Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Why Surf? Why NOT to Surf!

Ed. Note: My Dad, Gerry Vartan, is a lifelong surfer (see bio below); this is him with his board. I can never remember a time when my Dad wasn’t scanning the ocean near his Sydney home to check out the breaks; he’s been surfing much longer than I’ve been around. I asked him to write about what surfing means to him.

Guest Post by Gerry Vartan

International Surfing Day is on June 20th, which this year is a Saturday & also my wedding anniversary! I hope everyone has a good time and catches lot of waves & cleans up all the mess. It’s for a worthy cause (leave nothing on the beach except your footprints). I applaud all the sponsors for their doing something for the ocean & promoting themselves rather than just promoting themselves.

Will I be out in the water? Well after you’ve read my piece below you will see that it will depend.

1. What Surfing Is Not

Surfing ain’t no sport. If you think that surfing is a sport you’re wrong. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet.

Making personal outdoor physical activity into a sport has taken away the subtle & personal interaction people have with the natural environment. The sport of surfing is the antithesis of surfing.

This idea is nothing new. Sport is a great way to pit one person against another, get the crowds to gather around to cheer & boo, place bets and see which gladiator can kill the other first! The winner used an Acme sword so there will be a run on those in the stalls. People will proudly display their own Acme sword and so convince everyone they are as brave, powerful and as strong a fighter as the winning gladiator! If they can’t afford the sword or have no need of one they’ll buy the t-shirt!
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Betty Belts!

The Talia belt is made with recycled glass beads, ceramic tiles, and vegan leather

The Selena belt is made from farmed mother-of-pearl and vegan leather

Poking around on the internet for some new eco-friendly accessories recently, I found Betty Belts, which makes the super-gorgeous waist-wrappers above. The designer of Betty Belts, Donna von Hoesslin, is an avid and active surfer, (the company just won a ‘Green Wave’ award) and of course, like all cool chicks, a blogger!

Donna (that’s her above) says:

My goal is to continue down this road using sustainable, reused, recycled, organic and natural materials whenever possible. I am focused on reducing waste to a bare minimum. I consider the impact in every choice I make for my business and my home and always look the most sustainable method, even if it takes a lot more time and effort to find a feasible solution. Efforts like these are the foundational building blocks of hope for a better world. A cleaner, simpler and less wasteful world which we can all work toward step by step.

Tribewanted!

 

Now this is the kind of news that gets me excited. I was surfing around (I have no idea how I got there) and I happened upon the home page for Tribewanted: Adventure Island. Now, there are few clubs I’ve ever wanted to join, but this might be one.

You take Figiian isle, mix it with environmentally sustainable development, involve the locals in the planning process, invite 4,999 friends, and make the planning of your vacation spot a group activity, and you’ve got Tribewanted. The idea is to create a hip, members-only vacation club that young people can actually afford, and do it in a way that includes the input of all the people who are part of it. Only 100 people are allowed on the island at one time, to minimize impact.

Island Development
There are many areas that will be creatively decided upon and developed by the tribe including: clean water, power, waste disposal, accommodation, washing, food, drink, entertainment, adventure activities, sports, community & environmental projects. The tribewanted team and the 12 elected chiefs will initiate proposals on tribewanted.com for the development of the Island. The tribe will then discuss and decide what happens. Potential interesting developments already identified by the founding chiefs include:

• Cliff-top lagoon & zip-slide
• Sunset Stage and Beach Bar
• Two-tiered Tribal Base
• Island Thatched Bures & Sky view showers
• Jungle Sports Arena
• Scuba & Surf School
• Secret Beach chill-out area
• Fruit & Vegetable Orchard

See more on the environmental plan, and the FAQ will explain most of your questions. There are only 5,000 spots, (so it’s kinda like a time-share) and after a 3-year contract is up, the island’s chief decides whether it’s in the best interests of his tribe to keep the gig going. Local people are involved in much of the planning and execution and seem to have the right to veto.

You can plan become a member of the tribe, able to visit for 7 days a year for $220 bucks, 14 days over 2 years for $440, or 21 nights over 3 years for $660.

Knock, Knock – Knockers – and Knocked Up

C’mon, you gotta know me by now…I just had to go searching for this one…

S-t-r-e-t-c-h marks: We either got  ‘em, are going to get ‘em, or are OCD enough that we have to prevent them even if we’re not prone to them!

So I went surfing the big cyber waves and came up with Earth.Mama.Angel.Baby….(no relation to Gwen’s -  Love.Angel.Music.Baby – (even though she can use this on her big frontal bump right now)…Very interesting copywrite:

“Massage this light, luscious oil onto your growing middle section, hips and breasts… It’s infused with certified organic chamomile and calendula to keep your skin moisturized, soft and pliant. You can also pour it into a warm bath and/or massage it into your perineum…” WOW, that is enough to turn any guy on I’d imagine…
* Guess what? It also has no nut oils? good, cause we never really liked nuts anyway! And they say it smells like heaven!!! Hmmm, how the hell do they know that?!?