Tuesday, October 27, 2009

a message in the waves that we keep ignoring + new rockstar contest sponsor + couple of videos

A few years ago I saw the wonderful movie "Hawaii - Message in the waves".

That film changed my life. Since then, the amount of plastic bottles I personally introduced in the environment has been zero. For many years I've been using my refillable metal bottles and that's something that everyone should do.
Plastic bottles are only a part of the problem of course, since every plastic object will eventually deteriorate in small bits, but they're so easily replaceable! That's why I'm pissed off when I see people (I'm talking also to you guys) buying huge amounts of them.
Same as the plastic bags, of course. So easy to replace with a reusable non plastic bag, but no many give a shit.
What's the problem? Well, if you don't have the time to watch the trailers on the movie website, here's a few pics that should be clear enough.


Shocked? How's this one? Those could be the tops and bits of a water or soda plastic bottles that you drank a few years ago... and yes, that WAS a bird. A beautiful albatross to be precise.


"Why in the world those stupid birds eat the plastic bits?", I hear someone saying...
Ever heard about the pacific gyre?
This video should answer your question.


More info here.

So pleeeaaaase, don't introduce plastic in the environment that is not strictly necessary.
Halloween is coming up. Just the other day I say a stupid plastic fake battery operated candle to put into a pumpkin. Now, already the fact that one uses a pumpkin for purposes other than eating it when there's people in the world that has nothing to eat should make everyone feel guilty... am I so strange?
But inserting an extremely unnecessary and polluting object in it, is just too much for me.
Nothing wrong with celebrating, just do it in a responsible (for the environment) way please: don't buy NEW plastic for your costume!

Hookipa Rockstar Contest update
I'd like to welcome yet another sponsor for the Hookipa Rockstar Contest: Cafe Mambo in Paia is kind enough to offer $50 certificate with the motivation that anybody that ends up plastered on the rocks needs a Margarita on the rocks to celebrate. They are hosting a scary karaoke night for Halloween.

Looks like there's more sponsors than contestants so far... Elena entered the contest with a rock visit last week. The problem of this contest is that not many people are aware of it (believe it or not, not all Hookipa sailors follow this blog), so please help me spread the word.
I'm also thinking of putting the biggest price for the winner and the other prices as a lottery for all the other contestants. Your name will be in the lottery as many times as you've gone on the rocks, but in this way everyone will have the possibility of winning something. All you have to do is to leave a comment on this blog or on the contest facebook page to claim your rockstar point.

Couple of videos.
Last summer I shot a video for some visitors. It was flat and they were not pros, but I was able to pull out 17 minutes of footage. Kind of boring at times, but not if you're in it!!! I uploaded the last song (which is Funeral by The band of horses... and I totally copied it from Bruno Sillac's video!). Here it is.

summer video from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.


Oh, if you really got nothing to do, here's the whole 17 minutes!

I'm about to receive the new amazing High Definition GoPro cameras... so email me if you want a nice video of your windsurfing vacation in Maui!

One more vid. Cookie (who is a french guy called Aurelien, but americans can't pronounce it, so someone nicknamed him Cookie... just like my name and GP) put together a few wipeouts of last Thursday at Hoookipa.

Des windsurfers se sont font gentiment corriger par leur maitre. from windsurfing fever on Vimeo.



As I said already in fact, Hookipa last week was pretty fun with clean waves and veeery offshore winds. This week the offshore wind continues but the waves are pretty much gone.
Pat Caldwell is forecasting rough big waves out of the NW for Thursday (12 to 14 feet faces) and Saturday (14 to 18 feet faces). I personally think that those sizes are a bit overestimated. What I agree with him, unfortunately, is that right after that, at the beginning of next week, we'll have strong onshore winds with big rough windswell, kind of like Sylt conditions... that must be karma!

Anyway, it's still Hawaii, one of most beautiful places on Earth. Let's keep it as such, using as little plastic as possible. Thanks.

Hang on, one more. Blog reader Rafn sends another video of surfing in Iceland! Bloody hell, those guys are good. Respect!!!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post GP. Stopping pollution is something that I also feel very strongly about and I think that one of the first steps to solving it is awareness... so thank you!

