Watertrek

Exploring new links with life and with water, which binds us together: Watertrek’s mission is to raise awareness and alert about the need to protect aquatic ecosystems threatened by plastic pollution, global warming and toxic chemicals. Watertrek organizes expeditions combining sports (stand-up paddling and walking treks), citizen science and collaborative art, a three-prong approach combining motion, education and creation. It also offers renditions of these adventures.

The association aims to provide a forum for exchange and experimentation, and to develop tools for all those wishing to act locally, develop their own hiking projects and influence.

WALKING ON OR BY THE WATER: STAND-UP PADDLING

The stand-up paddle or SUP is a derivative of the Hawaiian canoe, the ancestor of modern surfing, used by Polynesian kings. It is practiced standing up, with a paddle.

AN INDIVIDUAL VISION, A GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Séverine Vasselin founded the association Watertrek in 2013 after practicing stand-up paddling for the first time on the Côte Bleue near Marseille in the South of France.

“This experience was a true revelation, a change of perspective that was at once physical, sensorial, social and spiritual, a shift in my esthetic viewpoint of the landscape. Standing up on the water, in a physical posture requiring balance, far from the land, it seemed essentiel to me to remind everyone of the beauty of life we are an integral part of, and of the importance of relearning how to see and feel, away from any form of anthropocentrism."

OUR SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS TO DOCUMENT POLLUTION

Watertrek organizes long and short distance paddle expeditions. These initiatives - mostly on rivers - have a scientific and cartographic vocation, allowing us to collect information on the quantity, the source and type of waste and pollution present in water. It also enables us to physically connect to the ecosystem.

The projects led by Watertrek are in line with three of the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN:

Sustainable Development Goals 06Sustainable Development Goals 13Sustainable Development Goals 14


Watertrek feeds citizen science platforms in collaboration with its partners (Surfrider Foundation Europe, Freshwater Watch in Oxford, DryRivers in Lyon). The association is a member of the Steering Committee involved in protecting Transfer Routes launched by the French Ministry for Energy Transition. It participates in the  identification and mapping of waste accumulation zones observed on banks with the CEREMA.

AN ARTISTIC APPROACH TO ENRICH OUR VISION OF THE LANDSCAPE 

To provoke engagement and connect with others you need to feel moved.  As a result all our expeditions integrate esthetic, artistic, and collaborative dimensions.

“The ecological crisis is above all a crisis of sensitivity.”

Baptiste Morizot

Un œuvre d'art réalisée à partir de déchets ramassés

TALKS

Expedition renditions and conferences, screenings of our documentary and fiction movies, exhibitions and podcasts: Watertrek shares its experiences using various audiovisual and artistic formats, as many supports to alert on water preservation. We welcome everyone wanting to host these creative initiatives.

OUR PARTNERS

Microsoft
Cifacom
Climate Reality
Break free from plastic
Carbone 4
Plastic Origins
Garn
Plastic Coalition
Redesa
France Nature
UNO Environement
Sup Norway
Le grand huit
Freshwater
Surfrider
Plastic free july
Ministère de la transition écologique
Lush
Ocean Viking
Restube
StarBoard
SupPassion
All our partners

News

A giant snake built out of plastic bottles after our paddle expedition throughout Belgium

The stand-up paddle board expedition through Belgium launched by Belgium-born Wim Pyl has arrived safely, not without a fresh dip on the rough beach of Nieuwpoort. Wim and his friend Jan Moermans - authors of a similar expedition on that exact same route 5 years ealier - were this time accompanied by Wim's sister Tineke, […]

Plastic Pollution Expedition on 3 Belgian rivers launched by our friend Plastic Monster

Launched by the Belgian stand-up paddlers Wim Pyl, his sister Tineke and Jan Moermans, who already paddled that exact same route in 2017, a group of stand-up paddlers and Watertrekers will go for a long distance expedition of 250 km on 3 Belgian rivers at the end of April 2022 to observe the evolution of […]

Watertrek joins the Plastic Pollution Coalition in Los Angeles

Watertrek has joined Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of more than 1,200 organizations in 75 countries working toward a more equitable world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on waterways, oceans, and the environment. PPC is currently working with Hollywood industries to raise awareness on plastic and waste representation in TV series […]

SUP trip down the River Aa for Stéphane and his crew

3 stand-up paddle boards, 5 hours of paddling along the Aa river between Remilly-Werquin and Setques in the north of France… that means 50 kg of waste collected. The objective of our Nordic crew was simple: to discover the river and collect as much waste as possible along those 9 kilometers. “We chose to go […]
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