Claudia Goncalves joins PARLEY beach clean-up at WSL Corona Bali Protected

Claudia Goncalves is a brand new addition to the international SWOX team. The Brazilian pro-surfer is also a successful TV host at Brazil’s Canal OFF and owns her own production company. When she’s not focusing on big wave surfing or producing audio visual content, she’s pursuing her third passion – fighting for the environment. During this year’s World Surf League (WSL) Corona Bali Protected contest in Keramas, Claudia was part of the start of a big initiative led by PARELY and the WSL. Besides various massive beach clean-ups, the site also served as a hub for immersive experiences and discussions about the pollution threatening the world’s oceans.

How did you get involved with PARELY and the clean-up in Keramas, Bali?

The ocean is my home. I grew up in a little beach community in the North of Brazil called Praia do Frances. There, I spend my entire childhood at the beach, where we used to surf with dolphins, turtles and a just all in all very vivid marine life. In fact, I have learned almost everything by watching Mother Nature. It is the DNA of my family and I am so grateful to have that reference in my life.

As a professional surfer, I keep seeing the world from this ‘ocean perspective’ and my love for the ocean and nature in general just keeps growing. Thus, I’ve always tried my best to keep my “home”, the ocean, clean. I always stand up for the environment, because surely what goes around comes around…

A while back we had a few beach clean-ups with Corona and PARELY in Rio de Janeiro and I think, when you love something so much, it’s noticeable for everybody. So I got invited by Corona to support them for the start of this amazing project in Bali.

Can you tell us a little bit about the clean-up at this big contest?

We had a great week in Bali during the competition. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t just about beach clean-ups, but also about learning and sharing experiences in the fields of ocean awareness and environmental protection. Not to mention getting to know an amazing group of people, who work very hard to make a big difference in the world.

Corona and PARLEY built a house called ‘La Casa’ with Nevhouse project. Nev Heyman, known in surf community for establishing Nev Future Shapes and Firewire Surfboards, developed Nevhouse. Using his knowledge of materials, engineering and construction, he creates simple homes for those in need made of recyclables.

During the event “La Casa” was the creative space for our work with the other ambassadors of Corona and PARLEY. For instance, we created a beach bag made of recycle plastics, which was sold at the WSL store online. For each bag sold Corona donated a certain amount for the Balinese communities, in order to raise consciousness about single use plastics. On top of that, we had great talks and workshops about sustainability involving big names, like big wave surfer Greg Long or inventor and entrepreneur Tony Fadell, just to name a couple.

What did you learn/find out what everybody needs to know?

All in all, I learned a lot and the week totally blew my mind. I am even more passionate for my lifestyle now, and on top of that I feel more prepared and confident to help people understanding our environmental responsibilities.

Ultimately the one thing, which can make it easy for everybody to understand, how we can change our mindset, is PARELY’s AIR strategy…

..and here’s what the acronym ‘AIR’ stands for:

The A is for AVOID, in our case plastic wherever it’s possible.

The I stands for INTERCEPT. Do something to intercept plastic waste.

The R means REDESIGN, i.e. how can we redesign our life to take more responsibilities and having a positive impact on our environment.

#SWOXIMPACT