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MARINE WILDERNESS
After
working as a wilderness guide in the
Richtersveld then living on the Durban
Beachfront I found many ways to connect to
nature in town especially with the sea. I
developed some ideas for connecting people to
nature through experiences in the marine world
in a similar way to what one does on a
wilderness trail.
1
1989-90 I worked as a Wilderness guide For River
Rafters in the Richtersveld.
2 1990- 2001 I worked part-time and full-time as
a lifeguard on the Durban beachfront, Jeffreys
Bay and Sun city where I worked to develop
connections through which to do conservation
work.
Working together
with the law enforcement departments during this
period we became involved with inner city
problems. Dealing with issues of drugs, violent
crime, abuse, street kids etc was part of the
job. Working with people in this environment
one could not avoid taking on responsibility for
peoples problems etc. Part of a way forward in
my mind was always to encourage a connection
with nature. This is very much part of the
surfing lifestyle.
3 1999- 2000 While working as a part time
lifeguard I was employed by Tripper (who was
importing sea Kayaks) to set up sea Kayak trips.
I was also doing surf-ski repairs for Tripper
and through this met Ian Read and Keith Roberts,
both keen ski paddlers and Wilderness Leadership
School guides. We became friends and did a sea
kayaking course together at Saldanha. They helped me
with preparing my kayak trips in the Durban
area. The ideas of dealing with the sea as a
wilderness area and using areas closer to home
to connect people to nature and encourage an
appreciation of nature became part of the plan
for the trips. Trips were set up on Durban Harbour (An amazing experience to see the life
there especially the mangroves, complete with
fish eagles, where you can be completely out of
sight of civilization) Umgeni River, Umhlanga
Rocks Lagoon and Umdloti river. It was quite
amazing how much there was to see in these
overlooked spots. The trips were great with
friends and family as an experiment and friendly
exercise but they were never developed
commercially for many reasons.
After working with Tripper I also worked with
John Church doing commercial kayak trips from
Vetch's Pier along the beachfront and out
into the Durban Bay.
4 2001- 2008 I then began my own ding repair
service from home and concentrated on developing
my art. I had been working in the surf factories
as a board sprayer and working towards
developing my art for other uses in the surf
industry. I did art
for Quiksilver t-shirt prints and always used images promoting
a constructive appreciation of nature within the surfing lifestyle. Through
Quiksilver I connected to the Crossing project. The
Crossing was a surf trip being made around the
world by the Indies Trader to promote
conservation issues in a spirit of good will.
This was great and I hoped to build on this to
do more conservation work through Quiksilver.
I worked briefly doing webslites for an American
company while developing my art further. I made
friends with Lylie Musgrave who helped with my
art. Lylie was very involved with the Save the
Wildcoast people and this also linked me to
people connected to the Wilderness Group. Many
good people such as John Costello, Div De
Villiers and Andrew Muir. She connected me with
Sheila Berry who is involved with the Wilderness
Group.
At a Wilderness Action Group Meeting at the
Wilderness Leadership School I
spoke about marine wilderness and
what I had developed with the sea kayak trips.
Sheila was very encouraging and
supportive. We discussed developing things
further to use the venues I had explored for sea
kayak trips as meeting places for bridging
courses - follow up outings for people who have
done wilderness trails.
I attended a book launch where Ian Player made a
speech and I found this very moving. I felt he
was talking the language of those people in the
surf and sea lifestyles who connect to nature
and God through their involvement with the sea.
I wanted to connect the
surfing world to the wilderness group.
It was suggested by Lylie that I do a painting
to commemorate Dr Players 80th Birthday. This
painting was a great success and through this I
was able to meet Dr Player who was very
encouraging.
2008 - 2010 Things were a bit hectic on the
beachfront and I was ready for a change. My brother suggested I move
to CT to help him as he had more art and
graphics work than he could handle. In April I
moved to CT. Shortly afterwards I received news from Sheila
that the Magqubu Ntombela Foundation wanted to
buy the Ian Player painting. Soon after I was
informed that my dolphin painting had been
selected to be included in the exhibition of
short-listed entries for the David Shepherd
Wildlife artist of the year award in London.
Together with the Ian
Player painting this was good progress in
becoming a professional artist.
I then flew to
Durban to arrange postage to London and to
attend the opening of the Ian Player/ Magqubu
Ntombela LIbrary in Hillcrest where the painting
is hung. This is where I met Ian Ewing. I was a
bit disappointed at that time to have left
Durban as I was starting to make worthwhile
contacts there through which to do marine
wilderness work. The Painting of Dr Player was
sold for R22 000 of which I donated half for the
training of a Wilderness Leadership School
Guide.
The projects I came to help my brother with
involved setting up the Shark Centre at Kalk bay
and helping him with his Kelp horn Vuvuzela
project. After setting up the SC I worked as a
volunteer developing an education programme and
doing presentations at functions. This has
allowed me to connect with surfing and
lifesaving groups and I am building on this all
the time to do awareness presentations and
clean-ups etc. I have tied in with Wavescape and
developed a good friendship with them through
which to work as well as other surf groups.
The Kelp project has an education side which I
have developed to tie in with the SC. The SC
education has been a big project and I have
worked there for two years dealing with many
people from many walks of life. We have worked
with the city of CT to bring underpriveledged
kids on outings and we have reached many people
through outreach programmes and participating in
events. This has been a good test for my wilderness
ideas which I have applied to my teaching programme. I have found the experience working
with inner city problems in Durban has also made
it possible for me to connect on a real level
with these kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. The
results of this have been good and I am quite
proud of the success we made of this education programme.
Sheila has been in touch all along and visits CT
from time to time. She has been encouraging me
to develop a marine wilderness school here so I
have been applying this thinking in all my
education work and linking up with people and
venues through which to make it happen. Hectic
trying to fit this all in with earning a living
but good progress.
I have also done a wilderness bridging course
with a group from Educo who met at Soetwater to
connect after going on a wilderness trail
together some time earlier. My brother and I did
our KELP education programme at the Marine Coastal
Educators Network conference where the presentation went
very well. Judy Mann, director of UShaka in
Durban is a top educator and has worked with my
parents. She has offered to help me develop a marine wilderness
education programme. I really would like to find
time to make this happen.
I did a presentation to Ian and Sharon McCallum
the Pride of Table Mountain group about marine
wilderness and this went down well. The Pride of
Table Mountain group is the CT wing of WLS.
Last week the Pride group visited the SC to do
our education programme and learn about marine
issues. They enjoyed the outing and this was a
significant step forward in linking wilderness
ideas to marine conservation. I am planning
further outings with the Pride group to Cape
Point nature reserve. I have discussed plans
with Penny Cheney to work with SAN Parks
education department to set up marine wilderness
trails and outings using some very appropriate
facilities and trails.
I plan to work with the Wilderness Foundation to
develop this further and we are discussing ways
forward at the moment for building up the Cape
Town Wilderness branch and developing a marine
wing.
Once we have set up a South African Marine
Wilderness centre I would like to set up an
international centre and have some ideas for
this.
On 5 June 2010 I arranged an outing to the Cape Point
reserve for 20 kids from the Earthchild
Project. I am now developing a marine wilderness
programme in the reserve with SAN Parks.
For info about the Marine Wilderness programme
see the
Education programs page
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