7 Best Eco-Friendly Surf Accessories You Can Buy In The UK

PATAGONIA YULEX WETSUIT

Price: £280 - £425 (depending on thickness)

Patagonia have made the first neoprene-free wetsuit. The Yulex wetsuits, released this month, are made from natural rubber, replacing neoprene which is a petroleum-based material for a plant one.

Patagonia are great at sticking to their eco morals - the water they use to make the wetsuits is recycled and the rubber comes from Forest Stewardship Council sources.

ODINA BIKINI

Price: £102

Odina make eco-friendly swimwear, made from recycled plastic and materials. They are designed and tested by surfers not models, so you can trust them in the water. I love their designs, especially the back straps. They aren't cheap, but nothing environmentally friendly ever is, eh? You can buy Odina bikinis in the UK from Seafoam. 

BUTTA SURF WAX

Price: £2.20

Butta make eco-friendly surf wax right here in the UK. Most surf wax is made from petroleum and doesn't biodegrade, which is why Butta make their wax from 100 per cent eco-friendly ingredients. Each bar is housed in a biodegradable cup and a percentage of their profits are donated to charity Surfers Against Sewage. You can buy it from TVSC.

AUBREY ORGANICS NATURAL SUNSCREEN

Price: £12.98

It's actually amazingly tricky to find a reef-safe sunscreen in the UK. Just have a read of Girl Independent's blog post on this matter. It's important to wear reef-safe sunscreen because it washes off your body into the ocean. These chemicals are contributing to the bleaching of coral reefs. 

SurfYogis have a great natural reef-safe sunscreen, but it's not readily available to buy in the UK. Aubrey Organics is the one we found that can be bought online in the UK. Just make sure you keep reapplying.

WaveTribe Recycled Surfboard Leash

Price: £23.99

Californian company Wavetribe make their leashes out of recycled material with the main cord created from recycled plastic bottles. They claim to be the strongest leashes out there, which is always a bonus when you are surfing heavy waves. You can buy them from our new favourite online surf shop, The Green Wave.

WATER-to-GO BOTTLE

Price: £12.99 (comes with one filter)

Have you stopped buying plastic water bottles but still struggle when you go to a country where the drinking water isn't safe?

Water-To-Go have found a solution to this problem. Their refillable water bottles contain a filter which removes 99.9 per cent of water-born contaminants that could make you sick. Each filter cleans 130L of water, which will last you approximately two months.

I spent ages reading up their credentials before I purchased my Water-To-Go bottle. There are dozens of good reviews from people who've filled up their bottles in Africa, India and beyond. They were also tested by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with stellar results.

We're off to Bali in a few months and we are planning on using these bottles. I'll let you know how we get on. 

Wavetribe Hemp Surfboard Bag

Price: £69.95 to £139.95 depending on size

Wavetribe make the most eco-friendly surfboard bag we could find in UK, using the least amount of harmful materials possible. Their bags are mostly made from hemp which is super sustainable and grows without the use of pesticides. It's also UV resistant and mould resistant, so it will last you a long time. Buy one from The Green Wave.

#PlasticFreeJuly: 5 Eco-Friendly Alternatives To Everyday Items

More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are now floating in our oceans. Plastic doesn't biodegrade. Fish eat it, thinking it's food and it is now causing problems for our wildlife. 

For decades, using single-use plastic items like straws, bags and coffee cups haven't really bothered us - but now people are starting to sit up and take notice, since the affect it is having on our planet and wildlife becomes increasingly obvious. You just need to watch this video of a turtle with a plastic straw stuck up its nose to put you off using straws forever.

It's so simple to change your habits. Stop buying plastic water bottles and buy a refillable bottle instead. Say no to plastic bags. Soon, you won't remember why you used those items in the first place.

Here are a few of my favourite reusable alternatives:

MIZU WATER BOTTLE

Price: £32

Mizu make really good-looking stainless steel water bottles. Buying water from a shop is a total waste of money. Save those pennies for more important things (like adventures) and refill this water bottle before you head out.

BEE ECO WRAPS

Price: £20 ($35 AUD) for a set of three

Say goodbye to cling film. Bee Eco Wraps make reusable food wraps in great designs to cover food and leftovers. They are made from organic cotton covered in beeswax and jojoba oil. Just use the warmth of your hands to mould the sheets to your bowl. You can wash and reuse them as many times as you like. Bee Eco Wraps are handmade in Australia but they do ship to the UK for just £5 P&P.

ENVIRONMENTAL BAMBOO TOOTHBRUSH

Price: £2.86 each from Greenshop

Plastic toothbrushes won't degrade in our lifetime - and we go through one every couple of months. I love these bamboo toothbrushes - they are 100 per cent biodegradable, even the bristles.

STAINLESS STEEL STRAW

Price: £4.99 for four on Amazon

I know, I know. Who is actually going to go round cafes and bars with their own straw? Sometimes it's easier to just politely refuse a straw. But I do like these stainless steel straws - some sets even come with a straw cleaning brush to get those fruit seeds out from inside.

REUSABLE BAG

Price: £4.50 from Paperchase

We all have dozens of these bags lying around our houses. Just take reusable bags to the supermarket and avoid bringing home plastic bags. It's already great to see that Britain's plastic bag use has dropped significantly since the 5p charge was brought in last October - around 83 per cent less plastic bags used.

