Home-swapping has thrived in New York City since Local Law 18 went into effect one year ago and placed tight restrictions on short-term rentals.
27.08.2024 - 21:44 / cntraveler.com
On a cloudy morning in Senegal, surfer Babacar Thiaw paddled through a sea of plastic. That day, he was the only local in the lineup at his home surf spot of Virage on the coast of Dakar, where his father first opened a surf shack in the 1970s. As he marveled at the barreling brown waves riddled with trash—and travelers—it hit him: “They’re just here for fun and will leave, but I’ll be here forever,” he thought. “Am I going to be condemned to live in this environment for the rest of my life?” Fast-forward more than a decade, and you’ll now find Thiaw making his own waves as the owner of Copacabana Surf Village, a surf shop, zero-waste restaurant, and a hub for sustainability initiatives like beach clean-ups and youth surf camps with an eco lean.
Babacar Thiaw, a Senegalese surfer based in Dakar, has committed to cleaning up his local surf spot of Virage.
Copacabana Surf Village, Thiaw’s eco-friendly surf shop and zero-waste restaurant, engages kids with beach clean-ups and youth surf camps.
Thiaw is part of an increasingly urgent surfer-led movement to protect the world’s oceans. In 2020, he founded the Senegal chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a group of eco-conscious surfers that first formed in Malibu, California, in 1984 but has grown dramatically over the past decade. Surfers have long seen themselves as stewards of the ocean: After all, more than 75% of the world’s surf breaks are located in biodiverse ecosystems, giving millions of surfers worldwide a front-row seat to nature, and the growing impact humans are having on it. But with each passing year, new initiatives are tapping into this knowledge to raise awareness, track environmental changes, and shift policy. After all: Who wants to surf through piles of garbage?
“There is a long history of surfers being the first to ring the alarm of environmental damages to coastal habitats and that strong stewardship ethic continues today,” says Emmett Balassone, communications coordinator at Save The Waves Coalition. “Surfers may be the first to witness coral bleaching, sick seabirds or marine mammals, water quality changes like algae blooms, and other environmental issues like plastic pollution.”
Thiaw founded the Senegal chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a group of eco-conscious surfers.
How to get involved
Surfers and beach-goers worldwide can use the Save The Waves mobile app to help crowdsource data on threats such as plastic pollution, poor water quality, and sea-level rise, which is then sent to partner organizations.
Coinciding with the UN’s Ocean Decade, a plan to manage oceans sustainably by 2030, there’s been a call to more formally protect beloved surf spots with a multi-pronged approach. The obvious place to start is with pervasive
Home-swapping has thrived in New York City since Local Law 18 went into effect one year ago and placed tight restrictions on short-term rentals.
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When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.
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