Munich To Panama

Panama’s signature, world class, surf break is Santa Catalina, but up until a year ago you couldn’t even buy a block of wax in town. There was no surf shop. Now, Catalina has a surf shop and it’s run by 2 German girls, Elli & Patricia.

Their story is so cool, I had to write about it. They are from the same town in Germany, Munich, but they met in Panama were they were learning to surf and living in paradise. When it came time to go home they didn’t want the dream to end, so they started a surf shop.

That was a big move for 2 girls who knew nothing about the surf industry, had no connections or know-how on running a shop, couldn’t speak Spanish and were only learning to surf, but they did it and did it in style. Now they have half a day to surf, everyday, only open when they like, are their own bosses and are living the surfers dream.

Vegetarianism

Nothing adds credibility to a writers voice like quoting a more famous and credible source. I think I found a good one for this topic.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet” Albert Einstein.

I like how he used the term evolution to a vegetarian diet. Albert was quite succinct in his argument, I took a few more words in saying vegetarian motherhood and raising vege kids is absolutely healthy and a huge step towards saving the planet, from us.

Read on…

Is a Vegetarian Diet Suitable During Pregnancy?

Raising Vegetarian Children

Alaias

I love surfing Alaias. Tom Wegener who is largely responsible for the rebirth of the alaia is a full advocate of the DIY approach to alaia surfing. The way he tells it, you can start with a long wide plank of wood and shape a 7ft alaia, then go for a ride.

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From my experience you fall off loads on the first attempt, but you also get that feeling; fluid and super fast, melding with the wave yet skating across the surface. Surfing an alaia is all about feeling the wave and dancing with it.

Now back to the DIY part. After a surf or two take the 7ft alaia back to the work shed and re-shape it. Make it a 6 footer with a swallow tail or deepen the center concave or re-shape the rails all you need is sandpaper, a hand plane and a saw. Each surf alter a different aspect of the board and then ride it to feel how that affects performance. It really is a great way to learn about hydrodynamics and surfboard design. When you have sanded and chopped that alaia till it is too small to ride (you can belly board a 4ft alaia), give it to a kid and spread the stoke.

A wrote an article on alaias for The Surfboard Man.

Alaias - A Modern Resurgence of Ancient Surfboards

Playa Gigante, Nicaragua

Right now I am living in Playa Gigante, It is a very villagey kind of beach town, in Nicaragua. Their are about 50 families that live in Gigante, but in reality it is only 4 big extended families, in 50 different houses.

We are running a surf shop in a building owned by Orlando. We share a bathroom with the next door neighbours, who are Orlandos relations (we still have not worked out how) and they share a kitchen with the restaurant across the street, but not how you would think. The restaurant has no kitchen, Carlos, Orlando's son, still gets his mum to cook for him, and all his customers, but in her own kitchen. This sort of neighbourly relations is normal in Gigante.

I have added Gigante to the HostelTrail map.

Earth Day is April 22

Earth Day is a global campaign to raise environmental awareness and inspire the masses (that's you) into taking green infused action (not just talking about it). It's a good idea.

Here is what I wrote about Earth Day for Green Parenthood; Earth Day Is Tomorrow,

and here is what the Earth Day Network has to say about it.

A Billion is real big number and depending on what part of the world you are from it will have 9 or 12 zeros. The English speaking portion of the world means a thousand million (9 zeros) when they say a billion. The rest of the world defines a billion as million million (12 zeros). Weird huh?

Anyway the Earth Day Network has set humanity a goal of making A Billion Acts of Green before 4th June 2012. An act of green is anything that is good for the earth or that tells others to be good to the earth, ie. an act of environmental service or advocacy.

This link is to my article on A Billion Acts of Green and this is the real A Billion Acts of Green website, were you should go to record your good green deeds.

Green Parenthood

Greenparenthood.com is not a website about mothering plants or raising little green men. It is about being a parent and going about it in a way that nourishes your child and the planet.

I am not a parent but if I was it’s the sort of website I would visit. I now write for GreenParenthood.com so by the time I do get around to having kids I should be well informed.

Links to articles:

The importance of Omega-3 For Children

Shoes

I have spent the past year searching for the greenest travel shoe possible. I arrived in Peru with a pair of hiking boots and very old Chuck Taylor One-Stars. Neither of which were particular eco-friendly choices in footwear. They were just the shoes I had in my cupboard, thus using them avoided unnecessary consumerism (Not buying is better than buying, even if you are purchasing the latest “eco” model outdoor shoes).

This search for clean, green, earth friendly footwear that is easy to pack and looks OK with most of my clothes has lead me to sell the hiking boots that were too heavy, socially awkward and only actually necessary about 2% of the time; spend too many idle hours drooling over the latest model of Patagonia footwear, only to realise it is entirely pointless buying an eco-friendly product shipped internationally; embarrass my girlfriend and amuse the local people by being shoe-less for weeks, and finally I came around to admiring the poorest guy in the markets sandals.

Why the shoes of the dirty guy with matted hair and smelly clothes? Well, they are locally made out of recycled car tyres, hand stitched roughly but still no glue is used to hold them together and they will last longer than a really long time. You can’t fault the dirty guy on his environmentally conscience choice of foot protection, nor me since I bought these in Colombia.

Eventually I couldn’t help myself, and in Costa Rica, I took a hacksaw to a tyre and bought some leather straps to come up with these.

Now I wear them everywhere, or go bare-feet.