ANNIKA
Annika Kuhakoski, a surfer, skater and snowboarder, a lover of the ocean.. and one of own! A former NOW Denmark Board member, Annika is a sustainability warrior who inspires everyone around her.
Annika currently lives in Copenhagen but grew up in Helsinki, surrounded by the Baltic Sea. One of her favourite things about Helsinki is that the ocean is so present there.
“I think that’s where my connection to the ocean began - it felt like home… and no matter where I go in the world, the ocean still makes me feel at home.”
With a sustainability mindset and love for the water
Annika contributes to taking care of the ocean by carrying out simple, everyday acts, be it consuming a plant-based diet, favouring local and sustainable products, avoiding single-use plastics or inspiring her friends to be more environmentally conscious about their actions. “It felt really good to have managed to change my friend’s habit of throwing cigarette buds in nature.”
In her interview, Annika told us that she has always been very connected to nature and interested in sustainability. She mentioned that she feels that her passion specifically for the ocean grew when she started surfing around 5 years ago and started noticing how much trash there is floating around in the ocean.
“When you notice that you can’t ever unnotice it again! I felt like I had to start giving back to the source that gives me so much joy. That’s when I started doing ocean cleanups after surf sessions to conserve what I love.”
Connecting to the ocean
Annika really is one of our own! She was a volunteer with Nordic Ocean Watch Denmark, where she supported the team as a cleanup coordinator, as well as a marketing manager. She has also been on our Board, and although she left the organisation, she continues to be an everyday inspiration to us, as she continues to run short or extensive beach cleanups everywhere she goes!
“I could (literally) not live without it. For me, the ocean is love, joy and healing. It teaches me so much and calms me down. The ocean just makes everything better and I feel my happiest when at sea.”
Annika believes that changing human behaviour is one of the biggest challenges we need to solve to save the ocean. Reducing plastic pollution, overfishing, overconsumption, as well as our own carbon footprint needs to be acted upon to help decelerate climate change. “For a healthy planet, we need healthy oceans.”
Some of her favourite ocean memories are boating in the Helsinki archipelago with her grandpa, playing in the Indian Ocean with her family as a kid, wakeboarding in the Baltic Sea, sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, scuba diving with turtles, catching cold waves on the Danish West Coast, or catching bigger and warmer waves in Costa Rica.
Annika’s own ocean heroes are her boyfriend Oke (co-founder of GreenKayak), her good friends Aleksis and Roosa, and all of us volunteers and Ocean Watchers with NOW Denmark! She added, “everyone really, who participates in taking care of our oceans”.
#Tavaha
Our Ocean Hero would like to thank the ocean for its incredible healing powers. When asked what #Tavaha means to her, our Ocean Hero said:
“The Nordic Aloha”, Tavaha, for me is an inspiration. The fact that it derives from Norwegian is a good reminder that we can do so much good in our local areas. It’s easier to ignore ocean pollution in clean-looking Nordic countries versus places like Indonesia, which are visibly flooded by trash. Tavaha reminds me that taking care of our oceans doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s in our everyday actions that we can make a positive impact.
Annika’s three #tavahatips are:
1. Do ocean cleanups - either by yourself or join an arranged cleanup. There are so many cool NGOs activating people, such as GreenKayak and Nordic Ocean Watch in Denmark.
2. Avoid plastic packaging when possible.
3. Avoid (marine) animal-based products and favour local produce.
You can follow Annika to find out more about her daily positive actions! Follow her Instagram account.