I saw this online, and found it thought provoking…
I just get tired of this enviro approach sometimes.
I was in surfboard factory awhile ago and there was a rep there trying to sell some bio foam from the homeblown works here in the UK, he went on about how the blanks were 35 % more carbon friendly than normal blanks. I was determined I was not going to say anything but in the end I just couldn’t hold my tongue any longer, so I just made the fact clear that the growth of surfing, inso much that people travel from London to Cornwall (250 miles) for a swell in 4 wheel drives doing 25 to the gallon just can/t balance out no matter how many bio foam blanks you sell , plus the blanks are still produced specifically for surfboards rather than use something like eps or extruded foam from another industry.
Look at the pro tour, how many competitors fly half way around the world to get knocked out in the first round plus all the spectators who come from everywhere to watch , who gives a toss about the environment here , the tour is basically to sell the image and products of surfing.
We all like to go on surf trips with no thought to the environment, is somewhere like Bali a better place because of surfing , I don’t think so, not just a carbon disaster but a cultural one as well.
Just to make things clear, my car is 15 years old and averages 67 miles to the gallon, I don/t wear branded surf clothes or even unbranded surf clothes for that matter, the last poly board I had I used for 15 years and that was second hand in 1990.
The enviro bit is just over done in the surf world, unless you can walk to your local break and use a locally grown wood board, shaped by hand and oiled using plant oils then it’s not even worth talking about.
As long as there is money to be made the world will be plundered and raped.
I know these are strong words but if you look at your own cultures, America first, the red Indians lived that idyllic nomadic life style, that can be lived that way for millennium, the buffalo herds kept them alive so if they killed too many their way of life suffered so a balance was achieved to sustain life, China was the same, sustenance farming, just enough to live.
New Zealand was the same with the Maories, living with nature and a sustainable life style, or Australia, who knows how long the Aborigines lived that way and could have lived that way for more thousands of years, until we came along.
This is the only way to live long term and it’s just too late to turn the clock that far back.
I just cringe when I hear envrio words in the same sentence as surfing, your carpet is man made materials, so is the couch you are sitting on , your vinyl kitchen floor covering, the seat in your car, the computer made from plastic etc, no one gives a hoot about these thing but these are in every home , I am the only surfer in the street where I live of about 100 plus homes so my impact is so small it is insignificant.
I agree with doing things on a personal level and this is what I try to do generally but surfing is growing through different aspects of the media only because there is money to be made from it and money and enviro issues don/t go hand in hand, cynically.
