Foil vs Crate: Cleaning The Ocean Piece By Piece
Great initiative by Gunnar Biniasch – good for our environment, marine animals and hydrofoilers. Have you ever been knocked off your board by something floating in the water?
The oceans are full of plastic and other garbage. As a kitesurfer I spend the greater part of my life in the ocean and hate to see the pollution.
In the last few years the water around Fuerteventura has seen a massive increase in flotsam and garbage. Plastic bottles, crates (like in this video), buckets, wrappers, chip bags, six pack rings, beer cans etc are now a common sight floating around. I decided a while back that I was not going to look the other way and would pick up whatever trash I find during my sessions. On a usual day I will pull out large numbers of plastic bags and bottles. Usually about 10 each. Once in a while something I will come across something big like this crate. I pick them up and drag them back to the beach and dump them in the trash cans.The unfortunate thing is: People look at me as if I am crazy when I do this. Some help by taking the stuff off me and saving me the trip to the trash can up the beach, but most of the time people just smile and do nothing. On a windy day there are 30-50 kiters on the beach. This is probably the same everywhere around the world.
I think it’s time that everyone pulled their heads out of the sand and started making a difference. It’s all good and well complaining about how polluted our oceans are getting, but if every kiter picked up one piece of plastic garbage out of the sea every session, it would make a huge difference.
So do your part and don’t look away next time you see a plastic bottle or bag floating around during your session. Save the fish and save the foilers. Crashing into a bag at high speed hurts. Think of our ribs and families.
