Christmas Gift Guide 2021: Sustainable, ocean-themed gifts
The holiday season is well and truly here! To make your life a little easier, we’ve put together a gift guide for your friends and family.
Sustainability and reducing waste are part of our mission at BlueBound, so each of these gifts keeps our oceans and seas in mind – whether that’s in the form of recycled materials, or charity donations. If you do buy a physical gift, why not wrap it in recycled paper from last year, or simply ditch the paper in favour of a pretty bow? Even better, gift an experience for you and a friend to create new memories together!
So let’s get into our festive gift guide for 2021! Please note this article is not sponsored, it’s full of our favourite personal recommendations.
Salt on Your Tongue – Women and the Sea, by Charlotte Runcie
This Salt on Your Tongue collection explores what the sea means to us, particularly what it has meant to women through the ages – taking a walk through a collection of works, including Shakespeare, the Romantic Poets, Greek myths, poetry and folktales. When the author loses her beloved grandmother, she starts to think about how she fell in love with the deep blue, and how the sea has collectively inspired, fascinated and terrified us. It’s here that she started this beautiful image to the sea and water women throughout history.
A lovely one for poetry and prose lovers!
Fishy purse by Don Fisher
These fishy purses by Don Fisher are hand-made in Barcelona and inspired by ‘Bonito’ fish common in the local area. These ‘Bonitos’ are made with the highest quality natural materials and are “fresh and ready to use” (cue all the fishy puns). Each Bonito is different but all of them have the same purpose: keeping your valuable treasures safe and sound inside them.
They can be used as purses, pencil-cases, key-holders and little pouches. Cuuute.
The Salt Path: A Memoir, by Raynor Winn
This is a true story that might just cause your eyes to fog up, first in sadness and later with pride and beauty. Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home and livelihood is taken away. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
Donation to an ocean charity
There are so many ocean-focused charities and organisations out there! To name just a few, 4Ocean, Surfers Against Sewage, The Ocean Cleanup, Waves for Water. You could also run a quick online search to see what organisations there are in your area.
If you’d like to give something more than a donation, why not see if they offer any bracelets, fabric bags or other goodies that you could buy to support their cause, and give as a gift? Then you’re both donating and buying at the same time.
A watersports lesson
Do you have a friend who is always saying that they want to learn windsurfing, wakeboarding, open water sea swimming, kitesurfing, surfing, or all of the above? Well now is your chance to help them jump in, and do it! Call ahead to your local school and reserve them a voucher for booking in 2022.
ven better – gift this to yourself! What have you been wanting to learn? Take a deep breath, make the call and book it in – give yourself the gift of fun this Christmas!
At BlueBound we also offer paddleboard, surf and wakeboard instruction, as well as short retreats in Europe, in case you’re after a bit of an adventure.
Buy a women-only watersports lesson (coming soon!)
Ocean-inspired clothing
There are a fair few sustainable sea-themed brands out there, but if we’re just picking one to share, you could try Two Thirds. Founded in 2010 in Spain, all their pieces use fabrics that save water, turn plastic waste into quality garments and they wrap all orders in paper packaging. They have cosy pieces to get you through the cold weather, and cool light fabrics to float around in in summer. We also just saw on their website that you can get 10% off your order if you first sign up to their newsletter, which could maybe cover the cost of delivery!
Take a look around your local shops or search online to find ocean-themed and sustainable clothing in your country or region.
Buy sustainable clothing at Two Thirds
A new winter wetsuit
A few weeks ago we put it to the BlueBound community to vote on your favourite warm winter wetsuits. Forget marketing blurbs and paid-for mentions, these wetsuits are actually the wetsuits that you prefer for different watersports, from SUP/kayak, to surfing and windsurfing/kiting.
After voting had closed, we asked a few of you to give us an honest review of what the wetsuits offer you in more detail. We’ve added these quotes and votes out of 10 for multiple aspects, like warmth and flexibility. Check it out!
Recycled silver and seaglass jewellery
Our number one suggestion would be to do a quick search for local artists in your area, both to help small businesses and reduce climate footprint. You might discover something wonderful that you never knew was there! That said, we have two other suggestions for you: Two In The Sun in Australia makes silver jewellery from the most sustainable and ethical sources they can find, keeping production small (they also donate monthly to Positive Change For Marine Life). For Europe, we have eleven17, a more ‘special’ option, with stunning pieces in recycled silver and sea glass (and they support Surfers Against Sewage).
Buy from Two in the Sun (Australia) or eleven17 (UK, Europe).
Membership to our BlueBound community
Yees, it’s coming! Soon we’ll be launching our membership, which includes a supportive online community, full access to our online magazine, full access to our regular online events and workshops on multiple themes, girls-only trips, discounts for equipment/clothing/schools, and more! We already have a few women who have signed up in advance in the US, UK, France, Italy, Brazil, Bali and Spain – join them and enquire by contacting charlotte@blueboundcommunity.com.
Buy a BlueBound membership (coming soon!)
We hope this Christmas Gift Guide was useful. Happy Holidays!