An Island Odyssey

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This is a short piece written and photographed by Clare James Photography for Odyssey Innovation all about a remote, cold water explorative handplaning trip with some information on their recycled ocean plastic handplanes. You can follow them and the work they do on Instagram@odysseyinnovation @clarejamesphotography and on their websitehttps://odysseyinnovation.com/

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Photographers:

Clare James Photography @clarejamesphotography

Bodysurfer Magazine Logo Design: Marjorie Carlotti

General Design: @bodysurfer_magazine

@ ODYSSEYINNOVATION @CLAREJAMESPHOTOGRAPHY

An Island Odyssey

Vast expanses of moorland, not a tree for as far as the eye could see, a wind lashed landscape blanketed by torrential sheets of rain.  Huge swells building and erupting along the exposed shoreline, leading us to seek shelter, in order to find a clean wave.

Anticipation for this trip had been building, searching for empty waves on remote beaches. Rainbows graced the sky, wind tore at our jackets as we left the shelter of our tiny van to check a wave we had spotted breaking in the distance. A lone surfer framed by an arch of vibrant colour, etched itself in my memory. Brisk offshore wind whipping the spray of the wave tops.

A couple of weeks into the trip, conditions were looking perfect for a particular reef. I could not resist the glassy perfection which greeted us. It was empty. A perfect spot to take out our Odyssey Innovation marine recycled handplanes. Bodysurfing these perfect waves is such a rush as you are immersed in the power zone under the lip of the wave, fully involved with the raw energy of the ocean.

We spent the next couple of days, with handplanes and fins strapped to backpacks hiking across moorland and remote windy beaches, searching for empty waves perfect for bodysurfing and we were rewarded. :)

Five weeks travelling with four boards, handplanes, two people, wet wetsuits, camera gear. We became efficient at dancing around one another and everything had to have its place. Days passed surfing, hiking, exploring remote bothies and valleys, watching Golden Eagles hunt and Otters play. Long evening’s spent cooking on the vans wood stove, cuddled up under a blanket. Defrosting and drying out slowly, listening to the crackle and feeling the warmth on our wind-burnt faces, reminiscing on the day’s adventures.

The handplanes we are using are made by a local Cornish company called Odyssey Innovation. They are 100% marine recycled plastic which is collected through Odyssey’s net and marine regeneration recycling schemes. These schemes work with an array of local harbours and beach clean groups in order to recycle their hard plastics and gill and trawl nets. The material is sorted, shredded and then pelletised, the handplanes are moulded in Plymouth, U.K.. Keeping the entire process local. Odyssey also creates other products from this recycled plastic such as net bins and kayaks.

The hand and wrist straps of the hand plane are also recycled. They are made from repurposed neoprene, using wetsuits that would otherwise have gone to landfill and stitched locally in Portreath. As one of our ambassadors Lizzi said on a recent surf session this allows her  “to have guilt-free fun in the sea”.