Environmental Advocate and Canoe Princess
Trash Tramp, Inc.
Sarah Craig
There was a little home made of shingles, surrounded by stone, built in a mini forest
made of pine, bamboo, kumquat, avocado and bougainvillea. It was placed in the middle of the
San Fernando Valley. Little Sarah was born in this home on the last day of a hot summer while
her mother hung on to a chair for stability. After a short while she was moved to Eugene,
Oregon to live amongst other trees and hippies. This is where she was voted most likely to save
the rainforest by her high school peers.
Becoming a Feminist and equal rights advocate at 10, Vegetarian at 12, Janitor at 14 for
a fancy club throughout high school, Sarah learned that ignoring waste was a convenience
taking over the club. This landed her in a dumpster on a regular basis trying to fit it all in
because the place she worked didn’t want to pay for more trash pickups.
Playing sports growing up and eventually coaching hurdles to middle school boys and
girls, Sarah learned that wasted movement could mean the difference between winning and
losing. As a Women and Gender Studies Major, Minor in Business and Dance at the University
of Oregon, Sarah enjoyed watching the ducks… the ones on a lake because those ducks are
enlightened as characterized by Eckhart Tolle, no wasted emotion. In her college career she
made it to one football game. After securing a degree and a clear path to waiting tables, she
moved back to Cali with a dream in her heart and a lot of hope for the world. She
found that her origin-home-paradise had been paved over to put up a parking lot
and then found a path into the film industry where she flourished and manages million dollar
commercial budgets that often still allow waste management to be an afterthought. She is
working to infiltrate this system… During her Malibu stint, She learned that convenience was
also taking over the beach. She would take long walks on the beach picking up trash and offering
bags to rich people who were letting their dogs poop on the sand, only to find later they just
bagged it and left it there.
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When Sarah finally moved to Marina del Rey she was introduced to the magical sport of
Outrigger Canoe, whose Hawaiian culture emphasizes respect for the environment and harmony
within the canoe and among people. While paddling she couldn’t avoid trash in the water, so
her paddles ended early because the trash she pulled out of the water was in her foot wells,
behind her seat and sometimes draped over her legs. This inconvenience led her to create the
Trash Tramp that she now uses to collect trash as she continues to train #TrainingOutTheTrash.
Sarah is active in the paddle community as a budding long distance paddler and Chair of the
SCORA Environmental Committee founded in 2020 to help the Organization go Zero Waste. For
the last few years, Trash Tramp has been a sponsor, speaker, coach and advocate at camps,
clinics, and races, leading beach cleans and Trash Talks about our current trash crisis. Through
Trash Tramp Inc. and while paddling, Sarah hopes that her time on the water can have a positive
impact for future generations of paddlers and non-paddlers alike.
Where can you find Sarah and TrashTramp?
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Instagram: @Saysayer @TheTrashTramp @quesarasarafilms
Youtube: @Saysayer
Quesarasarafilms.com Trashtramp.com