Hola Andres! My first question is ... what's the meaning of Kaimiloa? Digging into the Polynesian heritage we found this Hawaiian word: Ka´imiloa. It means to search and explore. It is the longing to go beyond. The far seeker, the distant traveller. It really can't be literally translated so it becomes more like a feeling, and that's what we love about it. And it sounds great too! Kaimiloa was officially born in 2018 but since how long does it exist in your mind? Is there a specific lifechanging moment that made you decide to take action and realize the book? The project exists in my mind since 2015, when we came with my partner to live in the Basque Country and we could finally fulfil our dream of living in a place where we can surf every day. So I began to ask myself questions and study. How does nature work to allow us to surf and keep the environment in balance? Guided by curiosity, I began to research and consult specialists from different natural and environmental sciences such as Oceanography, Meteorology and Marine Biology. The feeling of gratitude towards that connection with the ocean was so great that I felt the need to share it and a book seemed like the best way to do it. If I can recall one specific moment when I decided to get to write the book and that there was no way back, was in summer 2016 at the San Sebastian Surfilmfestibal. Tom Kay from Finisterre, Hugo Tagholm from Surfers Against Sewage and Kimi Werner (Patagonia Ambassador) gave a speech. Their love for the ocean and how they managed to realize their dream projects really inspired me to take my passion into action.  As we know, you are the contents creator of the book, but tell us something more about your team and how they contributed to the project. Kaimiloa project team is made up by María Kölliker Frers, Project Manager, and me, content creator and author of the book. For the book creation, we teamed up with our friend, illustrator and art director Inês da Fonseca. María has worked for a decade in digital and creative advertising agencies focusing on project management. She also worked for Patagonia as an Environmental and Events Coordinator for the San Sebastian store, Surfdome & Magicseaweed (UK). Today she participates in projects that seek innovative solutions with a positive impact on society and the environment. To make the book a reality, doing everything from scratch until it is finally printed and delivered takes infinite work you could never imagine! Maria made sure that the production process ran smoothly and that we could all enjoy it. She was also responsible to design the crowdfunding communication campaign and creating our website. I have studied Image and Sound Design, and I am also the author of a book which relates and develops meteorology concepts in an easy, original and fun way, that has been part of the national reading plan of Mexico. I could say that my art and craft is to extract the essence of complex themes from nature and relate it to the real world of children and youngsters. And that's what I focused on for the book. Inês used to work as an art director for advertising agencies in Lisbon and London, but now she is fully dedicated to producing colourful children’s illustrations. She always had in mind to work for the complementarity and not redundant use of images to boost the main narrative and the children's imagination. She had a very clear idea: children open books on any page and also read from back to front, so every single page they open is self-sustaining and enjoyable!  Extract from Kaimiloa Book What are the important and original contents of the book? The book dives mainly into understanding how nature works to keep the environment in balance and also allow us to surf. For example, learning about how the energy of the wind creates waves, the swell formation in storm centres thousands of kilometres away and the different seabeds that affect the waves. It explores the wonderful diversity of life along the coasts and acknowledges all the hard work that goes into making every surf forecast. I think the biggest challenge was to make all the scientific knowledge accessible, which is commonly dispersed and sometimes written in a very technical way. So we offer engaging and friendly content studied in depth and supervised by specialists from different natural sciences such as Oceanography, Marine Biology and Meteorology. The book has illustrated explanations of complex concepts, which are informative but also entertaining. I think this helps to convey information in a different and innovative way, highly illustrated and designed.  Extract from Kaimiloa Book One of the main goals of Kamiloa Project is to connect people, over all kids and youngsters, with nature. How? By taking their surf-stoke and boosting it with curiosity. We all have many questions that arise from our playground, the ocean. Looking for the answers and creating new questions can strengthen the bonds of kids and younsters with the ocean, connecting them with nature and environmental sciences. The following Rudolf Steiner´s quote always inspired me to find our project's north: "When children can relate what they learn to their own experiences, their interest in life awakens, their memory is activated and what they learn is made their own"  How and why the practice of surf and paddle surf can positively impact people? Because it let us play with the ocean and mother nature, which we will never control, but we can adapt and flow with it! I think in this sense we can relate to something much bigger than ourselves and leave our ego aside. We can start learning to "read" the sea better, and it becomes a passion. A big sense of gratitude arises, pure positivity!  Extract from Kaimiloa Book You are really active at local level organizing many educational workshops and talks with surf schools. Why do you think that surf and paddle surf school should be the ambassador for the preservation of Mother Nature? This passion that arises from being around Mother Nature really boosts children and youngsters curiosity to learn more about it, it helps them understand that we all have the power to generate a positive impact on the environment and the marine life. And so, they can really take responsibility for their actions.  Extract from Kaimiloa Book Now the book is published. What are the next objectives of Kaimiloa Project? Any plans for the next future? We hope the book could be translated into other languages and distributed directly through other countries. Now we are fully focused on finding ways to reach people that we know would really appreciate the book. We have to make them realize the Kaimiloa book exists! For example, we just released a free chapter on our website and it is totally open for all. We also want to reach organizations and surf schools that can find our book useful to include in their educational plans. But we are open to new ways of collaborating too! Let me add that we admire your work and are really grateful for your time and space dedicated to Kaimiloa! I commenti sono chiusi.
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