Interview with Séverine Vasselin, Watertrek founder and professional actress who has decided to dedicate much of her life to protecting the environnement…. on a Stand Up Paddle board.
Can you introduce yourself to our SUP community?
My name is Severine, I am an actress and the founder of Watertrek, a charity involved in protecting aquatic ecosystems that I launched from France 4 years ago. I live and work between London and Paris, and I share my time between my work as a screen actress and my work developing projects with Watertrek and the team.
What is Watertrek and how did it originate?
Watertrek is a French charity organisation founded in Paris in 2013, and it is now also a British Charity. Our mission is to reconnect man to water, using stand-up paddling as a physical tool to educate, initiate and bring together a community of like-minded people willing to protect our natural resources. We operate in 3 main areas, these being Plastic Pollution, Climate Change and Water Quality. Two of our ambassadors are just back from an exciting expedition they embarked upon through the mangrove in Myanmar. Right now, we are a pretty small team, with 6 French and English people at work and me at the helm. Our local intiaitives are organised through a grass-roots network throughout France and England, with new branches of this network ready to be launched this year.
What place does SUP occupy within your actions?
SUP is our main tool. It is the perfect way to discover waterways and understand why we should protect them. It is accesible to everybody, whatever their age or wherever they live, which is why I have always believed it could play an interesting part in reconnecting people to their natural surroundings. But if you’d rather kayak or swim, you’re welcome to join us still, you just need to love the water!
What territories do you cover? Can you present a few examples of actions Watertrek has carried out?
When I created Watertrek in my small appartment in the east side of Paris, I had no intention of making it an international structure. I travel a lot, I connect with like-minded people everywhere I go, so it just happened quite naturally. Our main sponsor – Starboard – is based in Asia, with strong local involvement in clean-ups, plastic pollution prevention and protecting the mangrove. I went to Thailand and Cambodia to give environmental classes in local schools and orphanages, and I soon realised that environmental issues had to be tackled on a global scale. We are all (and should feel) connected to ur seriously threatened planet. The notion of “borders” in and of itself is something I find totally out-of-date in so many ways. It is time to break down walls, not build them. Right now, Watertrek is pretty active in France and England, and is involved in projects in Myanmar, Thailand and India. We’ll soon be developing educational programmes in Morocco, Norway, and several countries in Europe.
How is the Watertrek foundation funded?
So far, we’ve been operating on a very modest budget, with a grant we’ve received from the Charity Pot programme in Paris and London, as well as a further subvention we’ve received from the City of Cannes. We have a very dynamic branch there, which is run by Alexandre Gallier, and Cannes happens to be a leading city in France regarding all that has to do with protecting seabeds and beaches. Laurent Lombard – a famous local whistleblower – was one of the very first to try to raise some awareness on the subject, and since then, a lot has been done locally to fight plastic pollution. Cannes encapsulates my love for cinema and my passion for the blue Mediterranean Sea, which are among the most beautiful waterways in the world. I consider myself lucky to have a great group there. Other than that, I am currently seeking a trustee with a solid executive background to help establish Watertrek as a sustainable and steady organisation, gathering funds and a real professional team to help develop things further. Sponsors and patrons are welcome to get in touch. I’d love to be in a position to fund at least 2 full-time positions shortly. But whatever your skills, background and/or your current location, feel free to get involved and join the Watertrek team!
“Stacked field of pro SUP athletes”, “gnarly ocean conditions”, “incredible experience” and “an excellent event organisation” are some of the recurring themes summing up the Madeira Island Sup Challenge (MISC) 2023, the EuroTour Grand Slam event, held on the Madeira Island this past weekend, a stunning archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean and located about […]
Daniel Hasulyo, Starboard Dream Team Rider, race board developer and SUP World Champ, returns to South Korea for the 2023 SUP Asian Championship hosted in Seoul by the APP‘s Korean partners, KAPP (Korean Association of Paddlesurf Professionals). On the eve of the event, TotalSUP caught up with Daniel to find out what drives him to […]
Following the Starboard announcement about a new partnership with Union Paddlers and Sports Camps to support amateur and professional athletes with an easy access to high-quality gear, TotalSUP caught up with Andrey Kraytor, Olympian, World Canoe Sprint and SUP Champion, to find out more about it. Lined up clinics and training camps with Starboard’s Dream […]
C’est une planche Championne du Monde ! La Starboard Sprint Airline, nouvelle venue dans la gamme des planches gonflables de race de la marque au Tiki, est la planche qu’a utilisée Michael Booth lorsqu’il a gagné la médaille d’or à la course de SUP race gonflables des ICF World Championship en Pologne en 2022. Alors, […]
I recently had the pleasure of chatting to Sam Rutt, Starboard Team Rider ahead of her English Channel crossing attempt on the 29th of May 2023, starting from Dover UK. She is not only attempting this solo but going for a record time. Sam who has been paddling since 2014 and hails from Norfolk where […]
Explosion chez Starboard ! En voulant faire un comparatif de leur construction Welded Rail Technology face à une construction classique de stand-up paddle gonflable, Starboard ont tout fait péter ! C’est avec cette vidéo humoristique mais aussi très instructive que la marque au Tiki nous présente concrètement l’avantage des rails soudés sur les planches gonflables. […]
Mark Salter has just set a new bar and taken the UK by storm with a Guinness World Record for the fastest Stand Up Paddleboard descent of Loch Ness, Scotland UK, in a time of 4:01:49 over 36.24km. He took an undercover approach to this, springing the amazing news on us only days ago. In […]
The 2023 Cosmic Experience event has been announced! Focused uniquely on the Longboard SUP surf aspect of paddleboarding, the event will be held in Sanur, Bali on the 7th to 10th April 2023. The event will host an assembly of diehard longboard SUP surfers, Australian and past world champions, but it is also open to […]
Du nouveau du côté des SUP surf gonflables de chez Starboard ! Après le modèle Surf, voilà que le modèle Wedge, planche à l’origine rigide qui a fait ses preuves dans le domaine, vient se décliner également en version gonflable. En fonction du modèle, Surf ou Wedge, vous trouverez une longueur, une épaisseur et un […]