Part 2: Ocean Minded, Surfrider and Sambazon Work Toward Cleaner Beaches!

4School 4Months, Beach cleanup #2– Another rockin' beach cleanup down at Strands beach last wednesday morning! Ocean Minded and Capo Valley High cleaned up 60 pounds of trash putting them in first place in the trash tally.

Here's some words from our friend and Ocean Minded Team Manager Frankie D’Andrea about the second beach cleanup.

Ocean Minded and Capo Valley high cleaned up Strands beach this morning during the surf teams morning practice. It was the first clean up of the month for Capo Valley and they spent 30 minutes cleaning up thousands of little pieces of sea trash brought in from the recent storms. Denise from the south Orange County Surfrider Foundation was down at the beach educating the kids on trash and where it goes when it leaves the beach. Hats off to coach Shultz who has these kids well trained already in cleaning up the beaches. In total the group picked up 60 pounds of trash in 30 minutes. This is great seeing 80 percent of the trash was the tiny little pieces that go overlooked. Thanks to Sambazon and Surfen Donuts as well for keeping us fueled for the clean up.



Just wanted to thank you all for making this happen, great day and stoked on all the support from the kids and everyone else.

-Frankie D'Andrea (Friend of Sambazon & Ocean Minded Team Manager)


Keep it Purple,
Kaia Lai - West Events Manager / SAMBAZON

Athlete’s First Golf Extravaganza

Yesterday marked another Athlete’s First Golf Extravaganza at the beautiful St. Regis Resort in Dana Point, California. To benefit the Orangewood Children’s Foundation a host of pro football players like Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers), Brandon Jacobs (New York Giants), Matt Cassel (Kansas City Chiefs), Mark Sanchez (New York Jets), Matt Schaub (Houston Texans), Reggie Wayne (Indianapolis Colts) and Todd Heap (Baltimore Ravens) flew from all over the country to participate in the fun and games. Doing what we do best, we paired up with Juice It Up! to blend up some delish açaí breakfast bowls. They were so good in fact, that the carnivorous athletes, coaches, and agents loved ‘em and kept coming back for seconds and thirds.

It was a nice change of pace however, to realize that green and good has infiltrated even the world of professional football. More and more players already knew about açaí and some even ate it regularly and all of their blacked out Navigators and Denalis were Flex Fuel (seriously). Bottom line, I haven’t watched football since Jerry Rice was on top, and while image hasn’t changed a whole ton, a lot of old stereotypes no longer hold true (at least fully). And just maybe, this generation of players will be setting the pace for future pros to follow: Green and organic is good for you, good for your fans and good for the environment.

Special thanks to Juice It Up! for helping us make this event a great success.. And did I mention that in SoCal, Juice It Up! has launched a new açaí menu? Five unique offerings... And they are delish, so make sure to grab an açaí bowl from Juice It Up! for your next breakfast... Or lunch... Or dinner.

Keep it Purple,

Kaia Lai
West Events Manager / SAMBAZON

Ocean Minded, Surfrider and Sambazon Work Toward Cleaner Beaches!

4 Schools 4 Months – last month, we got involved in a “Clean your Beach” project with Ocean Minded and Surfrider Foundation. The idea is, four local high school surf teams in South Orange County compete to pick up the most trash during the 4 month period and the best beach cleaners win! So, from February to May, on any given morning, you’ll find 30-40 high school surfers out at their favorite break, cleaning the beach... And drinking Sambazon while doing it! We’ll have updates about each team’s progress so stay tuned as the trash tally unfolds!

Here’s some words from our friend and Ocean Minded Team Manager Frankie D’Andrea about the first beach cleanup day in late February.



4 Schools 4 Months Beach clean up with Dana Hills High was a great success.

The first beach clean up at Salt Creek with Dana Hills High surf team was a huge success. The whole team showed up at the beach early to practice for an up and coming surf contest next week and before they hit the water they had the chance to clean up their local break. Today was the first clean up of the 4 schools 4 months beach clean up program and it started off amazing. In the beginning Rick from South Orange County Surfrider educated the kids about trash at the beach and what happens to it once it leaves our beaches. In all the team cleaned up 40 pounds of trash in only 20 minutes. A huge thanks to the kids of Dana Hills High and coach Degen for having pride in their local break and cleaning up the beach. Also a huge thanks to Surfrider for the cool recycled trash sacks and to Sambazon for keeping the kids hydrated.

Until next time, keep your beach clean....
-Frankie D'Andrea (Friend of Sambazon & Ocean Minded Team Manager)


Keep it Purple,
Kaia Lai - West Events Manager / SAMBAZON

TED Conference- written by Jeremy Black, VP of Marketing, Sambazon

Thanks to our partners at Lexus Hybrid Living and Chef Akasha from Akasha Restaurant in Culver City, we had the opportunity to serve up our açai bowls and juices at the TED Conference last week. It was the first time I was able to attend this event which I'd heard really good things about so we were pretty excited to share some açai and meet some of the world's top change makers. Speakers included Bill Gates, James Cameron, Philip Howard and many more. Click here to see a recap of the event and I highly recommend you take a few minutes and watch Bill Gates' talk, everyone needs to be aware of this and be part of the solution.

The Lexus Hybrid Living Lounge was extremely well done and drew a sophisticated crowd. Al Gore walked up and wanted to know what was the deal with the purple stuff in the cup with the granola everyone was eating. So I got a chance to tell him a little about our company and products, as well as thank him for all the hard work he's been doing creating awareness for the Global Warming issue. Thanks again Al, you're making a big difference using your influence to create awareness and instigate change. Another highlight was Maggie Grace stopping by for a Rio bowl, she told me she first had our açai at Lanikai Juice in Hawaii when she was filming Lost. I had heard the whole cast made açai bowls a daily ritual and she confirmed that. Now living in LA she keeps our açai in her diet using our Pure Packs in her daily smoothie.

TED is all about good ideas, “what the world needs to know”, and brings some of the smartest thinkers in the world to share their solutions. And while at times it can be a little overwhelming when you hear about all the problems we are facing, it's good to know that there are passionate people who are working hard to solve them. I want to encourage everyone to find a way that you can become part of the solution, and if you're ready to start now and looking for some simple things you can do here are some easy ones:

1- Change out your light bulbs to CFLs or other Energy Star rated bulbs
2- bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store
3- Buy organic- for you, for the planet
4- Eat less (or no) meat (watch Food Inc)
5- and most importantly, vote with your dollars by buying from companies that you know are working to be a part of the solution as well.

Thanks and bless,
Jeremy