I promise there’s no reference to William Wallace! What is freedom of the sea? What are we escaping from, or put another way, what might we be escaping to? Confused….. don’t be, but jump over to the Sea: Reflections section and check out the latest post.

I’ve recently completed Kennedy Warne’s Soundings where he describes rowing out to a family boat with his 92-year-old father. He starts the book tracing his intergenerational connection to the sea and boats and it got me thinking….. Thinking about fathers and sons, adventures, of losses and gains, of conflict and harmony. There are some great books in this vein, and here I touch on a few; My Old Man and the Sea, One Wild Song, The Boy who Fell to Shore. Go to the Reflections section if you want to know more.

It’s the third evening on a five-day voyage with a group of year ten boys from a ‘well-to-do’ school. The dishes were rinsed in salt water and then sent below to be washed, dried, and …. To read more go to the Reflections section

A voyage isn’t necessarily about covering distance – it can be a way to gain understanding; so writes Paul Heiney in One Wild Song. This year has certainly been a journey in many ways and has provided a fresh perspective on how 2025 might shape up…… see more in the Reflections section.

Joseph Heller, Sterling Hayden, and Jimmy Carr ….. how on earth do those three feed into this month’s piece? Check out the Reflections page……

I have recently refreshed the main sections of the website. I have combined my outdoor education and blue space academic writing into one section, added some material on my work relating to fatality prevention in outdoor education, and created a new section The Sea: Reflections which contains more personal writing on my experiences of being, on, in and with the sea.

After three and a half years at AUT I have now reduced my appointment to .4 of an equivalent full time position. This is effectively two days a week (starting January 2024). I have appreciated my time at AUT but I am tired of the commuting. This reduction in hours has allowed me to pursue other interests including: contract skippering and running Fatality Prevention Workshops for Education Outdoors New Zealand (EONZ).

This book explores the educational dimension of people’s engagement with the ocean. Across formal, informal, and nonformal learning contexts, it examines how experiences of the ocean and ‘blue spaces’ help us to understand ourselves, others, and our place within the natural environment, and the place of the ocean in our sociocultural and political life.

Drawing on creative projects from around the world, the book introduces topics as diverse as ocean sailing, migrants’ experiences of learning to surf, experiencing seascapes through sounds, and the importance of fostering connections with the sea. It provides examples of innovative teaching and learning practices, and the pedagogical possibilities that engagement with the ocean offers to outdoor studies scholars and practitioners in terms of education, and the enhancement of our well-being and the environment.

This is fascinating reading for advanced students, researchers, teachers, and educational practitioners with an interest in outdoor studies, experiential and outdoor learning, leisure and recreation studies, environmental studies, or geography.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Ocean-Blue-Spaces-and-Outdoor-Learning/Brown/p/book/9781032224114

In a somewhat belated post I’m pleased to advise that this edited book, which found it’s genesis in the 2016 Seascapes conference, has been published. My thanks to my co-editor Kimberley Peters and the contributors.

Barbara and Mike with their book Seascapes: Shaped by the Sea.

Book brings relationship with the sea to the fore

It’s been a big year for sailor and sea kayaker Mike Brown. The University of Waikato Sport and Leisure Studies Senior Lecturer recently completed a 20-day Atlantic crossing by yacht and has co-edited a book on the sea that has just been published.

The book Seascapes: Shaped by the Sea is an account of how the sea has shaped and influenced the lives of 12 people.

“The sea is integral to our lives,” says Dr Brown. “The book’s focus is on how the sea is experienced by people, reflecting their personal connections and how they’re defined as human beings, both individually and collectively.”

One of the chapters is by windsurfer and Professor of Sociology of Sport and Outdoor Education at Buckinghamshire New University Barbara Humberstone, the book’s co-editor. Professor Humberstone has been in New Zealand for a couple of months over the summer on study leave from the UK.

Professor Humberstone says having the sea around her as she was growing up had a powerful effect on her.

“When I wrote my chapter, I started to explore further and found a poem I wrote as a kid about going to the beach. It’s exciting seeing the influence the sea has had on me throughout my life.”

And while the sea is part of our cultural landscape, Dr Brown says it often isn’t thought of as something that constitutes our identity.

“By recording these personal accounts, we want to try and understand how the sea shapes us and in doing so, bring to the fore the importance of a personal relationship with it. If people don’t have an affection for the ocean, then they’re less likely to care for it.”

Dr Brown and Professor Humberstone’s academic paths had crossed at various conferences over the years where they discovered they shared a common interest of being on or in the water.

Knowing of Professor Humberstone’s windsurfing experience and research interests, Dr Brown broached the subject of editing a book with her. She was enthusiastic after seeing the initial rough outline and the project got underway in 2012.

Dr Brown’s own relationship with the sea began when he was young, spending time dinghy sailing and going on to become involved in sail training in the UK, and sailing in the south-west Pacific Ocean.

The book features contributions from academics who are actively engaged with the sea. Each author was approached because of a combination of scholarly expertise and their own experience with the sea. They come from a variety of fields such as geography, sociology and education. They are windsurfers, surf and sea kayakers, sailors, bodyboarders, swimmers and a commercial fishing boat monitor/observer.

Contributors to Seascapes are from New Zealand, Australia and the UK, with several having connections to the University of Waikato: Dr lisahunter, Dr Karen Barbour and bodyboarder and masters student Mihi Nemani, who is of Māori and Samoan descent. Mihi’s chapter highlights the hierarchies of surfing subculture, gender and race, describing how prejudice and bias don’t necessarily disappear at the water’s edge.

“All are people who know the sea and have that personal connection with it,” says Dr Brown. “The book’s publication is very timely as there is a new wave of geographers now looking at the sea and a rise of consciousness in this area.”