My name is Laurence Bauer and I’m currently a first mate on a 42 meter vessel based in the Mediterranean. I have been in yachting for over 6 years now and have enjoyed my time in the industry. Yachting has given me the ability to create and fund my passion project which is finally starting to see fruition.
The company my partner and I started (Salt Lick) was formed in 2017 after we were constantly seeing masses of plastic and rubbish floating around in the sea and knew we had to do something. We began with the idea of a eco friendly, sustainable company that would produce eco conscious clothing. This then grew into the idea to produce eco surfboards made from hemp cloth and bio resins. A sustainable surf brand was then brought to life.
We currently use a variation of materials from bamboo and organic cotton for our tees as well as Econyl, a very unique material that is developed from reclaimed ghost fishing nets found floating in the ocean then re-generated into Nylon. The Econyl is being used to create a range of sustainable, fashionable bikinis.
Our goal is to supply the public from home to the ocean with environmentally friendly products such as stainless steel straws, bamboo toothbrushes and ocean/reef friendly sunscreens.
A big focus for us is breaking into the yachting industry to try and change the mind set of wastage and single use plastic. We’ve supplied a few yachts now with stainless steel straws and hope to have a much bigger range in the near future for the industry.
Currently in Durban South Africa we do beach cleanups and to date have cleaned over a ton of plastic and waste lying on various beaches.
