FUTURE OF SURFING: Make Your Board Last Forever

The 2nd annual Future of Surfing Event held in Solana Beach September reminded surfers that the boards collecting dust in their garages don’t have to rot away for eternity. The event was started to promote consciousness about surfboard sustainability and to demonstrate that the life of a surfboard is far from over after its first use.

Sponsors Homeblown USA and ReRip.com partnered with the City of Solana Beach to make the event possible. Surfers who donated a rideable board received a new biofoam blank from Homeblown USA. The biofoam is composed of 40 percent plant based materials, making it a more environmentally sustainable option than the traditional surfboard blank. The used boards that surfers traded in at the event were resold, and all proceeds were given to the Junior Lifeguards of Solana Beach.

The event went off with live music to provide entertainment throughout the day. Artist, Wade Kaniowski, was on hand painting boards that could not be resold to surfers. Southern California shapers Jake Moss, Gary Linden, Craig Collinsworth, and Steve Pendarvich, provided their expertise to the surfers who had just received their new biofoam blanks. Each shaper also took time to speak about environmental sustainability in surfboard construction. Event promoter, Eli Mirandon, believes the shapers inspired, “surfers willing to do their own thing to try a biofoam blank, try shaping, and make that fish or longboard and begin building their quivers” while also promoting a message of sustainability.

Broken surfboards turned in at the event were passed on to Eco-Built Construction. The company is able to use the material in their concrete mixes, allowing broken surfboards to be enjoyed again as playgrounds or skate parks. This enables Eco-Built to avoid excavating more materials from the earth while also keeping surfboards out of landfills. Solana Beach lifeguards will continue to collect broken surfboards for Eco-Built Construction and event sponsor, Rerip.com, is working to establish the same system with lifeguards all along the coast.

Mirandon believes the Future of Surfing Event will bring surfers to the realization that, “we don’t need to buy kids a brand new board made in China, from Costco to learn on. They can learn on these $25 boards, and when the board breaks it can be recycled by Eco-Built.” As the event grows, organizers hope to get additional shapers involved, to facilitate more personal interaction with surfers and novice surfboard shaping hobbyists. The event succeeded in promoting environmental awareness while also managing to raise $4,000 for the Junior Lifeguards of Solana Beach