Cheers!

Steph

Anonymous said...

Haha very good idea the rockstar contest. I think I will earn lots of points.

See you in the rocks :-)

Chef Tony

Keith said...

my g-d, your "summer" video blew me away. you've managed to kick up this blog another few notches. must of watched the vid over 10x. so can't wait to get back to maui.

Unknown said...

Thanks for your great blog, inspiration both in terms of windsurfing and about issues concerning the enviorment! -makes me think about all the plastic bottles i´ve used through the years..

Anonymous said...

Hi GP,

I adore your blog. Been on Maui for 2 years altogether. Now I am working somewhat close to plastic industry.

One (or two) point (s) I would like to drop however. The problem is not the plasticbottle itself - the problem is also not plastic itself. In fact there are even many positive things about it (reduction in transport costs and energy constumption , as it is much lighter as glassbottles just to name one... ).
Also: we all drive a car: some like it big and heavy. Some need lots of space - some want it fast. We do not want to live without this comfort (Or how could one get the sailing gear from Haiku 10 miles down to the beach?). Just to highlight - a modern car contains some rough 100kg of Polypropylene and tendency is increasing (PP=cheapest plastic that exists). Imagine the Volume of 100kg plastic - imagine this is all steel/aluminum or any other material. Car weight will not only grow 100kg, it will be several 100kgs. Now - every 100kg extra is on litre extra gasoline...

The problem is much more why this bottles end up in the sea? (And in other places where for sure it should not end up). If we have to use this kind of container (and I fully agree - mostly we DO NOT have to) - there is still the option of receycling. Off course when having a closer look on overall energy balance, even burning is a better option then receycling - good at least when compared to direct burning of "our" oil to get energy...

Also - some other ideas like shipping "Fidschi-Water" (off course in plastic bottles) all over the world to get some fidschi feeling going - this is the real problem. But still: better to ship fidschwater in plasticbottles, then fidschiwater in glassbottles. Best would be to leave that frikkin' water where it is.


Just wanted to add some thoughts to the discussion. One thing is for sure - our planet is worth being protected, this is difficult enough. painting black and white will not be the soulution however.

Aloha and keep up the good work!
KL

Anonymous said...

I agree with KL. When there is a family with both parents working it is impossible not to use plastic. There is no time.
Gp sounds like a happy single...and I hope all the happy singles in the world will follow his example, "minimalism". We have to work hard, we have to send three kids to college, we go to Walmart we buy plastic.

WE RECYCLE every single little piece, we have halloween decorations (our kids love it) which we reuse every year and we carve the pumpkins (did you know that the pumpkins for carving are not good for cooking and they cost few bucks each?)

I love the environment and I try to pollute as less as I can but we need to give to our offsprings whatever they need, and like us million of other families in this country.

So I would say if one needs to buy plastic just buy it and then dispose it properly.

Windwiner said...

Hi GP,
My friend Kendal is working on a project that may be interesting to you. Take a look at the video that Google made of the project (this is not an endorsment or anything just an FYI):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf9W3VDf9Bk&feature=channel -
Aloha.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the video re the environment. Singapore gets its fair share of debris of wood, tar, nails, plastic.. etc .etc hugging its shore every year during the middle of the year.

I am as curious as KL, point is how did all this end in the sea?

Everyone is a consumer one way or another, and everyne I know consciously recycle as much as possible. I just don't believe people would deliberately litter the sea.

Always feel there is a missing link in this picture, if we all know how it land in the sea, the problem could be tackled accordingly.

Nonetheless, the video is an eye opener. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers mate
Lim

Anonymous said...

Great links/messages on the environment GP. To bad, we Humans are very very selfish and self-absorbed.

Sylt... maybe not quite :) - at least we don't have to wear wetsuits, booties etc...


Current conditions (Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 20:50 UTC)

Sylt October 29th...
=============================
Temperature: 8°C
Sky: overcast
Humidity: 87%
Wind: From the ESE at 16 mph
Pressure: 1028 hPa
Dewpoint: 6°C