Watertrek partnered with Le Grand Huit SUP Club last month for the first L’Eau Vive festival, celebrating stand up paddleboarding with races, clean-ups, recreational and educational activities on the water and land along the Marne River just outside Paris. The Watertrek crew came together from France, England and Belgium to join the festival revolving around fun and technical SUP races, as well as other activities like SUP Yoga, SUP dog contest, dragon paddle, giant SUP paddle for a team of paddlers, fun bikes, land paddling and more. The one and only, talented Olivia Piana - Women’s SUP European Champion and second in the world - was there to compete and take a stand against marine and riverine pollution with us, alongside Surfrider Foundation and other great organisations and festivalgoers. Watertrek’s stall showcased all things SUP-related including the construction of a SUP board made of plastic bottles: currently being courageously paddled across an epic 12 marathons by British-Brazilian adventurers and Watertrek volunteer fundraisers and educators, Carlos and Carolyn.
Despite technical and logistical challenges, the team worked hard in rain, hail and shine to build a sturdy, double-decker plastic bottle SUP board. Upcycling 2-litre bottles proved to be difficult thanks to France’s very efficient recycling system and responsible citizens; and one layer of 1.5-litre bottles was not quite as ‘strong and stable’ as hoped. The French flag fin made of upcycled plastic bottle caps was the finishing touch on the plastic bottle SUP and its completion could not have been possible without the much appreciated help from Le Grand Huit founder and festival organiser, Jean Baptiste, and enthusiastic festivalgoers. So, the first double-decker plastic bottle SUP was completed just in time to make its debut on the water as part of L’Eau Vive’s friendly 5km fun race, together with local and international competitors including Watertrek’s ‘Plastic Monster’ - aka Wim Pyl from Belgium, the first person to paddleboard 240km in 5 days .
Alongside building the plastic bottle SUP, Watertrek proudly promoted educational activities for children, while partner Surfrider Foundation Antenne locale de Paris organised an incredible clean-up along the Marne River where a whopping 1,200 cigarette butts were collected – imagine the impact as one cigarette butt will pollute 500 litres of water!
Taking a stand against single-use plastic for Starboard, 5 Gyres and #OneLess campaign, Watertrek founder, Séverine Vasselin, and Melanie Joe, Mei Li Quah, Carlos De Sousa, and Carolyn Newton of the Watertrek team were honoured to join forces with Olivia Piana on an impromptu photoshoot supporting the use of our refillable, reusable water bottles such as Water-to-Go.
Our Ambassadors for Watertrek UK Mel & Paul have travelled to Myanmar to explore the mangrove and see how Watertrek could get involved in protecting this fragile and indispensable ecosystem.
The strange almost sculpture like trees of Myanmar’s Mangroves were once in abundance, but now, due to habitat destruction and natural forces such as sediment build up they are endangered.
Myanmar’s costal mangroves were once widespread, but a combination of natural forces, such as sediment build-up and deforestation has left them under threat. Mangrove trees are routinely cut down for charcoal and firewood. They have also been cleared to provide more space for intensive prawn farming and for paddy fields.
Mangroves provide more than just fuel and habitat for the unique flora and fauna that thrive there; they also absorb up to five times more Co2 than any other trees and they can offer protection against extreme weather - acting as a first line of defense against cyclones and storm surges, helping to slow such forces down. In 2008, 138,000 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis sent a large storm surge 40 kilometres inland along the densely populated Irrawaddy Delta. While the future of the mangroves are uncertain organisations such as WIF are helping to restore these important and fragile environments. National parks such as the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park are trying to reverse decline.
Located 250km west of Yangon, is the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park. Made up of 1,800 acres of protected land, this is where Watertrek and WIF are looking to develop their replanting project.
After travelling by plane, bus and motorcycle taxi to the Shwethaungyan Mangrove Plantation, Mel & Paul Hyman found themselves in a traditional Myanmar village, which has been carved in two by a wide rivermouth. Nearby are sandy beaches, unspoiled by tourism development. However, sometimes, no matter how far you travel off the beaten track, it can be difficult to get away from the pollution of the modern world.
While the village’s beaches were wild and empty of people - they were not free of plastic rubbish. Bags, fishing nets and plastic bottle littered the coast line. The team organised a beach clean-up with the locals including school children and their teachers. After returning the beach temporarily back to its pristine state. It was time to finally explore the Mangroves. Our first job of the day was to help with the village beach clean-up. Joined by a crowd of school children, their teachers and locals, we helped remove truckloads of trash from the waterfront - making it look almost pristine again. Our Ambassadors had plenty of fun with the local kids trying to communicate with them in our non-existent Burmese and their poor English.
‘We spent the next few days exploring the mangrove forests with Aye Lwyn and Htoo Lwin of WIF as our guides. Mangroves are strange trees. Their roots sit above the mix of salt and fresh water, it is a surreal yet humbling experience to paddle amongst them," Paul said.
