Tag Archives: current events

Spread the stoke!

5 Apr

This morning went wrong right from the go. somehow the charger to the phone/alarm died in the night. maybe the mice were up to their shenanigans or the lady bugs got sick of us punting them around the house? at any rate, I had to miss my 6 am outdoor session up in Smugglers Notch, VT. I made a couple frantic calls to let folks know I wouldn’t make it but wasn’t sure if they would get them. That side of the mountain isnt all hooked up to the latest gadgetry(thank you!) so was hoping that they would just move and groove on their own. So after I finished my own movement session with some rocking medicine ball and Indo Board fun, I popped online to check my messages. My “Fakebook” inbox had a little message from one of the folks in the class that nearly brought a tear..

“We had a great class! I had everyone pick a movement that they had learned and we did some circuit training today.

 warmup, stretching - one lap around the parking lot – 20 burpees - lateral squat walk on both sides – pushups - bear crawl – tin man walk (balance one leg in front then behind) – plank – lap around the parking lot with 1/2 sprint – resting stretch, stand up, repeat – inchworm – 50 jumping jacks – lunges – crunches – high jump onto a rock – lap around the parking lot, at the end of the lot we hurdled each jersey berrier back and forth on both sides until we got to the end! – continued with our run to our gear – jogged backwards to our cars – cool down stretch So we kept our heart rate up throughout the whole workout and everyone had a great time! We took it as a challenge to use what we have learned.”  

here they are doing me proud!

Another great happening this week was two of my die-hard crazies, Brad and Jen Grant stepped up big time to lead a group of 40 kids in some Mocean inspired movement and get them rolling. This was their first time doing this and they did it with 40 Kids!!! So proud of you guys, you all rock!

This has been my goal from day one. I’m only one person and I’m not trying to build an empire about me. It’s about YOU and YOU and YOU and THEM and HE and SHE, spreading the stoke and moving. I don’t give a rats ass if you do it with me or with the guy down the road. Inside or outside, in your basement or at a Zumba or Yoga class. Whether you do bootcamp or go to the gym or maybe you just work physical jobs like me and you do stuff to stay strong and limber and injury free and young. The point is TO DO IT. Please people.The state of health in this country is in serious danger so everyone stand up..WE WANT EVERYONE TO BE STOKED WITH THEIR HEALTH AND BE HAPPY!!!

So maybe I’ll make this a habit, I could sure use the sleep. Ha ha, have a great day everyone!! Thank YOU for the inspiration!

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America’s Fat Future

25 Mar

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Hey parents (yeah you), STOP BEING SUCH WIMPS!!!

25 Mar

Was talking to a guy earlier while filling up the Mocean mobile with overpriced dinosaur bones juice. He came over and looked at the van and said “What da hell does that say”? “Mocean, man, as in physical movement”.  Blank look..”Whatcha do”?  He asked kinda puzzled. “I help get people more active, kids, adults, ya know”?  More kinda blank look. “Look the obesity rate in this country is 1 in 3″ I say, “and that means there are also a lot of unhappy people and that’s not cool, so I try and help”. “What?!  1 in 3″ He exclaims, “That’s f%$%Ing insane”! “Yeah i know and kids too”, I replied. “Well kids are lazy nowadays, they don’t want to work” he said.  I replied, “No parents are mostly wimps (ok i used a worse word, use your imagination) who don’t instill any work ethics in their kids and let them get away with murder”.  He looked around my age so I said, “remember growing up, we climbed trees and used our hands and worked and”…”Yeah I grew up on a farm”  he interupted with … “yeah me too man” I say.  “So spread the word man, get people moving”!  He replied “Right on, keep up the good work brother” before he roared off.

Got me thinking about this topic which is one we ALL know is a huge problem nowadays. Over Parenting for one, where parents baby their kids beyond belief. Many parents my age, seem to think that they can protect their kids from any impending anything by sheltering their children from the perils of the woods and the outdoors and the streets and the ruthless killers running around that FOX News tells them about. The “wear a helmet if you ride your bike in the driveway” parents. Over parenting is also the over scheduling of kids.  Having them play 10 sports and fill every waking moment with activities picked out by the parents.  The kids that have their own day planners (or smartphones).  “Well I’d like to climb trees with you but i have a violin lesson, then lacrosse practice followed by a session with my Spanish tutor then dinner.  How’s next Tuesday look for you”?

And then on the other hand is Under Parenting.  Letting kids run things and parenting by allowing technology to babysit them. The Playstation era.  Why the hell do these kids have phones and all this technology? Who bought it for them? Who allows them to have it? Just because their friends have them doesn’t mean they have to.  These poor kids will never know what its like to work with their hands and get dirty and earn their keep.

And what about discipline and respect?! What is that? I can’t believe the way i see some kids talk to their parents and elders. If I did that growing up than it would be to the woodshed for a A$% paddling or a quick cuff across the face. “Oh my gawd, is he advocating violence and abusing children”?! I can hear them now. Look at your parents and your grandparents and many of your own upbringings who got more than “60 second timeout” or sending them to their room so they just play video games. I think my mom and grandparents and even myself, turned out ok (well not too bad at least).  I’m not traumatized by the physicality of my upbringing and they aren’t either so get over it.

