “A lot of other people are working on plastics now but it can all be traced back to that Global Wave Conference, you can see the fingerprints from that event, which I’m very proud of. SAS has been a catalyst for the new movement. We’ve created a really strong community of plastic-free programmes.”
The very reason Surfers Against Sewage started almost three decades ago is still the lifeblood of the charity.
“Water quality is still in our DNA – we are carrying on pushing for more changes in that area. We were majorly instrumental in ensuring 100% of Cornwall’s beaches adhere to European standards. However, big bad Brexit could erode all that.”
So is Brexit a real issue for the charity?
“I do fear an erosion of all that hard work as we won’t be held to account by the European Community. We are going to be alone and there hasn’t been an environmental body set up to deal with these issues. If we see an economically rocky road, the Government might look at cutting red tape in environmental areas.
“SAS has to be vigilant in that case but we have the eyes and ears of people all around the country.”
Hugo is quietly optimistic though as the charity has created an all-party environmental group which “brings people together to drive legislation, policy and investment”.
Where does he see SAS heading in the future?
“I’d like to get more youth involved. I feel we need to be ballsy in that area. There is a resistance among young people now following the Trump effect. They are resistant to negative stereotyping and xenophobia.
“SAS is not just an environmental body, it’s a movement of people. It’s not just about localism but working and connecting with people the world over.”
Hugo still has to pinch himself over the progress Surfers Against Sewage has made over the years.
“Visiting the UN in New York and sitting in the auditorium hearing business and political leaders discussing environmental issues was really quite something.”
