i think nick should be asking the pros why are they not riding them and thus in turn influencing the market. if pros ride eco boards then eco boards will sell. if not, then fck eco boards. its up to the industry sluts not the manufactures. we will make whatever you want.same as any other industry.
So true Silly, so true.
thanks again everyone. off we go to follow up your leads…
silly your comment strikes right at the heart of the piece I suspect.
Sticking in my last two cents worth, how easy is it to recycle an EPS surfboard? Don’t you need to strip the fibreglass off and then take the stringer out? If I’m right (and I think I am) who is going to bother going to that amount of effort just so you can recycle some EPS foam?
That’s what I said before, so I’ll repeat:
As long as you glue things together your board won’t be recycled. No matter if it’s wood, EPS, PU or … . But the thing with EPS is that you recycle everything you cut of and even the planer dust can be recycled. When building a lot of boards, like the world does, this counts up!
For me the ultimate eco-board would be a HWS with biodegradable resin and fibres. HWS and hempfibres already exist, now it’s only waiting for the resin. Some say these resins already exist but I can only find thermoplastics.
im kinda with ferraldave on this one. just build well made boards and let them cure. is a good start. and to have pros say in there movies and interviews “oh yeah i get a 5 oz bottom 5 4 deck with a finish coat and my boards hold up really well”.
but they get given them and most probably dont really give a ratz arse. it would seem they would only care about the jetsetting lifestyle and the throwaway consumerism they are promoting
finally Silly, someone noticed my post… bet we cant change the populaces thinking!
well I tend to disagree a little there. There was a good interview with Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Founder) in the last Australian Surf Biz mag. In it he talked about Henry Ford and quoted him as saying something like “If I had built what the customer wanted, I would have made a faster horse”.
I think that is relevant to the evolution of green surfboards. The customer certainly can’t buy it if its not available yet. If a quality product is made by reputable brands and the right information gets into the customers hands, I think there is good potential for success. Even with all the green marketing these days, the average surfer still probably doesnt know a lot about what a surfboard is made of or why its bad for the shaper, glasser and the environment. When you sell them an eco board they need to know all of this stuff to help them make their decision.
And regarding the durable boards being made from polyester and epoxy resin. I think we should stick to calling them that - strong, durable surfboards. To call a chunk of toxic plastic “green” because it lasts 30% longer than its brother is a bit far fetched.
I agree.
Products can be influenced by Technology Push, or Market Pull.
You can stay with the easy option and just make a “me-too” product, or get off your arse and bring something new to the table.
Why not build a green board thats more durable than a poly?
I also find it hard to swallow that a PU is environmentally sound just because it lasts a few years.
Pretty much every new construction on the market boasts equal or greater durability than PU.
The products that don’t won’t stay in business long!
So durability of PU is a strange claim to make, against boards that last longer and use greener materials.
Interesting thread,
I agree with those that advocate a durable board, its a start to reducing the impact that these apparently consumable products have. Having made a EPS board recently I was put off by the amount of waste that I was left with. Im not convinced at all that EPS boards will ever be recycled unless the manufacturer takes responsibility for it to happen i.e once the board has come to the end of its usability they facilitate the recycling once the owner returns the product to them, i think this is a model which has been talked about in large commercial companies such as BMW and others so I suppose its unrealistic to see this happen in the surf industry.
Having made a wooden Alaia board recently im convinced that this is probably about as low impact as a surf board can get, locally sourced sustainable timber and no glass or resin!
However I cant see the pro circuit switching to all timber boards in a hurry, it would be a little like Formula One drivers going back to the horse and cart! And they are still the ones that determine the main consumer market.
In the end Its all about choice for the consumer and educating them on the impact that their purchase may have on the environment etc. Personally im really impressed by what people like Tom Wegener has done for the surf riding culture.
Im just a backyard shaper so dont have the commercial reality that dictates me yet but I know what I would prefer to work with if it was a choice between wood and fiberglass/foam.
EPS is really getting me down at the moment too. Even though my offcuts get recycled, its still a lot of plastic that doesnt grow naturally!
I agree that building poly boards stronger is a short term improvement, and could have the biggest immediate impact.
But short term aint no good to us…
Same old industry mindset, build what will make the most money right now.
My vision is an HWS, that is as light or lighter than a competition poly, biodegradable resin, bamboo cloth (or similar), and awesome durability.
Then to dispose of it you just stick it through a wood chipper and all is well!
The resins aren’t available yet, but i’m in the midst of a project aimed at achieving all the other stuff 
Good points,
Im thinking along similar lines, Hollow construction wooden board unglassed would be ultimate in my opinion, no need for wax even as the timber is not “slippy”, as I discovered trying! to surf my Alaia.
Alternatively I think the biggest impact could be made with a totally biodegradable foam product and as mentioned biodegradable resin.I have seen packaging foam made from potato starch and corn, i suppose this must be able to be adapted to work for the surf industry?. Something that replaces the materials the main consumer driven market of boards rely on will undoubtedly have the greatest ecological impact.
I’ve built a couple of eps/compsand experiments that didn’t work, so i stripped the skins and reused them for another board, used a scraper to remove all of the eps from the skins, took that eps back to my foam supplier who recycled it into new core material. The only thing that got ruined was the rail material as it was end grain balsa, but i’ve cut it all up into small chunks and chucked it in the garden. I can’t see this approach being viable for big business, but for the back yarder it’s gold! My EPS supplier is great, they’ll take back and recycle practically any form of the eps so long as it isn’t totally soiled ie been out in the mud for years. So with these couple of boards that failed, nothing hit the trash, and they’ll be turned into new boards.
I also build my boards flat and bag in the rocker, so I use approximately a third of all materials than if I was to build hotwiring a rocker into a block- a lot of waste occurs when cutting curves. I put Greg’s three R’s into practice when making my boards.
plenty of 40 to 50 year old polys around the place. green board because tis eps and epoxy is buldust. i never really pushed that aspect in the compsand thing. it was just a bonus. didnt sit well with me to market it this way. still very dirty and wasteful. All wood . built with hand tools (no glass or resin) is the only board that could be considered eco friendly and only then if it is storm felled with easy access. or small sustainable, low impact forestry blocks. everything else is just tryhard.
durability is the key issue. and transport to and from surf. if your board last 4 to 5 years and then gets passed on to a gromet , than thats good going