‘The trees look like they could uproot themselves and walk away at any minute. We also had the privilege of planting some mangroves under the expert eye of Lwyn and his team."
The Myanmar mangroves lend itself well to SUP and marrying the trip with conservation will help not only secure the future of the mangroves but also the local population.’
The Plastic Ocean Festival in London will be showcasing a series of events from April to September 2017 incorporating film screenings of "A Plastic Ocean" documentary, sup marine and riverine clean ups and educational talks by scientists. The aim is to promote awareness and understanding of the damaging effects of plastic pollution in waterways and oceans and encourage individual and group action to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle plastic, starting at home in London.
The Film "A Plastic Ocean" is a powerful 45 minute documentary which sets out the scale of the problem worldwide and how we all need to change the way we use plastic. It is described by Sir David Attenborough as “one of the most important films of our time”.
The first event recently took place in Paddington, London on 22nd April 2017. Paul Hyman - founder of SUP Club Active 360 & Manager for Watertrek London - reports “Turnout was excellent with the small auditorium filled for the screening and every paddleboard and canoe out on the canal afterwards. Lots of plastic trash was collected including an inflatable horse! Some participants were already actively involved but many were new and are keen to continue to help and join the team.”
There will be many more opportunities to see the film and get involved throughout the festival period. More details on the Festival website www.plasticoceanfestival.com and our calendar.
Commencing on World Ocean Day - 8 June 2017 - Carlos & Carolyn will paddle 12 marathons across Europe on Stand Up Paddle boards made of plastic bottles. In every location they will teach the local community how to build plastic bottle boards to raise awareness of the problems of Plastic Pollution in the ocean and to make SUP affordable for all.
Carlos & Carolyn are a Brazilian/British couple who love sports and care deeply about the environment. They are both teachers with a passion for educating others about the problems of plastic pollution and encouraging people to live a healthy, active lifestyle. They built their first paddle board out of plastic bottles in March 2017 in Brazil. When they took the board to the beach for its first trip on the water, it received a lot of attention and sparked interesting conversations about plastic pollution in the ocean. It was a very rewarding experience and the inspiration for the sup marathon expedition.
Since launching the expedition, they had over 13,700 views of their video on facebook and major press coverage.
Our 2 watertrekers will attend the French event Course de l'Eau vive on May, 13th&14th and build a bottle board there. Make sure you join the process and get the chance to share a moment with our 2 amazing adventurers.
They will then head to Italy, Spain, Croatia & Greece to take part at various events, get local communities involved in the cause and perform their engaging marathons. A prologue is planned in Cannes during the International Film Festival.
Tidefest is a River Thames event which took place for the first time in 2014 to highlight the recreational importance of the Thames to Londoners and to encourage people to enjoy the river. It took place at Strand-on-the-Green in Chiswick, Brentford, Barnes and other locations along the Thames Tideway, as part of the month long Totally Thames festival.
A wide range of activities were planned from 9am to 7pm on Sunday 11th September including a Stand Up Paddleboarding on the Thames. A mass paddle from Kew to Putney started at 2pm in aid of the charity Watertrek, as well as a foreshore clean-up.
Summer 2016: Off to the Mediterranean Sea for a whole new aventure on the Expedition MED research sailboat, a French expert in research on micro plastics and the fight against waste discharge at sea. During a week, from Villefranche to Genoa, Watertrek had the opportunity to participate in a campaign of microplastics sampling to estimate the level of pollution. Indeed, the quantity of the particles can sometimes reach the same level as the plankton. These data are collected for scientific articles to move citizens. The association, headed by Bruno Dumontet, also alarmed the European authorities with its petition Stop Plastic In The SEA, which obtained lots of signatures.
Supervised by three young students, Corentin (photographer), Laura (marine biologist), and Simon (engineer student and founder of the SEA Plastics association), we did about one to two sea water samplings daily. Each sample kept us busy for approximately one hour, done using a steel manta net of 25 kg, with a 30cm mouth, and two wings that allows it to float on the surface of the water. A very thin net is linked to the mouth of the manta, ending with a collector which gathers samples. To complete these samples, we had to get the manta into the water, and form two teams: the first team would go into the cabin to write the GPS data and the sea conditions with precision, while the second one would obey the first team’s orders. Once immersed, we parted the manta from the boat by winching another boot, to protect the net from the boat’s wake. We dragged the net like this for 30 minutes. Once out of the water, we rinsed the manta with sea water, to push off all the particles in the collector. We detached the collector from the net and poured the sample in a big container, our ‘’ plastic soup of the day ‘’! The following steps are more thorough, despite the heeling: it consists of detecting, retrieving and sorting out the insects to send them to entomologists. When we put out all the insects, we removed the larger pieces of plastic (and jellyfish if there are any), making sure to rinse them out carefully to remove any particles. Finally, we add formalin sea water to conserve the samples.
So then, what can you find in these samples? is it as serious as they want us to believe? Yes, yes and yes again, sadly. In most cases, especially in coastal areas, we have noticed more plastic than plankton in our samples. Basically, there is more plastic than life. The one we conducted off the coast of Antibes is very concerning, if only for bathers nearby.
