FRICKER Samuel

General
BUSINESS
He runs Sam's Wheat Straws in Sydney, NSW, Australia, where he produces wheat-based drinking straws. "When I was 16, I saw the video of a single plastic straw being removed from the nostril of a green sea turtle. It quickly become viral and was watched by millions. Seeing this turtle in so much agony by our everyday use of plastics straws broke my heart. I felt compelled to do something about it so strongly I founded an eco-friendly plastic free drinking straw company with the help of my mum. I have been fortunate enough to travel and compete all over the world for diving. Through my travels I have seen that plastic pollution is not just a problem here in Australia but a global emergency." (Sam's Wheat Straws Instagram profile, 09 Jul 2021; samsstraws.com, 01 Jan 2021; news.futurestudents.unsw.edu.au, 06 Nov 2020)

EARLY DAYS
He says his gymnastics skills had helped him progress in diving as a child but he also had to start from basic when he joined the New South Wales Institute of Sport [NSWIS] at age 12. "I took all of the skills I left from gymnastics over to diving. It wasn't really good quality but I was making some hard dives at the time. At 11 years old, I made my first NSW team to compete at the National Schools Sport Australia. I had just started diving a bit for fun and was still doing gymnastics. Then when I moved to Sydney [from Newcastle] and got into NSWIS, they stripped me right back and I started right from scratch for a long time. That is when serious training started." (7NEWS Australia YouTube channel, 05 Jul 2021; weeklytimes.com.au, 28 Feb 2018)