Originally from New York, Christian Shaw paddles out of Santa Cruz, California and is a water-man with a huge focus on stand up paddling. He's a SUP Surfer, whitewater paddler and a competitor at races including the 11 cities...he certainly rolls up his sleeves and gets involved.

After a conference in 2014, Christian and fellow environmentalists were inspired to set up Plastic Tides , an organisation with the goal "to inspire action toward a plastic-free future, through adventure, education and youth empowerment".

It's a noble goal and one that they've been doing extremely effectively.

We discuss how he mixed his anti-plastic ambitions with stand up paddle and how well the sport has served as a platform to deliver the message.

Plastic has some frightening statistics. In 2015 381 million tonnes of plastic was created worldwide, 19.5% of which was recycled, 25.5% incinerated and 55% discarded.

8 million tonnes of plastic finds its way into the ocean every year and there are a ton more statistics here: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

Watch the film of Christian's SUP circumnavigation of Bermuda back in 2014 https://vimeo.com/129335820

The study results from his trip are posted on this study map https://www.adventurescientists.org/microplastics.html

Since Bermuda, there have been many other trips and there are many more to come.

We really hope that you enjoyed this podcast. As a thank you, grab a free list of our 14 favourite and most useful paddle apps by signing up at www.supfm.show

Mahalo!

Mentioned in this episode:

Paddle UK

Paddle UK is the governing body for SUP in the UK and this year was awarded the ICF World Cup in 2026 in Torbay Come and join us in 2026 and also at the 2025 Super Festival event in Torbay to get ready for the 'big' one next year

Paddle UK 2026 World Cup