Why I am a Blue Ambassador:
Q1. How does your sport connect you to the natural environment and how does that environment continually motivate and inspire you to achieve goals – sporting and other life goals?
The nature of my travels means I’m fighting a constant three-way battle between body, mind and surroundings. Each of these trough and peak, but nature has its way of picking you up when you’re down. A timely reminder of why you do what you do is nature’s call to action, like early morning on a wide river, mist rising from the surface and fish jumping, or later on at dusk when the banks are lined with wildlife, sipping water and eyeing you up. I combine sport with travel because it pulls me into the real world, the ones that exists regardless of how the stock exchange is fluctuating or how full the tube is during rush hour. If I achieve my expedition’s goals I’m offered more opportunity to get back to the wild, and share further what I experience through varying environments, so I’m provided with a natural motivation every time I unzip my tent.
Q2. What has your sport, and experiences through it, taught you about your natural environment?
It’s important to be humble, and Mother Nature has her way of putting you in your place. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a range of environments from river to mountain to jungle to ocean, and let me tell you, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve broken world records or achieved feats that few others have, if you don’t have respect for nature you’ll soon find out just how unimportant you are! I’m driven by our planet, we’re ever so lucky to have the opportunity to experience the world around us and as we do so it becomes natural to try and care for it.
Q3. Sport is intimately connected to nature and a healthy environment is necessary for a healthy planet. By participating in your sport, have you encountered anything that’s truly shocked you about the impact human activity is having on the natural environment?
In 2009 I walked and paddled along the length of Australia’s Murray River, investigating the reasons behind the river’s current plight. Although a severe drought is partly responsible – and it’s not yet easy to discern whether the drought is a man-made issue – there are a series of human elements that contribute to this magnificent river’s decline. You can’t travel along the Murray in ignorance about its lessening water levels, acid content, dying River Red Gums, algae blooms in the summer and waste management problems. Travelling by kayak enables you to literally touch your environment around each bend, you depend on it, and when a river is so short of water that it barely flows then you’re required to be more sporting! Otherwise you just don’t go anywhere. Along the length of the Murray banks that used to be underwater are dry and broken, jetties and wharfs sit too high above the river’s surface to be of any use. 330 days of the year the river doesn’t even flow into the sea. Yet you won’t go 300 metres without a pipe guzzling water from river to garden, or plantation, or farm. Humans close their eyes to problems that they don’t feel impacts on their life, we’re largely science-based creatures, we believe when we see. Until you get out there and see floating fish, falling trees and thick scum on a stagnant river you live in blissful ignorance. Human nature doesn’t lend itself to protecting the planet, sport goes someway to putting you in the face of it. We have to start somewhere.
Q4. If you were to motivate people (on a local, national, or international level) on one particular environmental issue, what would it be?
Use a bin. Effective environmental action starts with each of us as individuals and the amount of plastic, paper and other waste drifting in our waterways (let alone the ocean) can be prevented. It doesn’t take much to crouch and pick up litter.
Q5. What have you actively changed in your day to day living behaviour and choices, including how you go-about your sport that makes a positive difference to the health of our planet?
I’m in the middle of a project that involves traveling on water, and to kick it off I moved onto a narrowboat on a Wiltshire canal. Instantly I was dependent on finite supplies. Can’t leave the tap running, need to fill up the toilet flush, unplug the laptop if it’s got a full battery. Now I’m back on dry land I’ve stuck to the little lessons. I spend plenty of time in the office planning, editing and communicating – it’s all part of my sport. I don’t print anything unless I absolutely have to, I re-use the same water bottle for as long as possible. When I’m training and traveling I pick up litter from the water and often come home with a paddleboard covered in rubbish!
Q6. What motivated you to become involved with The BLUE Climate and Oceans Project?
Blue’s aims and objectives mirrored my personal and professional beliefs perfectly. Sport is a glue that binds people together and it is the most effective way to get people thinking about how their environment relates to them, by getting involved with Blue it made our respective messages stronger.
Q7. What one piece of advice would you offer to encourage people into thinking proactively about a BLUE future?
Make sure you get out on the water more often and do some Blue Miles regularly. It stands to reason that you’ll think ‘Blue’ if you’re surrounded by the Blue stuff. Once you do that, take your thoughts and messages back to dry land, and turn them into actions.
Q8. A call to action – What can people do to become BLUE?
Go to www.blueproject.org, buy a Blue T-Shirt, attend or even arrange a talk by a Blue Ambassador and sign up to the Blue Mile on www.thebluemile.org.