REUSABLE COFFEE CUP

Price: £15 from KeepCup

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched his War On Waste campaign this month against takeaway coffee cups. Britain gets through 10,000 coffee cups every two minutes - and they aren't recyclable, despite what Costa and Starbucks tell us.

KeepCup made the world's first barista standard reusable coffee cups - which means they are exactly the same size as the ones they use in coffee shops. Take this to your coffee shop each morning and get them to fill it up instead of using one of theirs.

Is It Ethical To Visit Aquariums In The UK?

Photo by Talia Cohen

 “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” – Mahatma Gandhi

Aquariums are beautiful places. Giant blue tanks filled with sharks, stingrays, turtles and technicolour shoals of fish. Crocodiles hide behind rocks. Deep sea fish flash with electrical currents in the darkness.

Everyone from toddlers to pensioners can appreciate the beauty of life under the sea. But do we really know what is going on behind the scenes of these aquariums?

In America, Sea World has faced major criticism in the past few years about its orca shows. This came after the release of the influential 2013 film Blackfish, which exposed the treatment of orcas in captivity. Attendance and revenue have declined since the release of the film.

It was a major breakthrough for animal activists, as it captured the attention of millions of people. People really began to talk about the issue and ask themselves whether they believed animals should be kept in captivity.

In the US, marine parks and aquariums are much bigger than we have here in the UK. Sea World is one such example. It features a large outdoor arena with daily whale shows. Georgia Aquarium has a 38,000 m3 tank (the largest in the western hemisphere) with four huge whale sharks inside.

Here in the UK, we have to ask ourselves – where do we stand when it comes to keeping aquatic animals in tanks?

Read the rest of this article on Mpora.com

Where Can You Go Scuba Diving With Turtles & Octopus In Europe?

Photo by Océano Sostenible

It’s silent as we glide through the water. Algae settling beneath us, fish swimming between us. Suddenly I feel a sharp tapping on my shoulder. My diving instructor David is pointing up towards the surface.

And then we see her, just a shadow at first until she swims deeper into the water. El Puertito, a sandy bay in Tenerife is home to four green turtles, a rare thing to see in the wild in Europe. We just met one of them.

The southern tip of Tenerife is traditionally known for parties and sunbathing, rather than getting up close with wild marine life.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find a group of scuba divers entirely dedicated to conserving the ocean at the heart of a tourist holiday resort.

“The turtle you met has swum all the way from America,” David tells me afterwards. “Turtles aren’t pack animals, so she will have travelled all that distance on her own.”

Read the rest of this article on Cooler Magazine

Mission Blue: Why You Should Know About Sylvia Earle

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Two weeks ago, I’d never heard of Sylvia Earle. Now, she’s fast becoming my new hero.

It was only when I was flicking through Netflix that I came across Mission Blue. It tells Sylvia’s story, starting out as a young marine biologist in 1960s America. She began scuba diving and studying the ocean back when there were very few signs of human destruction. “No one at this time imagined we could do anything to harm it” she explains.

Sylvia went on to become the first female chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an American government organisation for monitoring the oceans and atmosphere. In 1998, she given the role of National Geographic explorer-in-residence – all while bringing up three children. At the age of 79, she’s now regarded as one of the most legendary marine biologists of all time.

She’s dedicated her life to exploring the ocean – and now she’s determined to save them.

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In just 50 years, overfishing has killed off 90 per cent of the ocean’s top predators including sharks, bluefin tuna, swordfish, marlin, and king mackerel. Half the coral reefs in the world are dead. As Sylvia points out, “No ocean, no life. No ocean, no us.”

Roughly 12 per cent of the land on earth is now under protection, while only three per cent of the ocean is. Sylvia’s aim is create Hope Spots (like national parks, but for the ocean) to stop us from destroying it for good.

“Just because you can’t see any changes to the surface of the sea, doesn’t mean it’s not happening underneath”

But what makes this film different to any other ‘save the ocean’ documentary? It works because it focuses around Sylvia’s life. She’s an interesting character in her own right.

On her first conservation mission to the Indian Ocean, the newspaper headlines read: ‘Sylvia Sails Away With 70 Men, But She Expects No Problems’.

This was 1960s America after all. Scientists weren’t famous. Women didn’t run environmental projects, let alone hold prestigious positions at NOAA. Yet Sylvia shot to fame. She was beautiful, powerful, strong willed. A true pioneer not only for marine conservation but for ambitious women.

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She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Two years after she was awarded the position of chief scientist at NOAA, she resigned because the committee refused to let her speak her mind on important fishing policies.

As you follow Sylvia’s life, you can’t help but begin to sympathise with her cause. You see things how she has seen them from thousands of hours spent studying the ocean – and how quickly we need to act to stop the oceans from dying forever.

I didn’t realise exactly how crucial the environment was to human survival until I watched Mission Blue. “Just because you can’t see any changes to the surface of the sea, doesn’t mean it’s not happening underneath,” says Sylvia. And she’s right.

If there’s one film you should watch this week, make it Mission Blue.

Watch the trailer below or the full film on Netflix now. All photos courtesy of Mission Blue.