Ocean View, PADI Aware Foundation, Kraken Rum and the Fortune of War Pub
Beach Blitz
We at Ocean View Diving joined forces with The team at Kraken Rum, PADI AWARE Foundation, and the team at the Fortune of War Pub for a Brighton Beach Blitz.
![Ocean View Team](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/OV-team-2-crop.jpg)
Team Ocean View! With PADI Aware and Kraken Rum, outside the Fortune of War pub with the results of the clean up.
We had planned to run a clean up both above and below water, but the windy weather put a stop to the dive, for safety reasons. The topside beach clean still went ahead, and whilst it was windy, it was a beautiful sunny day.
![Beach View](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sea-View-Before.jpg)
A lovely sunny start to the day
We were so pleased with the turnout, given the forecast, we had 30 fantastic people join us to support our event. The topside Beach Blitz is as important as the underwater clean up, because if we can stop the rubbish going into the water in the first place, that’s the best option!
The Beach Blitz started with a meet up at the Fortune of War Pub on Brighton seafront.
![Fortune of War](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Fortune-of-War-Pub.jpg)
Our host for the day, The Fortune of War Pub.
The team at the Fortune of War were amazing letting us descend on the pub as a fantastic base of operations. With the backing of Kraken Rum, the World’s first cocktail bar that accepted litter as currency opened for the day in Brighton.
![Beach Clean Panorama](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/panorama.jpeg)
Briefing time, let’s get ready to go.
![Volunteers getting ready to go](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/volunteers-aerial.jpeg)
Volunteers getting ready to go
The volunteers started cleaning up from the stretch of beach in front of the Fortune of War, making our way towards the Pier. We then all made our way past the Pier down towards the music stage that was set up for the music festival taking place over the weekend.
A few of us made it to the beach in front of the festival stage. Once at the half way point we turned back to catch the new litter from the tourists, as the beach was getting busier.
![Beach Clean](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Beach-Cleaners.jpg)
Some of our Ocean View volunteers sweeping the beach. Tammy, Andy and Alice.
We were pleasantly surprised with the cleanliness of the beach as a whole, so hats off to the council teams who are out every day, but we still managed to get a large haul of extra rubbish that would have made it’s way into the sea.
Our presence on the beach even got a few of the tourists to ask if we could take their rubbish for them, whilst this could be seen as cheeky or a bit lazy, it is far better to end up in our collection bags, than on the floor.
We would like to say a big thank you to the team at COW PR who were with us on the day with Kraken to make it a really great day.
![Volunteers 2](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/beach-volunteers-3-rotated.jpeg)
Some of our new friends on the look out for rubbish.
![Ocean View Team after the clean up](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ocean-View-Team.jpg)
After two hours of cleaning up the beach, the Ocean View Team are enjoying the Kraken Rum cocktails ! Great Job Guys.
![](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Jen-and-Angela.jpeg)
Jen and Angela, a little bit windswept, back after a couple of hours cleaning up our beach.
![Volunteers](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Volunteers.jpg)
Volunteers relaxing after a few hours of hard work, enjoying the Kraken Rum cocktails.
![Relaxing after a few hours of hard work](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/volunteers-2.jpg)
Volunteers relaxing after a few hours of hard work, enjoying the Kraken Rum cocktails.
The Dive Against Debris part of the day was unfortunately cancelled due to the high winds that were forecast, we will be re-scheduling the Dive Against Debris, with the hope that the weather is on our side that day.
Below a quick video of the volunteers on the beach with the wind blowing, you can see the shore entry would have been ‘interesting’ had we tried to battle with wind and waves, and given the colour of the water, we would not have been able to see the rubbish, let alone collect it.
Thank you Jen for lots of the photos!! 🙂
![Back from the clean up](https://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/webdev/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Angela-Windswept-rotated.jpeg)
Windswept, ready for a sit down.
The Kraken Beach Clean made it onto the Independent Youtube feed, check it out:
PADI AWARE® is a global movement for ocean protection powered by a community of adventurers. They connect the passion for ocean adventure with the purpose of marine conservation.