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Sail Boats

My Story

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Hi, my name is Ocean and I am a sailor from Hong Kong.  As my name suggests, the ocean has been my second home for as long as I can remember. My family always takes me and my brother out to do something by the beach whenever we are free.

Last summer, I purchased an inflatable paddleboard and took it out almost every day. I played an adventurer and hopped from one secluded beach to the next, even ending up camping on the back of a random island one night (which was not the best experience). All these beaches shared one thing in common: the seemingly infinite flow of trash washing up onto the shores. I immediately took action and gathered a few friends who were willing to support my spontaneous effort to clean beaches up. We filled bags after bags of random trash ranging from your average coke bottle to the lungs of pigs (I know. Wild right?). I won't lie to you, after a week of ferrying trash from beaches to the orange trash cans on my little paddleboard, I gave up. I adopted the mindset of "if no one's doing it, why should I?" This summer, I'm going to try a different approach. Rather than picking up trash at the beach (which obviously still makes an impact albeit small), I'm going to raise awareness for ocean conservation by sailing around HK, documenting the state of different beaches and the underrated beauty of our ocean.

 

I came across inflatable sailboats in an ad on Cheung Chau, an island in Hong Kong, and became heavily invested in the idea. I spent the last year researching different models and finally settled on one, the Minicat 420 Catamaran. I then jumped onto planning the trip while finishing freshman year in the US. My catamaran is called “HiPP | OneOcean” (thank you to my friends at HiPP who have so generously covered the cost of the boat and supported this cause) and my slogan is “One Planet, OneOcean”, because we only have one ocean and we should protect it at all costs.

 

My mom gave me the idea of selling t-shirts to raise money for an NGO. I scoured the internet and there were hundreds of international NGOs that were advocating for the same cause: save our oceans. However, I wanted to find a local NGO so that we could actually get stuff done and see change happen, not just a marketing campaign. I settled on A Plastic Ocean Foundation HK which also made the movie A Plastic Ocean on Netflix . The movie made me pretty emotional, but it made me even more determined to give back to our ocean which has brought me so much joy over the years. They pledged me their full support and I got to work designing t-shirts.

I remembered from the back of my head that companies were using plastic bottles to create clothes. I thought it would an amazing idea to offer that as the fundraising product. Creating closure and taking eliminating plastic waste to the next level. I found the company Tsunami Sportswear who are dedicated to creating sustainable clothing. I reached out to them and they agreed to partner with OneOcean without hesitation. I cannot wait to see what the t-shirts will look like! 

So, that's my story of how I got to where I am now! My effort to advocate for change will not stop here, I will continue to find ways to give back to our beautiful ocean. I hope you too will feel motivated and create change. Because change starts with you and comes in waves!

Here are some pictures of Ocean and the ocean:

 

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