Photo by Cat Vinton

International Water/Wo/Men Event Hosted by Six Senses Resorts and Spas Joins Maui-Based +H20 with Global Athletes and Humanitarians to Raise Funds and Awareness for Marine Conservation and Water Sanitation Projects

Powerful connections, magical synergy, perfect timing, and beckoning global challenges = a recipe for success, and history in the making. At Water/Wo/Men 2011, +H20 tested the waters and realized that yes, setting goals and reaching for a dream can translate into concrete action and forward-moving inspiration.

Maui-based +H20, a platform for water awareness founded by professional windsurfers Levi Siver, Keith Teboul, Pascal Bronnimann and Jake Miller, celebrated their official one-year anniversary with an international fundraising event of epic proportions, generously hosted by Six Senses Resorts and Spas.  The inaugural Water/Wo/Men event, hosted September 30- October 4, brought over one hundred selected invitees together with guests at Six Senses’ latest sustainably chic and slow-life focused resort.

Photo by Cat Vinton

Convening on the island of Laamu in the southern atoll of the Maldives, a tiny Indian Ocean island nation, was an inspiring collection of iconic water sports athletes, leading conservationists and activists, award-winning filmmakers, celebrities and media. Five days of water sports clinics in windsurfing, stand up paddleboarding, kite surfing, surfing, wake boarding and freediving was complemented by exhibitions, debates, culinary decadence and smart dialogue. The result was lots of water fun as well as a playground for the exchanging of information regarding the marine preservation and water sanitation challenges facing our world today.

Bethany teaches local girl to surf. Photo by Noah Hamilton.

The idea? People who love the water can all come together to do good things, utilizing the power of collaboration to facilitate change on a local to global level.

+H20 Windsurfer Levi Siver

The reality? All that and more. By joining hot international iconic watermen and women together with leading water and marine intelligentsia, the sexiness made the scientists that much more appealing and doing good became part of a developing brand. The international media went crazy, with photographers and journalists abuzz for five days covering the excitement. Word is now traveling globally as articles and photo shoots spread from publications such as Conde Nast Traveler Magazine and Vogue.

Joining +H20 was Kauai’s Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton, Maui’s Buzzy Kerbox the co-inventor of tow-in surfing, Maui-tied Japanese surfing filmmaker and entrepreneur Takuji Masuda, wakeboarding stuntman Duncan Zuur, Maui artist Kim McDonald and seven-time women’s world surfing champion Layne Beachley; actresses Daryl Hannah, Melanie Laurent and Kate Bosworth, musicians Beth Orton, Rami Jaffee of the Foo Fighters and Kirk Pengilly of INXS, Bollywood filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and model Helena Christensen; National Geographic explorer Jon Bowermaster, third generation ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau, leading oceanographer Carl Gustaf Lundin and water public policy advocate and Running Dry producer James Thebaut. Proceeds from Water/Wo/Men benefit Plant a Fish Foundation, the Blue Marine Foundation and Water Charity.

+H20, four Maui-based athletes set out last year to leverage their visibility as professional athletes in efforts of connecting community with companies and non-profits to raise awareness for global clean water challenges. “We believe in athletes being positive role models that lead by example. We have dedicated our lives to the water, and it is the water that fuels our passion, supports our profession and gives us the world back,” +H20 team captain Jake Miller said. “+H2O is a platform for us to share our joy of water sports, while also giving back to that which has given us so much.”

+H20 launched in October 2010 with the successful first annual Paia Town and North Shore Clean Up, with over 250 people joining to collect 13,400 pounds of trash of solid wastes and metals including 8 recovered cars. They raised almost $4000 at a fundraiser that evening, which then awarded the opportunity to partner and create a fund with Water Charity, an international organization with a proven track record of successful clean water projects in communities around the world. Water Charity implements practical solutions to provide safe water, effective sanitation and meaningful health education to those in need. The +H2O Water Charity fund has been created to fund selected projects in specified surf locations as chosen by the +H2O watermen team.

Bethany Hamilton with Local Island Girls

The first project funded in this effort was +H20 Six Senses Water Charity Rainwater Capture and Storage Project, announced officially last month at Water/Wo/Men’s Hands Across the Sea event on the island of Kunahandhoo. This project will address the freshwater scarcity challenges faced by Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo during the northeast monsoon by supplying these vulnerable rural island communities with reliable sources of fresh drinking water.  This project is a joint venture generously funded by Six Senses Resorts & Spas via their Clean Water Projects initiative currently associated with Water/Wo/Men, in collaboration with Water Charity and Positive H2O (+H2O).***

Six Senses Kim Verma Modi with +H20's Kristin Hettermann, Daryl Hannah, Fabien Cousteau and Pierre Franckh

Gatherings like Six Senses Water/Wo/Men are of extreme importance on both a local and global scale; boosting international awareness, addressing challenges through smart dialogue, mobilizing people with power, and creating synergy and strategy to move forward toward positive change. “Humans, being reactive by nature, seem to understand the problem only when it’s at their doorstep and affecting them then and there. Often, this is too late. This further emphasizes the importance of proactive people to educate and empower people to help steer our course in a different direction,” said Plant A fish Foundation’s Fabien Cousteau. “It is possible and we can do it.”

Plant a Fish's Fabien Cousteau holding three fingers: one for the ocean, once for the future, and one for the Maldives.

How do you get involved? Check out the +H20 website for more information on events, upcoming projects and getting involved, and make sure to get connected! Stay informed through our blog, and connect with us through Facebook and YouTube. http://www.positive-h2o.com/

For photo gallery of event, please refer to Six Senses Water/Wo/Men website and also the Grace Delivers photo library.

Please also check out our island water sports partners, Ocean Dimensions on their website or Facebook page.

*** Maldives, being an atoll nation consisting of one percent land and 99 percent ocean, is a country with very little in terms of freshwater resources. Consequently, accessing sanitary and sustainable fresh drinking water is a major challenge faced by the population of Maldives, particularly rural communities such as Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo. Traditionally, for all of their freshwater requirements, including drinking, these four communities have been dependent upon shallow fresh groundwater aquifers, aka freshwater lenses, which exist beneath all islands in Maldives, accessed via wells. These freshwater lenses accumulate through rainfall infiltration into the sandy soils of the islands and this freshwater being less dense than saltwater subsequently floats on top of the saline groundwater which infiltrates the islands’ soils from the surrounding sea. However, in the face of growing populations the capacity of the freshwater lenses to meet the needs of the populations of Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo has become limited through things such as saltwater intrusion due to soil erosion, over exploitation of the freshwater lenses and monsoonal rainfall changes. Similarly, degradation of wells and pollution of the freshwater lenses due to inadequate sewage management, industrial effluent infiltration and inappropriate agricultural practices all place pressure on local freshwater resources.

Yin Yang Wave Maldives

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