Interviews to come on the blog

Venturist on Flickr

I have been pretty slack on the interview-front lately. Blame some hectic real-world stuff. But I'm very excited to have some inspiring women coming here over the next few weeks from a range of sports.

First up this week will be Ti from the outdoors in Alaska blog Element 22  As well as insights into her adventurous lifestyle, she's sent me some fabulous (or fablous as we say in Ireland) photographs to go with the interview.

And I just finished mailing with Girl Boxing so looking forward to some great stories from the boxing world in New York City.

Closer to home I'm waiting to confirm with an Irish swimmer who has featured here a few times, will let you know more about that when I have the details.

Plus a few others, including a great MuayThai fighter who has just retired, in the pipeline. As always, if there is someone you'd like to see featured here,  do let me know - or indeed, volunteer yourself for a chat if you love sports too.

Adventure sports in Ireland

 It's a beautiful morning here in Ireland, summer may finally be here. And it's the start of a three-day weekend for us so lots of outdoor plans being made.

This is a tourism promo (from one of our many, many tourism boards) with shots of the adventure sports you can do in Ireland. Sometimes it's just good to be reminded of what is on our doorstep. Enjoy, and have a great weekend wherever you are! 

Green Olympics for London?

Happy Earth Day everyone! Just noticed the animated Google-logo for today, very cute. But of more relevance to us are the plans to Green-Up for the London Olympics next year. 

From reading this BBC story, it looks like eco-plans were part of the scheme from the start. The committee report says: 

• on target to cut 100,000 tonnes of carbon emission from the building stage 
• cleaned up two million tonnes of contaminated soil from the venue 
• plans to develop 150 acres of urban parkland around the proposed venues 
• restoring 45 hectares of polluted land to wetlands ( great for the locals too)

However, and sadly, they have had to downgrade their plans to produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources to just 9%. This BBC report says that's down to a lack of a main wind turbine. 

Still, it is a lot more positive than you might have expected from such a massive event. Two more reports from the organisers to come, it will be interesting to see what practical eco-measures they will put in place for the athletes and spectators.

And as an aside; I smiled at the caption the BBC have on a photo of the 1948 London games: "Environmental concerns were not an issue for the 1948 Games' organisers." Any excuse to get in how often London has hosted the games I guess. 

What eco-measures have you seen at large sporting events?

Irish surfer Easkey Britton

Easkey Britton website

With a name like 'Easkey' Ireland's top female surfer was always bound for the sea. It means fish in Irish and is shared with one of the largest waves off the west coast.

So growing up in the west of Ireland with a surf-mad family, it didn't take her long to get in the water.

Big wave surfer

Not content with claiming the Irish national title four times plus the British Universities title, she also takes on the big waves. Not just bigger than average but really big - up to six metres.  

She was the first Irish person to surf Teahupoo in Tahiti and the first woman on the infamous Aileens wave in Ireland.

Art

And off the water, surfing is a huge influence on her art - beautiful paintings of women, fish and waves. You can see examples here on her page The Artist Inside, they're really beautiful.

This love of nature takes her far beyond surfing and art. Working on her Phd in marine science means she gets to think about maintaining the water as well as being on it. Her blog has links to environmental articles she's written recently.

And, not to forget, she was one of my Sweat and the City girls here. Inspired yet? Read more on her blog Easkey's Blog

Easkey Britton Tahiti

Tara Dakides Snowboarder

Starting our week of snow is one of the pioneers of women's snow sports, American snowboarder Tara Dakides. 

Boarding was one of those sports boys liked to keep to themselves. It's dangerous, fast and you wear cool clothes - who wants chicks getting in the way? But good things come to those who ask and Dakides was one of the women who took that to heart.

Victories in the 2000 and 2001 X-Games Air, gold at the SIMS World Championships and a few well-timed magazine covers gave the 35-year old a profile many male boarders could only dream about. Throw in a few Best Freestyle Rider, Best Female Rider awards along with the Transworld Reader's Choice in 2002 and you can see she isn't your regular snow-bunny.

Interviewed for Omatic Snowboards (which she co-owns just to get that straight) and asked how strong she still is, her reply made me laugh. "Well, I lifted up my moto the other day after I got clipped by a tree trail riding. Does that mean anything? I was pretty happy I could pick it up."

And because it's not just about the sport, Dakides is also a spokesperson for the Surfrider Foundation , fighting to keep our oceans and beaches clean.

Snowboarder guide

Athletes Aid 350 Actions

10.10.10 was a busy, busy day; marathons (more on those later in the week) and the 350 climate action group hosted Work Parties in 188 countries.

Their website 350 tells us: " Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet. Our focus is on the number 350—as in parts per million CO2. If we can't get below that, scientists say, the damage we're already seeing from global warming will continue and accelerate.  But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet"

Quite a few international sports women were involved in promoting this goal this including American climber Kate Rutherford and British rower Roz Savage.  By its nature, professional sport encourages athletes to become self-absorbed so it's exciting to see women making the effort to remember what lies outside the training room.

Kate Rutherford

            

Roz Savage

Autumn or Fall It's Time to Recycle and Cleanup

Old trainers Richard Faulder Flickr

There's something about this time of year. I feel like throwing out smelly training gear and getting ready for cold weather work. Even more excited than usual this year as I've been out of sports for ages thanks to a few illnesses. So the trick is to find ways to clean out without just dumping everything in the trash. And yes I do get a little emotional about throwing away running shoes which have carried me over way too many hills.

• Recycle your Shoes. Find a company near you at Shoes Recycling Programmes here.  
• Irish chain Lifestyle Sports ran an exchange programme earlier this year - maybe we can get them to hold another? Or check your local shops  
• Recycled Runners links up with brandnames to recycle shoes and unused shoe material. Who knew the shoes on your feet could make a basketball court - 2,500 pairs - or a running track - 75,000 pairs. 

What do you do with your old sports gear?