Not
that long ago Fourth Element launched their Ocean Positive range of
swimwear. The idea behind the range was to give people a purchasing
choice. You can either buy a bikini or a pair of budgie smugglers
that has a direct impact on ocean welfare or you could buy something
else and live with the guilt. What impact can buying a bloody bikini
have on ocean welfare you might well ask. Well for a start the Ocean Positive range are made from recycled fishing nets. These “ghost
nets” are abandoned by fisherman after snagging on reefs and wrecks
and pose a significant threat to marine life. In short they continue
to fish even though abandoned, trapping a staggering variety of
marine life and resulting in the loss of thousands upon thousand of
creatures each year. They also destroy coral as currents drag them
across reefs, literally scrubbing the reef clean. But thanks to a
recycling process created by the Italian company Aquafil and the
Ghost Fishing Project which enlists teams of divers to recover the
nets in the first place, this scourge of the ocean suddenly becomes a
high quality nylon yarn capable of being turned into a bikini.
Anyone
who has read about ghost nets and their sickening impact on the
marine environment would be hard pressed to argue that their removal
is a bad thing. And, if you watch the video messages from such people
as Amanda Cotton, Dave Schott and others which are on the Ocean
Positive website, you would have to have a heart of stone not to be
moved by the images of fish, sharks, seals and turtles that have died
after being trapped in the nets. So the concept of Ocean Positive is a
noble one and unlike some other noble concepts that often turn out to
be nothing more than hot air, the
team at Fourth Element have turned the concept into a tangible
product that you can buy.
The
oceans are cleared of ghost nets by heroic divers around the world so
saving marine life. The Italians recycle the nets into nylon yarn
which apparently means that twelve thousand tons of waste has been
eliminated, seventy thousand barrels of oil have not had to be used,
forty-two thousand tons of CO2 hasn’t been released into the
atmosphere and enough energy has been saved to power a small town for
a year or the city of Rome for ten days and to square the circle in
all this, all we as consumers have to do, is buy a bikini. What is
there not to like about all this? Without wanting to sound like
cheerleaders for Fourth Element – whose advertising is pretty dam
slick anyway - we can't find much wrong with any of this. It all
looks and sounds like a true environmental business success story.
There is just one thing though, something that could be a real deal
breaker. What if those bikinis aren't any good? You see no matter how
noble the idea is, if the resulting product is, shall we say, a bit
crap. Then the whole concept falls flat on its noble nose. So there
was nothing else to do then but buy some Ocean Positive swimwear and
compare them with a brand leader in swimwear to see if the noble idea
held water so to speak. The brand we choose was Speedo. The reason is
simple. We all own a pair of Speedos already and didn't have to buy
anything else to do the comparison. We want to give you a honest
review here but we don't want it to cost us too much, we've got beer
money to think about after all. Now,
we have no idea about how Speedos are manufactured or whether they
are recycled or not but that's not the point. Speedo is the leading
player in the market and they make very, very good swimwear.
Anyway
we bought some Ocean Positive bikini's and swims shorts and put them
to the test in the cold waters of Britain. The first thing to note is
that Ocean Positive uses some very attractive and very athletic
looking models in its advertising. Such people would look good even
after running a marathon dressed in nothing more than a refuse bag.
We, on the other hand, and we suspect a great many of you are not
these people. Though we like to think of ourselves as relatively fit
and toned individuals, we do tend to sag a bit in places. The second
thing to note is that Ocean Positive swimwear is designed to be worn
under a wetsuit and the third thing to note, as we have pointed out
before in our review of the Fourth Element Pro Dive Amphibious shorts, is that
Fourth Element have a bit of a sizing issue. Now either everyone in
the Fourth Element sizing department is an attractive, athletic model
who has never met the average diver and his belly or they are
confusing the metric and imperial systems of measurement. The result
of all this is that the swimwear is pretty snug. So snug in fact
that, if you're a man your voice is going to go up a few octaves and
if you are a woman you might find you bulge in places you rather wish
you didn't. So we recommend that you err on the side of caution and
go for a larger size than normal. Interestingly we found no problem
with the Speedo sizing, all fitted perfectly. Once the size issue was
sorted both sets of swimwear were equally comfortable. Both Ocean
Positive and Speedo bikinis' were easy to get in and out of, having
no “annoying” ties and clasps that you find on fashion bikinis.
We did find that the Ocean Positive fitted more easily under our
wetsuits and didn't bunch up in those awkward uncomfortable places
like the Speedos did. However we suspect that had we bothered to
purchase a more expensive style of Speedo this would not have been a
problem either.
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| The Malaku Bikini won't look this good on everyone! |
The
Ocean Positive range is rather limited at the moment, but the designs
that are available were generally well received, the bikini wearers among us preferred the black Malaku design to any of the others.
Black, apparently gentlemen, is more slimming. The deeper voiced among us had even less choice having to settle for either a black
or blue pair of budgie smugglers or a pair of black or blue Cayman
swim shorts. The swim shorts won the vote as only “twats wear
trunks” or something like that. Speedo, as can be expected, has a
massive range and Ocean Positive can't really compete on that front.
It can however compete on price. Speedo's vast range means that there
are decent swimsuits available from around £16 to well over £70
whilst the Ocean Positive range is priced at around £40 for women
and £23 for men which is hardly expensive. Then again neither price
nor limited range means much when you consider the benefits of the
underlying concept. This then is the crux of the matter. In general
we found no real difference between the brands. Both performed well,
both looked stylish and both were relatively inexpensive. So what it
all boils down to, is the concept of how Ocean Positive are made. Take that into consideration and there really is no contest. Ocean Positive then, doesn't fall flat on its noble nose and
is, in our opinion, pretty damn good.
In
fact we think they are so good that every diver, snorkeller, water enthusiast or beach
lover should go out and buy a rash vest, a bikini or even a pair of twat trunks. Yes, the range is a little limited at the
moment and yes they might feel a little snug in places and yes, you
might sometimes be a little creeped out by the fact that the piece of
material cradling your crotch was once full of dead fish but none of
that matters because you will feel good about yourself. You have done
something positive about ocean welfare. And all you had to do to get
this euphoric sense of doing something noble and worthwhile was to
buy a piece of swimwear. So
go and buy some Ocean Positive stuff and feel good about yourself.