My point is the obesity epidemic and worse the unhappiness epidemic plaguing our country and many others, is not because “Kids are lazy”.  That’s a cop out and a slap in the face to these kids who don’t know any better.  Kids are usually a product of their environment.  I don’t buy that “well parents are under so much pressure nowadays” BS. Parents need to step it up and STOP BEING WIMPS!  Get a backbone and let your kids know whose in charge. If you love your kids then don’t feed them crap. Make them move their bodies and of course, do their part and WORK! Remember back to your own childhood or talk to your parents or grandparents and get some tips. Get them outside and let them climb trees and ride bikes and yes, they are going to fall down and get hurt. It is ok, that is part of the process.  And getting kids active does not mean turning them into little versions of you. Over booked, over extended, over stimulated with everything scheduled every second of the day with some activity.

Let them be kids. Teach, lead, love, listen and live by example. No I’m not a parent and that’s by choice.  Instead I’ve dedicated much of my adult life to working with kids and trying to help them even a little along their path. And that means i will advocate for them until the end. That’s the point of this post. Parents need to step it up or sometimes, step it down and be parents! The end.

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Get into the LOOPTWORKS!

5 Mar

We all talk about the environment these days and how we can make a positive impact or less of an impact. One of the biggest areas that needs help is how we act as consumers. What we choose to buy especially in the area of non necessity items. Food, water, shelter are truly the only items of necessity.

Clothing though is pretty key and though for most of us, we have an excess of clothing. More shirts and shorts than we know what to do with. Go to any yard sale and you can see it or I just need to look at my own ever growing “tee shirt collection”.

But how environmentally sound is the clothing and apparel industry? The quick answer is, not very at all. The cotton industry in particular is responsible for such a large amount of damage and resource depletion due to the overuse of pesticides and water especially. Even organic cotton uses so much water, in fact 400 Gallons to make on tee–shirt! Though many companies are stepping on the bandwagon(great!) few are truly embracing the idea of radically changing their processes.

One such company is LOOPTWORKS. Launched in September 2009, Looptworks is a ground-breaking business that repurposes abandoned materials into meaningful, long-lasting and limited-edition products. By re-using the world’s pre-consumer excess, the U.S.-based company aims to rid the world of waste while inspiring a generation to reduce their impact on the planet. The inaugural line includes jackets hoodies, skirts, shirts and graphic t-shirts for both men and women The Portland, Oregon-based start-up is led by apparel industry veterans with extensive experience from Nike, Adidas and Royal Robbins.

Megan and I knew we had to get involved in this so we talked to them and are now proud to be aboard as brand ambassadors as a part of their “Secret Agents” program. Guess its no secret that we are doing this because we are sharing it with you!

We have put their clothes to the test for the last 9 months and they hold up amazingly well. We have also used their blanks for our “Best F-Ing Year” T-Shirts and response has been over whelmingly positive!

Another really cool aspect of LOOPTWORKS is because they use industrial excess, they only do limited runs of their lines. So the collections are always changing! Pretty awesome and the freedom must be very powerful for them vs. the alternative.

We hope you take a look at their line and maybe hit em up over on Facebook and spread the word. They have been receiving some major awards as innovators and movers and shakers and that is just what the clothing industry needs, manufacturing as a  whole and mankind too!

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The Waterlust Project – A GoPro Film Series

3 Mar
Tony ripping last fall. Pic By Mocean365.
 
 
 

Back from surfing some cold ass waves in a state that is our most eastern geographically oriented in the U.S.  Day 2 of the new swell we have here, been big but pretty chunky and hard to figure out. A couple buddies and I were driving today checking spots trying to find that magic spot, talking about the lengths we go to in our lives to chase waves. Kind of incredible to think about the journeys its has created for me, a landlocked kid who only went to the ocean a few times growing up. From frozen waves in the east and west to warm waves in Central America,  the South Pacific, Hawaii and beyond.

It has been amazing and highly recommended to everyone to not forget about water in all its forms. its wild to think that my VT friends think I’m crazy to go all the way to the coast. It’s a “whopping” 3 hour trip and well worth the journey most times. Come on people!

Check this video out and get out in the water. It was filmed only using a GoPro which is a great little camera!

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The surf industry greens up, slowly but surely.

3 Mar

So you would think of surfing as an environmentally sound endeavor right? But the reality is that only as of late has there been a concerted effort industry wide to improve the footprint of surfing. It is overall still a very “dirty” sport in relation to its perception and the reality of the industry practices, especially from the mega companies. Check out this chart courtesy of Envirosurfer.

Of course there have been some notable manufacturers doing the right thing for many years. My good friend Brian Gagliana has been shaping and selling bamboo surfboard kits for years with his brand, Greenlight Surf Supply. Fletcher Chouinard of Patagonia fame(son of founder, Yvon) has been producing a more environmentally sound product from day one at his brand, FCD.  World wide there are many wood, balsa and other materials that sort of get lost in the cracks.Guys like Grain Surfboards based out of Maine and many others.

But like most of the world, the big corporations have set the overall tone and it hasn’t really been a good one. And then when they do “go green” they jack up the prices to justify the process even though it is often cheaper to produce. Kinda a sad state of affairs. Companies like Quiksilver, Billabong, Hurley and Body Glove should be doing more and hopefully they will?

Check out the video below to see how one company is dedicated to doing their part. At first glance, I thought this was a little goofy but it seems to be catching on out there in California. I saw this over at KorduroyTv which is an amazing surf lifestyle website geared for the do it “yourselfer.”

The Story of Waste to Waves from Sustainable Surf on Vimeo.

This awesome infographic provided by:  http://www.greensurfshop.com  Thanks crew at Green surf Shop!!

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