Hobie's Green Shop

I recently visited the Hobie shop in downtown San Clemente and was stoked to learn that it's now an all "green" products. They've worked with all of the surf industry manufacturers to bring in only their sustainable product lines.. shirts, shoes, sunglasses, etc. It's a great concept where you can pick up some cool gear but also know that you're pushing the industry to reduce the environmental impacts of their products. Turns out they also have an online shop called Fragile Ocean.

The Surfboard Cradle-to-Grave Project

The Surfboard Cradle-to-Grave Project

by Tobias C. Schultz

As the surf community has been made aware of its own environmental footprint, theinterest in creating a surfboard from "green" materials has grown exponentially. But without a life cycle assessment of the baseline materials used in surfboard manufacture, it is impossible to make informed decisions to reduce the footprint of the sport.

What part of the board contributes the most to its environmental footprint? Which parts of the process will be the easiest, and cheapest, to improve? These are the questions the surf community needs to answer before real improvements can be made; these are the questions the Surfboard Cradle-to-Grave (SCG) Project was started to resolve.

In the Surfboard Cradle-to-Grave Report, you can find the life cycle carbon footprint of the two most common types of surfboard, polyurethane (P/U) and expanded polystyrene (EPS). By comparing the environmental footprints of future boards against these baseline materials, we can find out which new types of board are truly ‘greener.’ “It’s easy to buy an ‘environmentally friendly’ surfboard and say you have reduced your footprint—but is it a ‘green’ board just because its maker says so?” says Tobias Schultz, the founder of the SCG Project. “The only way to make a real comparison is to assess the footprint of a new type of board, and compare it to the footprint of conventional surfboards.”

Over a surfboard’s entire lifetime, it is the manufacture of a board’s foam core and petrochemical resin that make up most of the carbon footprint; these two board components account for the lion’s share of the total toxic by-products, as well. The fiberglass that makes up a surfboard’s outer skin is responsible for a tiny fraction of these footprints—less than 5%.

“This means making a board with substitutes for fiberglass—balsa wood or bamboo, for example—do not produce boards with a significantly smaller footprint, even in a best case scenario,” the SCG Report states.

The SCG Technical Report contains information on both the carbon footprint, and information on total toxic by-products; these two metrics are very good indicators for the pollution arising from a product in general. Using the recommendations presented in these reports, we can all gauge the best ways to reduce our environmental footprint.

Read the SCG reports at: http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~schultz/projects_scg.html

Contact: Tobias Schultz, tobias.schultz@berkeley.edu

J.P. Holeman Podcast

Surfider's CEO, Jim Moriarty, recently sat down with J.P. Holeman, of Holeman Surf Designs to talk about board materials and what he's doing with "Ecoboards" and how he's trying to reduce his environmental impact.

Podcasts available on Surfrider's site. "J.P. is a custom surfboard shaper in Southern California. I sought him out for a few reasons. I wanted to hear his perspective on how his world has changed since Clark Foam shut it's doors. I also wanted to hear his view on the experimentation and variety that we're seeing with surfboard design. Most of all I wanted to connect with him and understand how he has altered his worldview and his approach to living and shaping with the least environmental impact possible. Listen in as we catch up just south of Oceanside Pier... on the beach."
[Download the ".mp3" version, 31 MB] or on Itunes.