Enviro-net, a New Year Resolution Paddleboard Style

If you stand up paddle board regularly, chances are that you’ve witnessed first-hand the problem of pollution in our waterways. Sup enviro-net is a handy way of making a difference, also making for a great New Year Resolution.

Carlos Macias, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida resident and avid paddleboarder, talks about Enviro-net.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Nearly everyone has seen the photos of seagulls eating plastic water bottles, dead fish floating trapped in plastic bags, etc. Sadly, too often these images are taken nonchalantly, as an attempt of sensational journalism to push a political or environmental agenda. The truth, however, is that for many (if not, most) stand up paddle boarders this is a routine sight. Avid paddleboarders or, more generally, watermen, are especially likely to witness such pollution after run offs, typically caused by heavy rain.

Someone in Fort Lauderdale didn’t take it casually. “When I'm paddling I see all this trash and I feel like I need to do something,” said Carlos Macias, a local resident and avid stand up paddler. “It’s too uncomfortable to be bending down and grabbing the stuff with the little net. So I figured that if I could put a net at the end of the paddle it would make it easier to pick up the trash. After a year of working with it, that's the design that I've come up with,” that is, a small net attached to the paddle blade, the “Sup Enviro-net.” In addition to it, Macias totes a basket aboard his paddleboard to store the plastic debris that he gathers along the way.

His mission is locally driven but of global reach. “Everything that is on the street empties out onto the bay,” he explains. “In Miami where you don't have a lot of canals, everything gets flushed into the ocean rapidly. But here in Fort Lauderdale with all the canals and all getting dumped into the New River, it takes a long time for all the debris to be flushed out. It's just a shame that we are allowing this to happen. If we get a whole bunch of people that want to join me on this, we can start cleaning up the New River. All the stuff that I'm picking up, I'm saving to present it to the City Commission. My vision is to rid the planet of plastic.” To accomplish that goal will likely take a few more paddleboarders. On that note, the Sup Enviro-net makes for a timely resolution coming this New Year’s Eve.

Contact Carlos Macias from Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 305-785-6835