Saving our oceans one bikini at a time…
I had the pleasure of meeting Steph at last year’s inaugural #RadLivin festival. She came in from the Sunshine Coast to connect with like-minded people, get inspired and celebrate livin’ life to the fullest. Steph is the creator of OceanZen Bikini. They work to authentically raise awareness with marine conservation projects, saving our ocean one bikini at a time – each bikini is made from recycled bottles and nets.
Steph lives and breathes OceanZen’s message and is a marine conservationist herself! We sat down to chat about her incredible conservation efforts, leaving her full-time job in Sydney to travel abroad, living in Bali 3 months out of the year to create her brand, and what actually goes into creating a lifestyle that you love from the inside out.
Where are you in the world?
Living on the Sunshine Coast of Australia at the moment ☺ Originally from Sydney and have wandered around the globe a couple of times in between.
How do you follow your bliss?
Whilst I do love being around people and socialising, I love time to myself. When I do find that time to be alone, I love to just sit peacefully and think about where I have been and where I want to go in life. OceanZen has taken up a huge part of my last 3 years and I haven’t been able to impulsively travel as much as I was before OceanZen. I absolutely love to travel on my own, it’s something that my friends and family don’t quite understand haha. But when I travel alone, I feel the most alive. I have no influence of my home life and no distractions. Travel is my bliss.
Could you tell us the story behind Oceanzen Bikini and how it first came about?
My passion for the ocean and marine conservation is essentially what lead me to create OceanZen. In my early 20’s I decided I wanted more from life than working full-time in an office in Sydney. So I packed my bags and impulsively left Australia on a one way ticket, which resulted in a solo adventure abroad for 3 years. I floated around the globe, from chilling in the middle of the Kruger Park in South Africa with elephants and leopards, to snowboarding mountain peaks in Whistler Canada, volunteering with orphans in Bali, buying a Kombi van in Colombia and driving it down South America and surfing world class waves in Costa Rica with countless other memories. But the chapter that really changed my life was spending a year in the Caribbean, on a little island in the Cayman Islands. I landed a job there working with Southern Atlantic Stingrays for eco-tourism. Part of my role was to dive down, lure the stingrays to the surface and hold them safely while tourists got their photos. The most INCREDIBLE experience.
I had discovered a deep connection with the ocean and marine animals. But I also learnt a lot about human threats. From this point on, I wanted to learn more, and learn how I could help the ocean. I came home and enrolled into Uni to study Environmental Science, which has also taken me back around the globe researching incredible animals like humpback whales, sharks, sea lions and coral reefs. The most incredible chapter was spending 4 months in the Galapagos Islands where I spent my days in the ocean playing with sea lions… for research of course.
All of this wasn’t enough though, I wanted to do more and learn more and help share this powerful message for marine conservation that was shared with me back in the Caribbean. I wanted to create my own sustainable something and OceanZen was born from my passion for sustainability. I had heard about this sustainable fabric made from recycled plastic bottles in Costa Rica, longgggggggg before I had even dreamed of ever studying this field. Meanwhile through all of this, my entire lifestyle, in the water and out, involved me wearing bikinis. I don’t own bras haha, so it felt only natural to combine the two things that I love; swimwear and marine conservation together ☺
OceanZen raises awareness for marine conservation issue’s, supports a cleaner ocean by using fabric made from recycled plastic bottles and fishing nets from the ocean, and practices sustainability throughout the entire business model. The bikini’s are packed and sent to customers in recycled cardboard pillow boxes completely avoiding the use of plastic. Plastic/marine debris is causing major issue’s for our ocean’s and the more businesses that choose sustainability, the stronger the message is to consumers to want to make a change.
What is your ultimate dream with Oceanzen?
I have so many dreams with OceanZen. Following my passion was the best thing I ever did. There are definitely ups and downs with following your dreams and it’s not always an easy ride, but I feel so much excitement, passion and inspiration for loving what I do and OceanZen will never just be a swimwear label. As an Entrepreneur, I am constantly thinking of creative ways to branch out. For the last two years OceanZen has ventured to Tonga to swim with wild humpback whales (Just got back last month) Sounds Crazy!! But words can hardly describe this experience. These creatures are giants, yet so graceful and so cognitive. The way their eyes pierce through your soul as they stare at you face to face. It’s a truly incredible experience.
Next year OceanZen is running our first eco whale-swim retreat to Tonga. So so excited to be sharing our love for the Ocean with girls that believe in what we are doing. We will be going over to a school over there as well and sharing the message for a cleaner ocean to the students.
I would love to expand and run OceanZen eco-retreats around the world to take guests to have incredible experiences with marine life. That is an ongoing project. Also have been in liasing with a sea turtle program in Costa Rica to organise a donation/conservation program with them as sea turtles are currently suffering severely from human impacts. The next milestone for OceanZen will be involved with various conservation programs that I feel are sincere and genuinely need the support.
Further down the track I would love to create more sustainable products like an eco water bottle, or bamboo towels, glass straws. So many ways to expand and one can only dream ☺. With all of these dreams to expand and grow, the research and administration increases dramatically. These dreams are only dreams until they are implemented, and implementing them takes me out of working on the business, to working in the business which is when the not so happy times happen. You can quite easily become disheartened, emotionally drained and doubtful and I am sure plenty of creative small business owners will agree with this mutual feeling. OceanZen has a list full of dreams, and as much as I would love to do all of them at once, there isn’t the time or the creative desire to fulfill them all at once. One dream at a time ☺.
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