Sambazon's New Warrior of Change!

Congrats to Joe Chisholm of Waves of Action, you are our newest Warrior of Change. And with that comes $10,000 and the responsibility to make the world a better place - a happier, more sustainable, and more knowledgeable one.



Through Waves of Action, Joe will help to bring awareness and catalyze action among the youth for environmental issues affecting our oceanic environment and cetaceans (whales, porpoises and dolphins). Waves of Action will engage students around the world to make their own films about environmental issues of their choice. Joe, we look forward to seeing the film tour the world and watching your movement grow.


To everyone else, thanks for participating, voting, submitting, listening. And stay tuned to this blog, we’ll have updates from Joe as he goes on his voyage of oceanic welfare.

Water Warriors

Pro surfer Jon Rose was on a surf trip headed to Bali in 2009 when the tragic quake hit. A couple years prior, his dad Jack Rose had started Rain Catcher, a non-profit to distribute easy and economical water catchment and filtration systems in Africa. So Jon had a few water filters on him and promptly gave them out to aid workers in Sumatra. Seeing the devastation and the need for clean water inspired Jon to create Waves4Water and grow this concept of surf community distributed clean water systems.

“The mission is simple: To get clean water to every single person who needs it.”



Since then, Waves4Water has worked on the front line to provide clean water to communities in need around the world. They have worked on a community level, making simple filtration systems available to traveling surfers to give out to people in need at their destinations, and they have worked with strategic partners such as UN forces to distribute filters in earthquake crises areas.
Here are just some of the results:

Sumatra: Earthquake relief – 250 (community & family) filters distributed = 7000 people with access to clean water.
Bali: 37 villages on impoverished East side now stabilized and drinking clean water.
Haiti: Earthquake relief – 31,000 (community & family) filters distributed = 2,100,000 people with access to clean water.
Chile: Earthquake relief – 1000 (family) filters distributed = 10,000 people with access to clean water.

Today, Jack and Jon Rose are Sambazon warriors, and continue to Warrior Up by making positive change on a massive level across the world. Learn more about how Jack and Jon Warrior Up! Or stock up on water filters to become a clean water courier on your next trip to a developing nation.

Warrior of Change Seane Corn

Seane Corn is a modern yogini and renown instructor, her unabashed spirit has caught the eye of media around the country. Seane teaches a dynamic vinyasa flow and leads her students on an inner journey towards personal understanding, but beyond the studio, social change is her mantra.

Seane Corn, Hala Khouri and Suzanne Sterling founded Off the Mat, Into the World (OTM) in 2007. OTM helps individuals take the path of yoga “off the mat and into the world,” expanding the sphere of change outward to local and global communities through leadership trainings, fostering community collaboration, and initiating local and global service projects.

Using their expertise with leadership and positive change, OTM leaders will help us judge the Sambazon Warrior of Change Contest to elect the most realistic and impactful project proposals.

Through intensive weekends OTM empowers individuals to become leaders of social change in their communities by these simple, yet very important steps:

• Self-Inquiry: Who am I? What is my Purpose?
• Transformational Journey Work: Transforming our wounds into tools for healing.
• Community: Conscious collaboration skills.
• Action: Creating a group project that makes a difference.

If you’re interested in empowerment through yoga, OTM will be hosting leadership trainings in cities across the US next year. Till the end of November a 5% of all Sambazon’s Smoothie Pack Sales will be donated to scholarships that help yogis in need attend OTM trainings.

OTM is made up of thousands of yogis in action who practice, volunteer and teach all over the world. This network has created concrete positive change through tangible projects like the Global Seva Challenge that currently raises funds to support communities in crisis in South Africa, the Empowered Youth Initiative which immerses yogis with at-risk youth communities in inner city Los Angeles, and many more.
To get involved, visit www.offthematintotheworld.org


.

Non-GMO Warrior: Jeffrey Smith

As you may, or may not, know this last October was the first ever Non-GMO month. The Non-GMO Project was sure to hand out Non-GMO shopping guides at local retailers and host educational events around the country that answered a very important question:

Why is non-GMO food important in the first place? Well, GMOs, or “genetically modified organisms,” are created by various genetic engineering techniques to produce species with specific attributes (bigger/better/faster). However, GMOs are not proven to be safe for consumption, although they are widely distributed around the world in many foods you may be consuming. Interesting thing to note, GMOs are banned in Europe where people fought successfully to keep them out of the food system, but here in the US widespread common foods like corn and soy (including most corn syrup) are made from GMO crops.

