Desert Doofing With The Afends Aquatic Squad

I remember the first time I ordered coffee in Byron Bay.

“And what milk would you like with that?” the barista asked.

“Just regular milk please,” I replied.

“So like activated oat?” she responded, brow furrowed.

My confusion was a dead giveaway.

Blow in.

Norms differ from place to place.

In Byron Bay, activated oat is normal coffee milk.

Activated aquatics is “just a couple of activated humans approaching some aqua related, high intensity sport,” says Taj Richmond, who was joined by fellow Byron brethren Joel Paxton and Jhamil Coorey. “There were probably only 3 good days of surfing out of the 3 weeks we were there but even just hanging around living the camp lifestyle was fun. So many good memories,” says filmmaker Georde ‘Grigs’ Grigor.

“The trip was coming to an end and we had just bunkered down in a caravan park due to skits cold wind and rain we decided to go have a look at the waves. It looked about 3 foot and maybe some ramps (nothing promising), we got out there, Joel and I, and it was double the size and rogue as fuck. We were tripping. We were thinking it was wasn’t surfable until one came through and we were like ‘huh, maybe it’s a go?’ , the wind swung offies and it was on. Definitely one of the greatest surfs of my life, crystal voyager spec.”

Quickly, re: Afends. They are a brand with a legit environmental conscience and they’ve made a major move into using the magical properties of hemp to manufacture their clothing. Here’s the short of it:

• The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world.
• Hemp takes as little as 90 days to cultivate, requires significantly less water than cotton, and produces significantly more fibre per acre. 
• Hemp consumes four times as much CO2 as trees do.
• Afends has been researching and using hemp for years, “our favourite eco-friendly fabric alternative that’s been dismissed largely due to outdated propaganda”.

Pretty cool.

Check em out here.