Science language barriers

As I return to school and get bombarded by 

"How was break?"

"What did you do?" 

Which are now accompanied by 

"Wow. You look so tan!" 

I try not to stifle my grin as I start to explain that I spent the last three weeks in Costa Rica.  Surfing. For college credit. 

As the pale Guilfordian gawks. Realizing they missed an opportunity of a lifetime.. I begin to explain that despite being a "Cali girl" and having this surf intensive experience I am by no means an excellent (or even good for that matter) surfer. 

When a look of confusion crosses their face.. I try and justify myself. 

There is so much more to surfing. Kelly Slater makes it look easy.. but in reality, nothing could be harder (for this 20 year old, at least).  

I start my general spiel about watching the waves, and judging which ones are more suitable for riding (at my level) and where I need to be in order to catch the wave, how fast I need to paddle.. ect.

By this point I've lost most of my listeners, which is understandable. I don’t think I'd be able to understand the difference between a good wave or a close out without seeing hundreds of them.

This is a good wave-

Photo by Bruindude wunderground.com

This is a closeout- 

Photo by Stu Gibson Surfline.com

So what I've noticed recently is: how we communicate dictates whether the information will be accessible to the audience.

Scarfe, Elwany, Mead and Black in the Science of Surfing Waves and Surfing Breaks, indentify that policy makers and coastal engineers need to develop a common language with surfers- a language that marries surfers' slang and technical/scientific jargon. The authors of the paper are trying to create a basis for this language- and thus smoother relations between the two parties.

Another unfortunate example: My Spanish professor assigned an article, "What works what doesn’t?"  from Scientific American Mind about the benefits and downfalls of various forms of studying. The article claims that cognitive and educational psychologists have been studying effective study methods for over a century- yet this information and findings aren’t making to the students and teachers that would benefit the most. The authors reason that the amount of research is overwhelming (probably due to language).  Many teachers aren’t encouraging or providing these tools to their students because even educators cant get through the research papers to understand what they need.

Most of the scientific information, primary journals and research, is not easy to grasp. When professors assign articles for classes- it often takes me many rereads and google searches to gain any sort of understanding (not all papers, I'm generalizing).

As a future scientist this is particularly disturbing to me. I don’t want only a small number of my colleagues to understand or appreciate my research. I understand there are difficult biological processes that may not be conceivable to explain to the common person but I believe simplifying is always possible.   

How can I make the information I'm gathering and care deeply about accessible to a general audience?

How will we, as a society, make positive change without all having a general understanding of new advances in a variety of fields? Maybe thats asking too much. Yo soy optimista.