“In your opinion, do you think Paul’s boards are sustainable? If so, are they sustainable because when they ware out, you can throw it away more safely? Or, do you think his material is grown sustainable?”
Hey easternpacific, read your question but didn’t really have time to give it a thorough reply until tonight. Are they sustainable? I would say they are more sustainable and definately have alot less impact overall versus a lot of other methods. Like you said, he is using seconds and offcuts from his dayjob which is a great start. He mentioned using fallen trees and driftwood, which would have 0 net effect, although this wouldn’t really be realistic for mass scale production, but that is kind of the point and why we felt that Paul Jensen was a great benchmark for how it could be done. He’s just kind of doing his own thing using the skills that he’s most comfortable with while thinking about minimizing his overall impact but not necessarily striving for that as a goal. Localizing production, whether it’s surfboards or the food we eat, has a really big impact on the overall net effect of our consumption. Without getting too abstract about it, the closer you can source your goods the better off you are as far as net energy consumption goes.
I don’t think necessarily that his boards, or any wooden boards for that matter would be considered sustainable because they could more easily disposed of, but more the fact that they by thier construction nature are more durable and therefore likely to last much longer than thier foam counterparts. The fact that they are inherently more durable due to the characteristics of the wood under flex and loading is only a beneficial side-effect.
Is his material grown sustainable, I don’t know. Maybe he uses FSC certified wood, I haven’t specefically seen anything on his site and we didn’t think to ask in the interview. Maybe he can chime in here on that subject. The fact that he’s is using a renewable resource (wood) as opposed to a non-renewable resource (oil-based foam) for the majority of his board construction is definately a step in the right direction.
That is really what our goals were for Phoresia. To get the information out there and educate people (ourselves included) on what options we have as surfers to stop and look at ourselves and our sport and realize that no matter how much we bitch about water pollution, runoff, over-development, consumerism etc. we ultimately have to start the process with ourselves. We have to be the ones to make the first conscious step and change our own lives. We are trying to do this in a positive light by getting subject matter that is a better option or a more sustainable means (key word “more”). Obviously there are going to be impacts for whatever we do but there are some options that are better than others that can fit the needs as well if not better than those that take more of a toll on our surroundings.
I’m kinda rambling but I tried to cover the points you brought up without going off on too much of a tangent.
“I’m also caught up in this quandary of endless consumption.”
But at least your conscious of it and that is more important than you might think. Most people have no concept nor does it even factor into the equation on their decision making process. Education is the first step in that, we are just trying to tackle it in a subject that interests us and that we are passionate about. Sustainability covers a huge scope and really comes into play in everything we do and really goes way outside of what Swaylocks is for and there is so much other stuff I’d love to bring up but it’s not really the place for it.
“My next question is: Are these wooden surfboards more sustainable than Styrofoam? Crazy, I know.”
They’re renewable and not based on a finite resource, so I would have to say that wood definately has a huge check on it’s side of the box in it’s favor…
I really just need to build a wooden board for myself though, so I can hop off the fence and actually chime in with some real world experience as far as strength and durability but your comment rings so true for me - “I look at Paul’s boards and wonder… how he makes the time to do it”. How, indeed.
