Surfboard for the future introduces sustainable surfing
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 01 July 2004: - - The surfboard for the future, the most sustainable composite surfboard in the world, has been created as the result of a collaboration between the Millennium Commission Lottery funded Eden Project and a group of Cornish businesses.
Representing the Eden display of ‘Crops for tomorrow’s industries’, part of the Project’s ‘Flower Power’ season, the ‘eco-board’, which has been made using a combination of materials derived from plants, proves that natural materials can replace polyurethane foam, polyurethane resin and glass fibre to create a product that will allow future surfers to enjoy the sport with no detriment to the environment.
The ‘eco-board’ – brainchild of Chris Hines, sustainability director at the Eden Project, and Pat Hudson, Eden Guide, uses a balsa wood core cut from a balsa tree growing in the Humid tropics Biome at Eden. This core, after shaping, was then coated with a composite layer consisting of hemp cloth in a matrix of resin derived from an oil producing plant.
To our knowledge this is the first time since the mid-20th Century and the huge growth in popularity of surfing that all three elements of the board have been plant based.
‘Every year over three quarters of a million surfboards are produced worldwide and these are almost exclusively based on petrochemical products.’ said Chris Hines. ‘Surfing has an image of humanity in harmony with nature and we have chosen to throw down the gauntlet not only to try to progress the surfing industry but also as a challenge to manufacturing industry worldwide – how can we manufacture products in a more sustainable manner?’.
Russell Winter, Britain’s most successful professional surfer, currently rated 43rd in the world, will be present at the Eden Project to support the project: ‘I use 30-40 boards a year and see the ´eco-board´ as a great step forward. Only by looking into the future will we solve the problem of how our surfboards are made and what happens to them when they are old, tired and broken. If the surf industry can reduce some of its environmental impact that’s great and I think that this is a serious first step.’
The ‘eco-board’ is then off to form part of the Central Science Labs’ display at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh. It will be surfed on its return before becoming part of a permanent exhibit in the Eden Project’s Humid Tropics biome.
The consortium of Cornish businesses involved in the creation of the ‘eco-board’ is:
Homeblown - manufacturers of polyurethane foam blanks for surfboard production that took the balsa logs and converted them into a surfboard blank ready for shaping. www.homeblown.co.uk (01209 314 446)
Chris Jones – surfboard shaper responsible for taking the balsa blank and converting it into its finished shape. (01637 850 881)
Ocean Green – who produce a range of surfboards using polyurethane foam blanks with hemp cloth reinforcement, brought expertise in the use of hemp in surfboard applications to the project. www.oceangreen.org (01637 880 326)
Sustainable Composites Ltd – a company specialising in R&D of plant based resins and reinforcements who developed the resin and curing system used to impregnate the hemp cloth and to produce the outer surface of the board. (01209 843 484)
Move Virgo Ltd – a manufacturer of composite components, took the finished blank and applied the hemp / natural resin composite skin to produce the completed board. www.movevirgo.co.uk (01209 843 484)
Editor´s note:
· Eden Project Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Eden Trust, which is a fully registered UK Charity (No. 1093070)
· The Millennium Commission Lottery grant contributed £43 million to the £86 million cost of building the Eden Project. Additional funds of £10 million have been contributed towards the building of the Education Resource Centre, which forms part of Eden’s Big Build 2.
· Immediate information may be obtained from our website: www.edenproject.com
Ben Harding
01726 811901
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