Podcast Maré Sonora ® · video

What this video covers

Luca Tixi, a marine biologist and outdoor guide based in Liguria, Italy, founded Outdoor Portofino in 2011 as a one-person operation and grew it to a company of more than 20 staff running kayaking, snorkeling, coasteering, stand-up paddleboarding, and freediving tours across the Marine Park of Portofino.10:51 His guiding philosophy — simplicity as the key to ocean connection — led him to prefer low-gear activities like open-water swimming and snorkeling over scuba diving or sailing.3:56 Outdoor Portofino integrates citizen science into its tours, drawing on Tixi's marine biology training: participants collect fish-count and temperature data using visual census methods, contributing to university and institutional research projects.11:59 He later co-founded OutB, a startup organizing corporate team-building and education retreats in nature, with sustainability and environmental literacy as core content.6:14 During COVID lockdowns, Tixi mentored a surfer neighbor in ocean ecology and citizen science; that collaboration became the documentary *Playground*, screening at the Ocean Film Festival 2024 across Italian cities including Rome.17:22 The conversation also touches on the Blue Mind concept — the documented neurological effects of proximity to water — and on Liguria's year-round water temperatures, which drop to roughly 13–14°C in February and March.25:26

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