Yesterday afternoon a devastating 7.0 earthquake decimated Haiti and its capital city of Port-au-Prince. It's claimed untold lives, and caused massive damage to the struggling island-nation's infrastructure. Hospitals have collapsed, routes in and out of the city have been destroyed, and reports on CNN.com this morning are stating that over three million people have been affected.

Unfortunately you won't find even a brief mention of the tragedy on any of the surf-centric "news outlets." Had it been somewhere in Indonesia, somewhere blessed with world-class lineups, I guarantee the reaction from the surf media would have been different. If hundreds of thousands of dollars in boat trip fares were at stake this story would have been paid considerably more mind. Like the trembler in Padang this summer, if Haiti had anything tangible to offer to the surf world, besides the odd feral excursion, you would already be seeing on-the-ground reportage trickling in and aid campaigns ramping up. But alas, Haiti doesn't have much to offer our boardshort-wearing brethren, even if it's situated only about 600 miles from the Florida coast, roughly the distance from San Diego to San Francisco.

I bring this up for two reasons: First, there millions of people that need help, and time and again surfers have proven invaluable when it comes to disaster relief. Whether assistance comes from an organized body like SurfAid, or just a handful of inspired waveriders, help is needed. Second, and more philosophically speaking, I'm trying to figure out what the point of the "surf media" is if they don't report on actual news events. I'm just as guilty as the next hack writer when it comes to this, but it seems to me when the opportunity presents itself we do have a responsibility to spread the word. Covering petty topics such as the latest run of swell or what some drunk idiot spray painted Dane Reynolds surfboards is all well and good, but as the collective voice of our industry, don't we owe it to the world to help a little when we can?

Addendum: I stand corrected. An hour after posting this I got an email from Jon Coen pointing me to Jerry Ricciotti, who's surfed and shot photos for ESPN Surfing in Haiti. He became quite enamored with the people and land, and like the good man that he is, is now offering up information on how you can help. Click here for details.