Waxfoot, Doc, Roy, hell everyone who aspires to a less environmentally damaging board
Check out this months Surfers Path mag, especially the article on the Solomon Islands. page 36 gives some tips on shaping a board from indigenous plants - palm fronds…
and then at the back an article on a balsa/hemp/veg epoxy board touted as the first ‘green[ish]’ board
go see!
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Hey Swordie, thanks for the tip! I’ll be anxiously awaiting it’s arrival out here on our rock. I see that the US version has a mainland publisher now. Or is that the whole magazine? Maybe it’ll get here a little faster. I was way into the last one, using green magazine publishing. Opened on of the other surf rags and was shocked by the chemical smell eminating from it… Sheesh I’m starting to sound like one of the hippies…
Hey is that hemp board one of the ones made in Cornwall by Ocean Green?
aloha and slainte…
waxfoot
Hello waxfoot, isn’t the greenest possible magazine publishing done on the web? Vegetable epoxy sounds good. Plantation grown redwood is ‘greenish’ also.
Agreed, agreed Roy. Just for argument’s sake though, I wonder how much energy it takes to run my computer while I’m reading said web magazine. Not to mention the hours to put the magazine together… Just sort of thinking out loud. Have to say on the printed matter - there’s just something about being able to sit down and flip the pages of your favourite periodical, or a good book, or even a newspaper. Some time ago I heard somebody wondering out loud if newspapers, magazines and books would go by the wayside in favor of electronic versions. The reply was that there were too many people who still liked to have their reading material in hand. Sure would change a lot of businesses. But the booksellers are still stocked up, and busy as always. Especially when the new bestseller comes out. I think that the electronic format reading material definitely has it’s place, but I think it might be a ways until it takes over, if ever. And I rather prefer being able to take printed material to read in the er… ahem… “office”. I figure the least I can do in the meantime is support a “greener” magazine… Wish Surfer’s Journal would go the same way…
Veggy epoxy sounds good to me too. Redwood sounds… heavy. 
waxfoot
The board was built from balsa grown in the humid biome at the Eden project. Apparently the tree outgrew the greenhouse in just 3 years, so they harvested and then built a blank from the timber produced.
Hey sweet, thanks for the info Swordie. Just happened upon the site for the Eden project recently, though forgot how… Actually, come to think of it, it might have been a link or article from here in Swaylocks… Anyway, immediately decided it was bookmark-worthy, but haven’t been back to check out the full site. Guess I should check it out…
waxfoot
Perhaps someday surfboards will be made from marine sponges grown in surfboard-shaped molds and and then plated with a thin layer of conch shell. A truly recyclable surfboard. Until then all surfers can help by refusing to buy meat or eggs in foam packaging. Avoid restaurants that insist on placing take-out food into foam containers…etc.
well, think of a lofah, which is basically the cellulose skeleton of a marrow, is it not? Well a pumpkin is similar, is it not?
So female surfboard wold, grow giant punpkin in mold until full, take out, and ta-ra! one home grown [blown] board.
not too fancifull.
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Rob - thanks for the link. Would have been nice if they had shown a picture of the finished board, yeah? I wonder who’s going to get the chance to surf it - as it says it will be surfed upon its return…
Poobah - Grown shapes, that’s a pretty cool idea actually… Wonder if you could find a sponge that had the right flexibility and right strength without being fragile… As far as the foam packaging goes, what a nightmare here in Hawaii!! I’m willing to bet that Hawaii uses more foam packaging than just about anywhere! That I’ve been, at least. Foam boxes for plate lunch, styrofoam takeout containers from the Thai and Chinese food places… It boggles the mind. I think you would be seriously hard pressed to find a restaurant that didn’t use foam packaging. And people are so used to throwing away stuff here -even recyclables. You wouldn’t believe the amount of trash some houses generate. A DAY!! I’m thinking about starting to bring my own recyclable plastic or tupperware containers for takeout/leftover orders…
Swordie - Great Pumpkin! Er, sorry, giant pumpkin… Got some Charlie Brown flashbacks there. I wonder if Linus would have ridden a Great, er, Giant Pumpkin surfboard… All joke aside, hey, why not? If the Japanese are already making square watermelons by growing them in boxes… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1390088.stm
For $83 / melon however… Ouch!
Wouldn’t imagine you’d want to leave your Pumpkin Board in your hot car either… 
But hey, get a ding (forget patching it) - use the seeds inside to grow yourself a new board!! Cool! Just keep an eye on mom to make sure she doesn’t make your new stick into Pumpkin pie at the holidays (“Mind the fins, dearie, they’re sharp”…) :0
waxfoot
the article has a photo of the finished board being ridden
No photo came up in that link that Rob posted… hmmm…