My Environmental Story

I cannot describe the love and awe I have for the ocean. The ocean has always been a central part of my life. For as long as I can remember my favourite place to hang out has been at the beach. The ocean has given me so much. It is where I feel most connected to my family. It is where I have made all my lifelong friends. It is where I fell in love with surf sports and the surf lifesaving community. It is where I have pushed myself to my limits in training and achieved my dreams in sport.

However, this ocean that has given me so much is drowning in plastic. I am so grateful to have had the life-changing realisation that we are causing this issue and we are destroying our own ocean. For me, this moment happened one day when I was training at Bondi Beach in 2017. I had slowly begun to notice that the shoreline was littered with lots of plastic every time I came down, but every day the plastic would change and would never go away. Then like a lightning bolt I realised that our actions were causing this to happen. Our actions were destroying the ocean I loved so much right in front of my eyes. It was in this moment that I set myself the life mission to help protect the ocean from plastic pollution. How can we deprive the coming generations of experiencing something has moving and beautiful as the ocean? My goal is to simply make people conscious of the issue of plastics in our oceans, how much plastic we consume and ways we can prevent it.

When I started making changes in my lifestyle to eliminate plastic pollution my friends and family all took notice. Now the majority of them have made similar changes in their life, maybe not to the same degree as me but they are aware of the plastic they are consuming. I have had many people come up to me saying things like "I was about to get all my groceries in a plastic bag but then I thought of how upset you would be, so I carried them to my car in my arms instead!". The more this began to happen the more I realised that I really might be able to make a difference. I am not perfect, but my goal is not about being perfect, it is about inspiring change and action.

So far, my contribution to the preservation of our oceans has been small. I have not invented some amazing new technology that is going to pick up all the rubbish in the ocean and I have not found a way to turn plastic into plants. However, I have my passion. A burning passion to protect our oceans and do as much as I can in my lifestyle to ensure I am supporting a cleaner, zero-waste world. This passion has allowed me to make a small impact and therefore a small difference which I am very proud of.

My Environmental Action:

I have launched a sustainability program at my Surf Club, Newport SLSC. This program has three main goals of: educating my club members on environmental issues, encouraging good environmental practice and keeping our beautiful Newport Beach clean. You can find out more about this here: www.newportslscsustainability.com
I am an ambassador for Take 3 or the Sea. This ambassador role allows me to run education sessions and beach clean ups with local communities and schools. Doing beach cleans is such a rewarding experience and I love seeing the reaction children have to the rubbish we find.
I have helped coordinate and run events for the Ocean Lovers Festival: A week-long celebrations of our oceans, showcasing the latest innovations, science and state of the art technology helping protect them. In 2018 I coordinated the Ocean Lovers Lap and in 2019 I coordinated the Big Bondi Beach Clean and the Paddle Out for Protection.
I helped run the edcuaton for program for Clean Oceans in 2019.
I have run beach clean ups for small business as part of their plastic free campaigns, such as NIMBLE activewear.
I love using my profile as an athlete to share ways we can adopt plastic free habits. I do this using my Instagram and blog platforms.