After undergoing shoulder surgery due to a heavy body surfing wipeout at Llandudno, Cape Town based Stuart Schroeder used the down time to clean up his local in Kalk Bay. By documenting his efforts, Stuart gains entry into our Tuffy Beach Clean-Up competition, which puts him in the running to win a brand new shred stick compliments of Firewire and Share The Stoke Foundation.
Even with a sling still over his shoulder, Stuart manages to make a positive difference at Kalk Bay.
Read more about Stuart’s interesting story below, as he first discovered the recyclable Tuffy bag inside the mag whilst weening off a heavy dose of anaesthetic:
On October 13 I underwent shoulder surgery to fix a dislocation and further damage I suffered whilst taking part in a body surfing competition at Lllandudno in Cape Town. Of all the possible things that could have kept me out of the water, it had to be body surfing…
As I came around still under the affects of anaesthetic, my two good mates showered me with gifts – one being the new Zigzag. As the nurse brought my urine sample, well so I thought (my apple juice) I grabbed the mag, tore open the plastic and dove in. My slushy anaesthetic brain was very confused to find a Tuffy recyclable bag inside. I attempted to read the magazine only to pass out only a couple pages in due to the nurse connecting more meds through my IV line.
Later that evening, being woken from the Hiroshima bomb of two men snoring in my ward, I decide to get out of bed and grab the Zigzag while untangling my IV line and pushing the contraption that sounds like a grocery trolley down the corridor. A nurse then stops me asking, “Everything alright? If so, please would you return to your bed sir.” At this moment in time a loud grunting sound echoed from my ward. I look at her and say, “unless you have some ear plugs I would very much like to chill on the waiting room couches around the corner for a bit. She laughs, ‘’Don’t wonder too far as I need to give you more meds in an hour”. It’s now 2:00am in the morning and I crunch the numbers, I have about 45 minutes to read this magazine before I need to head back to the ward. Once the medication is attached to the IV line I have about 5 – 10 minutes before the damn stuff knocks me out.
Out of hospital and back on the beach!
I sit down, get comfortable and start where I left off. The content is insightful and the imagery is amazing as usual. It brings a smile to my face to see my mate James Lowe featured on the cover, so damn stoked for him. Finally I reach the page that brings sense to the Tuffy bag and I am overjoyed at such a great initiative.
So on October 24, once I had regained some movement, I accepted the challenge and went down to my local spot “Kalk Bay Reef”. This area is a conservation zone with a vast amount of sea life. However, there’s a lot of plastic, fishing gut and empty ‘pap suck’ bags which float from the nearby harbour onto the beach and amongst the rocks.
During my surfs I generally pick up what I can see, but I feel if every beach goer did the same it would have a huge impact and help reduce the pollution in so many areas. This “competition” / initiative is amazing as I feel it is going to open the eyes of many people. Rubbish has become part of our daily lives; some could say it has almost blended in. It has opened my eyes to much more than just the beach and I feel that it will have done the same for many others that have taken part. My only wish is that people continue to pick up stuff they see, long after this “competition” has ended.
I’m super stoked on this initiative and a big thanks must go out to everyone involved. It’s so rad to see companies working together for the greater good.
It’s frightening the amount of strange discarded junk that ends up on our beaches.
Stuart picking up plastic bottles in amongst the kelp debris.