This week on board Expedition Med was an exceptional human adventure: what a delight to see that many people feel concerned with what is happening on the seas. Who would have thought that Marine the humorist, Health and Safety Manager in a big firm, or Julien, the perpetual traveler or Séverine actress and cofounder of Watertrek, nicknamed ‘’the napper ‘’ by the crew because of her interest for breaks on the foredeck, would end up here? Add Hélène, young retiree who loves sailing boats, and is nostalgic for the time she spent with her children on boats, as well as Vanessa, communication genius who tries to use her skills to attract dolphins, and Virginie, ‘’marmot rising fish’’, who almost managed to unseat Sev from her position as the ‘’queen of napping", and you have the recipe for a successful week with strangers. Nothing is better than the love of the sea to bring people together.
These moments spent on the yacht skippered by the amazing captain Giulio, and fueled by the no less amazing Michelle have generated new ideas for Watertrek’s future. Collecting data can advance the cause of the oceans. We should think about getting the sup community involved.
As part of Sustainable Development week, Watertrek volunteers in Bretagne were organizing a waste collection on Saturday, June 4th in Larmor-Plage, while 22 other collections were held simultaneously across Morbihan.
Volunteers were expected to join and collect waste on the beach of Kerguelen in Larmor Plage. At first sight, the beach seemed clean...but looking closer, volunteers quickly identified the presence of smaller but equally harmful waste: cigarette butts, pieces of polystyrene, handkerchiefs and plastic microphone. Louise, 3 years old, told us she came with her mom because she had seen birds die from ingested plastic.
The beautiful team worked in a good mood before offering a paddle test. The initiative was relayed on local radio Like Radio (101.9 FM) through crossed interviews.
April this year London was the scene for the launch of the first Paddle & Pick campaign which aims to draw attention to the problem of plastic pollution in our waterways. 80% of the rubbish found in our oceans comes from mainland Europe and unfortunately the Thames is part of the waterways that carry the rubbish out to the sea.
Between 8th-13th April 2016, paddlers, kayakists and other river users got together in 10 different locations to pick up rubbish on the riverbanks and in the water in order to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the centre of London. On the initiative of the Active 360 paddle club, Thames Estuary Partnership and Watertrek, a particularly festive launch day was organized on the Thames close to Hammersmith, the organisation of which was done by the Crabtree Pub. Around 50 volunteers met up early in the morning to take part in this first clean-up in partnership with Thames 21, Tideway and the Port of London Authority.
All the participants then met up again for dinner and to participate in a press conference moderated by French snowboarder Laurent Besse and Svein Rasmussen, creator of the Starboard brand and great windsurfing champion. The day finished back on the tide with a paddle up to Chiswick where we picked up more floating plastic and packaging on the way.
Svein commented : “ Thank you so much for putting on the event motivating so many people. How much better can it be than drifting down the Thames and picking trash as treasure, we are mad in most peoples eyes and I love it.”
The operations to pick up rubbish on foot and on water took place throughout London over 5 days, with Active 360 proposing new SUP clean-ups at Twickenham and at basins at Paddington, and Regent’s canal at Little Venice where the Green MP Sian Berry came to visit paddlers while workers from Merchant Square participated in the clean-up…in the rain. Edge canoes operate at Kew Bridge, London Kayaks at Greenwich, as well as Epic Sup at Eels Island and Islington Boat Club at Islington.
All the clubs and partners that worked on the organisation of this first Paddle and Pick met up again during a closing evening at the Crabtree pub which welcomed us again for an evening of prizes hosted by the adventurer Spike Reid, a prize draw took place to raise money and to thank the volunteers again.
The whole of Paddle & Pick was brought to life by a spirit of cooperation and exceptionally good humour and numerous people expressed their desire to join the cause with new projects.
Watertrek has launched its very first paddle & pick operation this March along the river Marne, using the protocole developed by its partner Surfrider Foundation, collecting waste from paddle boards. The Ocean Initiatives protocol is a wide litter collection program launched by the famous NGO exactly 20 years ago. His aim is to alert people on the impact of marine litter on rivers, lakes, seas and seabeds, counting and sorting the types of waste gathered. Data collected during those campaigns allows for a general inventory to be taken, and hence regulatory framework to be adapted.
"If you drop it on the land, it ends up in the sea »: 80% of waste found in the sea come from inland. This is why our happy team of watertrekers decided to collect trash along the banks of the Polangis canal, a tiny and gorgeous affluent of the Marne hosting swans and taverns. The brave rowers came despite the cold, the rain and a dark grey sky to collect tires, computers, plastic bags and cans. It was worth a little local white wine...
Huge thanks to Xavier, Vassili, Eric, Virginia, Carolina, Frederic, Denis, Cecile, Benjamin, Noah, Flavien et Jean-Baptiste from Le Grand 8 for this event.
