Our founders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the star guests at an evening event titled ‘Ocean House Nightcap: Extra Time’
They’re in France for UNOC, the global conference which takes place from 9-13 June.
“The ocean is so important in order for us to have a healthy future on this planet.”
– Blair Tuke
Today at UNOC our founders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the star guests at an evening event titled ‘Ocean House Nightcap: Extra Time’ speaking to a crowd of around 200 at a stunning beachside venue in Nice.
They’re in France for the global conference which takes place from 9-13 June.
The pair shared their story of racing success on the world stage, the motivation and inspiration to launch Live Ocean, and went on to describe the work the foundation does to scale up science, innovation and outreach in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Aotearoa, New Zealand is an island nation in the middle of the South Pacific,” said Tuke speaking to the crowd of international guests.
“Both Pete and I grew up in and around the ocean from as young as we can remember. The ocean was everything to us way before we started sailing. We were out there fishing, diving, water skiing, kayaking. Any ocean activity you can think of, we were doing it. Then came the sailing.
Burling expanded on their experiences racing on the world stage; “We spend a lot of time competing at different places around the world and you get to see the different ecosystems, whether it’s degraded or thriving – and just how diverse this planet we live on is.”
“Sailing around the world with the Ocean Race, we saw how connected everything is and we got that feeling that you’ve got to be part of the solution and be a voice for the ocean.”
Tuke expanded on that saying the race around the globe was a catalyst for them to go on to launch Live Ocean.
“The passion’s been there since we were we were kids. But even for two people who spent so much time on the ocean, we didn’t understand how much it does for us as a human race on this planet until around that time.”
The pair went on to describe the work Live Ocean Foundation does in New Zealand talking about impact projects including the Antipodean albatross – the first project the foundation got behind.
They also described how Live Ocean is able to amplify and reach new audiences surfacing the issues facing the ocean, citing Jono Ridler’s Swim4TheGulf and the recent Foil4TheGulf event done in collaboration with the Black Foils SailGP team as examples of the power of sport in action.
“The ocean is so important in order for us to have a healthy future on this planet. And the pressures it faces from human impact are huge,” said Tuke.
“From a sports point of view, we aim to keep using the platform that we have to bring new audiences and people that otherwise wouldn’t understand these issues – grab them, use that power of sport, bring that energy.”
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