A new year has just started, and sometimes this is a special motivation for a change of our behavior such as loosing weight, eating healthier, stop smoking. How do you like the idea of enhancing you environmental awareness once more? As oceanlovers, we encounter the plastic floods on a daily basis – on the beach, in the water, under the water. The plastics originate often from far inland being carried towards the ocean by wind, rain, streams, rivers. Plastic pollution does not only matter in the oceans but everywhere around you.

This part of our Roadtrip Essentials series is all about your safety and about some useful and helpful stuff that we store in our van or take it along to our surf trips. Of course the list is not complete, but we see these items as really “essential” must-haves, having experienced regular facepalms when we again forgot one or two or even more of them. So hopefully this post will help YOU not to forget them on your next trip!

If you love Yoga like we do, you know that it is just such a good add-on to your sports routine because it is keeping you strong, flexible and balanced at the same time.

Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself. – Bhagavad Gita

Our 6 Favorites of easy and delicious overnight oats – just prepare them in the evening and get up in the morning with a breakfast already waiting for you! Overnight oats are a fancy upgrade of the good old Swiss „Bircher Müesli“. 2-3 hours of refrigerating is sufficient, but the overnight version is very convenient for breakfast or to just grab it and take it to the office (or to the beach!) for lunch.

Photo: Mirja Geh

Not living on the coast and no vacation in sight?

No problem! Try surfing concrete or when you are close to some mountains: surf the snow.

Here are 5 tips how you can improve your surfing on the snow and on concrete from versatile shredder Lisa Veith, Surfdoc, surf-/skate-/snowboard competitor and board-addict.

A New Year gives new impulses, ideas and freshness. So why not detox your skin with natural homemade body scrubs? Unfortunately, a lot of Scrubs you can buy (yes, also some expensive ones) contain micro plastics, also known as microbeads. What are microbeads? 

There is no better start for the day than a warm breakfast that provides you with long-lasting energy and vitamins. Porridge is an easy, healthy brekkie with a lot of variations, here is one of my (winter)-favorites.

For many of us (Northern-hemisphere-inhabitants), winter is kicking in soon. That means: Surf in cold water, go on surf vacation somewhere or take a winter break. To stay fit during that time, do these 8 exercises regularly and you won’t find yourself starting from zero when you will be surfing on a more regular basis again and you will keep your fitness for the challenges of the cold water season.

Especially if you are bound to go surfing during vacation only, you should use and train your muscles and coordination to get the most out of your holiday and to prevent injuries.

For this workout, you only need…

Avocado Love

Avocados really are a wonder of natural nutrition and should be part of your healthy diet. If they are already: congratulations! If they aren’t yet: start treating yourself regularly to different variations of Avos – as a drink, in the salad, on the bread, you can even grill it. Here are two of my favorite and very easy suggestions how to  enjoy your beloved Avocado.

It’s berry-time! I think berries are a real gift of nature – tasty, sweet, still low in calories and full of antioxidants. Try to get those from the regional farmers in the season! When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I often replace the fresh raspberries with frozen ones and already cook them with the oats.