I constantly see new boards marketed as “eco” and occasionally when talking with someone around town they talk about how they want an eco-friendly surfboard and mention some company they have been reading about. This has led me to many hours of pondering what makes a board eco friendly. Is it possible to make a board that is eco friendly? Let’s explore!
I’m going to start by telling you what I think the most eco-friendly board is: an uncolored, poly/pu board you plan on keeping for a long time. If this isn’t what you are surfing, then I don’t want to hear about how you are doing your part to save the environment with an eco board. Let’s cover why this is the case by talking about each of these aspects (in my personal opinion).
First off, nothing about producing surfboards is good for the environment. It involves all kinds of toxic materials that are hard to dispose of and most of them either don’t break down over time or take a very long time to break down.
One thing I notice about people who are generally looking for an eco-friendly board, is they seem to go through boards like they go through underwear. Each time a board is made (and then one day disposed of) it has a negative effect on the environment from using toxic chemicals to disposing of those materials and all the manufacturing/transport/etc that goes into getting those materials to you. One of the keys to being environmentally friendly when it comes to surfboards is having a board that is going to last a long time, that you will actually use for an extended period of time before retiring the board. This takes us to the debate between poly and epoxy…
While there are many different combinations of how you can build a board, I’m going to focus on the two most popular to make this easy: PU/Poly and EPS/Epoxy. So when I refer to a poly board, I’m referring to a PU blank glassed with polyester resin. When I refer to an epoxy board, I’m referring to an EPS blank glassed with epoxy resin.
Because I do a lot of surfboard repair work, I get to see boards of all types, all ages and all materials. One of the many things I have noticed is I see a lot of older poly boards, many decades old that are still around and being surfed. If you take care of your poly board and have it properly repaired when needed, it will last a lifetime. They may lose their spunk over time, but they can be surfed for many years after creation.
I also see a lot of older epoxy boards and while I understand that epoxy boards have not been around as long and epoxy technology has gotten better, in my experience, it appears that over time, epoxy breaks down more than poly. It becomes brittle and cracks more easily and does not hold up. What makes matters worse is if you ding your epoxy board and don’t have it fixed, then the EPS soaks up all the water and the board will rot away pretty quickly. Once water intrusion has occured, EPS foam is much harder to dry than PU. The water gets stuck between all the cells and if you are not careful, you will make a repair and trap water inside your board, diminishing its life. With a PU board, a quick spray of the foam with an air compressor and then a little time in the sun is usually enough to dry the board (in most cases).
What about all these new boards marketed as eco? Let’s talk about some of them…
Again, based on my experience with repairs, any board that has come into the shop that was once marketed as an “eco” board is generally far from it. They all fall apart much quicker than normal poly boards (and even normal epoxy boards). They may be great for a year…or even two, but generally they end up in the landfill, much sooner than the alternative.
This leads me to one of my more humorous moments when talking to a friend…. A while back I was at the board swap having a conversation with a friend and he mentioned how he got a new “eco-friendly” board. I asked to check it out and it was basically an EPS board with a wood inlay deck, glassed with epoxy. I literally laughed out loud when I saw it. On top of it being a “normalish” epoxy board, they added a nice wood inlay on the deck. So now, instead of having just a board that is probably not going to last 5 years, you add real wood to the mix so you have to chop down a tree to make this board. It was a beautiful board, but I really don’t understand why everyone buys into the marketing when once you really think about it, none of it makes any sense.
Another funny one to me is resin tints. I LOVE resin tints. They are so beautiful! BUT!…have you watched how resin tints are done and how much resin gets wasted?
I do what I can to keep boards out of the landfill and here are some of my methods:
I allow people to leave their boards with me that they are going to send to the dump. Once I have these boards they are sorted into three piles:
Pile 1: Boards that are fixable enough that someone could still enjoy them. These boards then get fixed and sold or fixed and donated to Sam Martin’s Christmas Kids Giveaway for kids in-need around the islands.
Pile 2: Boards that are far from their surfable life and can’t (or maybe I should say shouldn’t) be fixed. These boards get posted on Craigslist/Facebook for free to allow people to come and pick them up and use them for fences, art projects, etc. This is a great way to keep junk boards out of the landfill.
Pile 3: Boards that are so trashed, it’s hard to see any life for them. On these boards, I take out the fin boxes for reuse, save any useful foam for future projects and add them to pile 2 for a while to see if anyone may want them for a project. Once they have spent time in Pile 2, if they do not get picked up, unfortunately they do end up in the landfill.
By following this process, I’m able to keep the majority of surfboards that come into my hands out of the landfill and give them a new life.
So when people ask me which board is going to be the most eco friendly, I always have the same answer for them. It’s going to be the board you are going to keep/surf the longest.
You might think, this is bad marketing for a shaper to recommend people buy a board and surf it forever. Well let’s be honest, most of us are not going to follow this. Hell, I make a new board for myself almost every week. I usually only surf my boards a few times before passing them on to another person…I can’t help myself, it’s soooo exciting having a new board! Plus, I get these itches to have a new color so if I don’t have a new design in mind, I’m generally making one of my favorites in a new color. This allows me to pass on almost new boards to people at a fraction of the price of a new one!
I think most people are like me…they want new boards on a semi-regular basis. And I think this is fine. But only as long as you are not out there preaching about eco friendly surfboard bullshit. 🙂