Any top athlete needs a certain routine to succeed. From early-morning workouts to hopping in a post-game ice bath, every stretch of the day has to be suited for peak performance. Though well-known factors like training and diet are of utmost importance, another influence has gone under the radar, that being the athlete’s environment.
The environment sways athletics in more ways than just creating snow-covered football fields or baseball rain delays, it actively determines the effectiveness of athletes’ moods and abilities. Not many know this better than those in outdoor-specific sports, such as big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton and former beach volleyball player Gabby Reece. The couple sat down with Heal the Bay CEO Tracy Quinn for the organization’s inaugural Speaker Series event, explaining why the environment impacts all facets of athlete life.
Hamilton, a pioneer in the world of watersports who co-invented the tow-in surfing technique, told the crowd at the Hercules East Campus in Playa Vista that big-wave surfing being so reliant on environmental conditions has increased his gratitude for nature.
"When you’re relying on nature to provide you with these unique opportunities that you train your whole life for … it makes you very aware, your sensitivity is much greater than the normal person, and it usually puts you in nature when things are the most exaggerated, good and bad," Hamilton said.
Both Hamilton and Reece have become stewards of nature due to this awareness, with Reece saying that being a steward means you are "somebody who does what they can to make the environment better." Reece, a veteran of professional volleyball tours, added that being a steward also means taking care of your own health, crucial for any athlete’s journey.
"I think it makes everything else easier," she said. "Better reactions, you’re stronger … I think our practice of taking care of ourselves really has more to do with that than performance … making the [environment] better. Mother Nature inspires you to do that."
Hamilton also spoke of the symbiotic relationship between self and environment, stating that "people separate the environment from their life" due to life distractions providing a "disconnect." He noted that "we are the environment" and that if you are feeling unwell physically or mentally, it impacts the environment of everyone around you.
"I think we have a tendency to just kind of separate things … if you look at the world right now and you see the pollution that’s happening, and then you wonder why we’re not feeling great … I think there’s a powerful relationship between those things," he said.
The duo speaking with Heal the Bay on the benefits of the natural world comes as the Los Angeles area prepares for the ultimate in athletics, the 2028 Olympic Games. Recently, Heal the Bay was selected by LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizers as one of the groups advising on issues of sustainability. In partnership with other local organizations and Los Angeles officials, Heal the Bay will provide guidance on the Games’ local impact on the environment, which the Olympic group said "will serve as a catalyst for lasting benefits to the region."
With Santa Monica Beach slated to be the venue for the Olympics’ beach volleyball contests, the spotlight provides an opportunity to bring more attention to environmental causes. Both Hamilton and Reece know this feeling firsthand, adding that when more people participate in watching beach and watersports, they feel the environment and thus will have more will to protect it.
"[When] those people are there, they see the runoff, they see the plastic … they get concerned about it, they want it to be beautiful, they want to protect it," Hamilton added.
