Back at the very end of summer 2022 we, I mean I, Gareth had an opportunity to sit and chat with the brilliant Katie AKA sustainable Squad. We chatted all things tide clocks, the sea, design and sustainability. We got worked up about the pollution situation on the UK’s coastline cause by rogue Water Companies, weak regulation, and poor legislation, and what we can possibly do about it. And extolled the virtues of getting in the sea as often as possible and how that can make all things better.
“It seems that the government has voted to allow water companies to define for themselves what they regard as “exceptional circumstances”. And It strikes me that “exceptional circumstances” are now ‘whenever-they-like’. So you know, as soon as there’s rain, then they’ve got an excuse to dump raw sewage into the sea. A lot of it is runoff from fields, so from agriculture, that kind of thing, when when the rain happens that will go into the river as well. So there’s pollution from both sides, kind-of-human, literally-human, and also the effects of farming… ends up in the rivers.”
After getting a bit of a (justifiable) rant on about the state of our rivers, plastic pollution, sewage dumping and all that dark stuff, we moved onto the inspiration for Tidey. We chatted about the design process, our choice of sustainable materials for Tidey, and where the project can go next…
“so the idea for Tidey came from when I started surfing more. Basically, when you surf in Brighton or in Shoreham, where I surf, the waves are really fickle. And the tide really governs whether or not it’s going to work right. So you need to time your ‘little window’ here. There’s a couple of hours of opportunity–if the waves are going to be good. So I needed a way to know when when to leave the house. So that was my initial idea.”
We had a fantastic afternoon, and the result is here for you to listen to. If you like, which i’m sure you will, then Katie has many more sustainability podcast episodes available and has Sustainable Squad on Instagram and TikTok too!
Listen to Sustainable Squad podcast episode Ep7: Tide clocks and protecting our seas with Tidey
Want to know more about Tidey the tide clock? Here are some frequently asked questions, and you can shop Tidey here.