The 2017 Cobbles Classic surfing event and Cape Recife Music Festival in Port Elizabeth last weekend, heralded the start of a drive to create “plastic-free” surf contests in South Africa. Spearheading the campaign is Diony Lalieu, the winner of Roving Reporters 2017 Soul Surfer award at the SA Longboarding Championships hosted in Durban earlier this year.
Since winning the title, Diony has been on a mission as our Ocean Watch ambassador. Supported by the Human Elephant Foundation and Roving Reporters, the 42-year old mother of two, has gone waddling in aid of Penguins, donating R1000 to the sea bird rescue centre, Sannccob, covered the 2017 World Whale Conference in Durban in June and the recent Ocean Stewards Science Session at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She represented Roving Reporters on the 10-week UCT-GetSmarter Feature Writing course and recently launched Surfers’ Pledge – a platform to engage surfers in creating public awareness of critical issues affecting the health of the ocean.
In this interview with The Herald, Diony talks about the need to create awareness around the problems non-bio-degradable plastics create for oceans and marine: Plastic protestor, Diony Lalieu, brings her message to the Bay.
Click here to read more of Diony’s Ocean Watch stories.
In support of Surfers Pledge, Faithful to Nature supplied glass water bottles for all contestants and judges at Cobbles Classic water bottles. Loggers Union arranged a water dispenser and We Care Collective provided bamboo straws,