One man, known by the world as the no-GMO guy, Jeffrey Smith has a lot to say about the matter. His organization, called the Institute for Responsible Technology, states that,

“Genetic engineers continually encounter unintended side effects – GM plants create toxins, react to weather differently, contain too much or too little nutrients, become diseased or malfunction and die. When foreign genes are inserted, dormant genes may be activated or the functioning of genes altered, creating new or unknown proteins, or increasing or decreasing the output of existing proteins inside the plant. The effects of consuming these new combinations of proteins are unknown.” But people can predict, and Mr. Smith in his best seller, Genetic Roulette, clearly outlines numerous health and environmental threats from GMO activity.

Jeffrey Smith, a long time friend of Sambazon’s, is joining our tribe of Warriors and you’ll be able to see his full profile on the Sambazon website in a couple weeks.

If you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to check out the Institute for Responsible Technology.

Kassia Meador and Keep A Breast

Keep A Breast casts molds of women’s busts and partners with incredible artists to make them into beautiful pieces of art. Not only is this a great visual way to raise awareness about breast cancer, but KAB auctions the pieces off at events around the year to raise funds for projects. This is a glimpse into their 10 year anniversary event:

Water Warriors Take the Stage at the Hurley Pro

For the 4th year in a row, we served up açaí bowls at the Hurley Pro. Usually one of the more impressive surf contests at Trestles, this year topped all. Today, Hurly H2O tents sold re-useable water bottles (for $5!) and offered free refills for re-useable water containers. Not a bad deal and a great way to help people make the first step in reducing their use of single use plastics like disposable water bottles. The H20 Project is a collaboration between Hurley, Waves4Water and the Ecology Center to distribute water filters around the world in places of need and raise awareness for water conservation and environmental stewardship locally. This is a really amazing project, and I’m not just saying that because three of our local Orange County Warriors are involved (Jack and Jon Rose founded Waves4Water, and Evan Marks founded the Ecology Center).

Kudos to the Hurley Pro for supporting positive change, it’s just another reason why we keep coming back to this event each year. That, and all the athletes who tell us how grateful they are that Sambazon is there to fuel ‘em up. We think that açaí is the best thing on earth, and we’re suckers for people that think so too.

Thanks Hurley Pro, it was fun, see you all next year.

Team Sambazon

Sambazon Warrior Up Launch Party!

This week Sambazon Launched Warrior Up in San Diego, CA. It’s campaign that celebrates warriors of change – people like Rob Machado, Bob Burnquist, Seane Corn, and many others. Here’s some photos of the launch party. Thanks to everyone that came, especially our Sambazon Warriors who have contributed to much to this project.



Ray Barbee and the Matson II performed a great opening set!



Manu Scaarpa, Stephanie Bernstein ( To-Go Ware), Rob Machado (Rob Machado Foundation) and Jeremy Black (VP Marketing Sambazon).


Raw Food Chef Ani Phyo posses with her pup, her manager Kato, and Sambazon's Scotty Nemeth.



Kassia Meador gets in character with a group of friends.



Sambazon's Warrior Up photo booth inspired a whole ton of interesting shots - headdresses included.



Bob Burnquist and wife Veronica show us how they Warriored Up!

For all the photos, check out our flickr stream. And hear what Fuel TV had to say about the night!

Featured Recipe: Warrior Fuel

The ultimate Warrior Bowl, fuel for a lifetime of fighting the good fight.

Blend this:
2 Sambazon Original Açaí Smoothie Packs
A splash of Coconut water
1/2 Banana
1 tbsp Maca powder
1 tbsp Greens (we like Amazing Grass, but any greens mix will do)


Pour your açaí blend in to a bowl and top with:
Bee pollen
Cacao nibs
Hemp seeds
1/2 Banana slices

Then put your Warrior headdress on and start creating solutions to the most pressing issues that challenge our world today. Go ahead, do it.