Surfboard Excitations

From an energy standpoint, surfing is pretty green. Though fossil-fuel-burning jet skis are used by the elite who frequent tow-in breaks like Pe'ahi ("Jaws"), most surfers take off and ride using the power of our own muscles and the breaking wave. When it comes to the materials used in our boards, however, the world's 20 million surfers could be a lot greener.

Early Hawaiian and Californian surfers used boards hewn from trees. Nowadays, the only wood used is the thin strip, or stringer, running lengthwise down the middle of a board to provide strength. Today's conventional "sticks" are made of polyurethane (PU) foam cores, known as "blanks," petrochemical solvents, polyester resin and fiberglass. Board shapers and glassers wear respirators against the dust and fumes, including such volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (2,4-TDI), which, according to the EPA, contributes to outdoor air pollution and is a possible human carcinogen according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. "Toluene is a colorless, odorless gas contained in the blank [foam] itself," says Chris Bouslog, a Honolulu attorney, surfer and co-owner of Surflight, a maker of greener surfboards—a category given a boost by the sudden December 2005 shutdown of Clark Foam, which supplied 80 percent of the world market for PU blanks. Owner Gordon Clark cited EPA regulations and the risk of workers' compensation lawsuits as his reasons for quitting.

Another non-green flaw in the lightweight, flexible PU boards is a brief lifespan. "The pros are riding boards not meant to last very long; the bonds between the board, glass and resin break down and they're often trashed after only three weeks," Bouslog says. As even the plebes want to look and act like the pros, PU surfboards provide a constant stream of solid waste. And, while factories in China and Southeast Asia have ratcheted up their PU blank production to fill the Clark gap, "Blank Monday" has inspired soul-searching and debate on the future of the industry in The Surfer's Journal, Surfer's Path and elsewhere.

The biggest green contender thus far is the expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam blank, which is free of 2,4-TDI and covered in an epoxy resin that emits fewer VOCs than conventional polyester does, according to Fletcher Chouinard, head shaper for Fletcher Chouinard Designs, an offshoot of Patagonia. Epoxy is also stronger and lighter than polyester resin, so the boards last an average of five times longer than standard, Chouinard says. Epoxy boards also have greater flex, says Bouslog, whose company makes EPS blanks and finished boards, as well as less-toxic polypropylene foam boards, "but the major benefit is you don't have the VOCs—toluene, styrene, xylene and acetone—in the solvents and polyester." Even better, Ecoblanks, a Brazilian company, uses foam from 100-percent recycled polystyrene, i.e., old coffee cups. Not all EPS boards are created equal, however: Tuflite boards wrap an EPS core in PVC, a plastic which releases carcinogenic dioxins into the environment during production.

Natural-material boards are also being developed. While bamboo surfboards (see GG #105) seem to have vanished from the pipeline—temporarily, one hopes—Ocean Green Surfboards in Cornwall, UK, makes custom boards of balsa wood, a classic California material for the first half of the 20th century, and uses hemp instead of fiberglass laminates. As the survival of our sport depends upon the preservation of the reefs and shorelines that shape the waves and are threatened by global warming and pollution, surfers have a vested interest in going green. For more ideas, from offsetting the carbon we burn on surfing safaris to cleaner surfwax, go to www.ecosurfproject.org. Give your wave rider The Surfer's Path, a beautiful magazine printed on 100-percent non-chlorine-bleached, post-consumer-recycled paper with soy-based inks (www.surferspath.com).

For alternative boards, from $500-$1500 and up (expect to pay more for custom and hand-shaped boards, rather than hand-finished machine "pop-outs"), visit www.pointblanks.com (Fletcher Chouinard Designs), www.surflight.com and www.oceangreen.org.