Clean Future

It has been more than 10 years since I began my journey into what has now become my passion. Back in 2009 I started a course to become an Outdoor Sports Instructor and little did I know that this was where I would find and begin my journey into what has now become my work, my hobby and my complete lifestyle.

My education was tailored at the skills of instructing in various sports such as Kayaking, Sailing, Rock Climbing and Wind Surfing but to name a few. So with that, my main classroom would have been the rivers and oceans or as some might say the great outdoors of Ireland.

The more time I spent in the outdoors the greater my love and appreciation grew for its vast and natural beauty. Something that has recently been tainted directly by us and our choices. Often I venture out to catch waves on my board in some fantastic location such as Garretstown in Cork or Castlegregory in Kerry, yet more often than ever I come across plastic wrappers and plastic bottle caps and the frustration grows deeper within me.

“This is our own doing, these are the choices we have made.”

Those are the thoughts that run through my mind and in those moments I pick up the floating plastic and stuff it into my wetsuit to bring back to the nearest recycling point. With each piece of plastic that I pick up the words and teachings of my course instructors always comes back to me and they say;

“Leave no Trace.”

This is exactly the perfect sentence that we can implement into our lives and can directly impact the decision we make. Be it on our shopping list or when we visit the coast, forests or rivers, we must Leave no Trace. What this means is that if we decide to buy bananas without plastic wrapping, we leave no trace, if we bring a reusable tin box to the butchers we save on meat wrapped in plastic thus we leave no trace. We have the power of choice and that choice can affect whether or not we live in a country with a clean beach and a clean future.

So I say to you, will you join me in changing our future and environment for the better by taking small, simple steps? All you need to remember is… Leave no Trace. Simple.