Looking back to the future.

Surfers have always had a special bond with the environment and the ocean, after all no other recreational activity relies so heavily on the impact of these two elements to do what they love.

Yet it’s a bizarre contradiction that we as surfers, who often take a kind of custodial role or guardianship of the oceans, often ignore the fact that our main instrument, the surfboard, is made in a highly polluted process awash in petrochemicals and carcinogens.

Years before someone had a ‘light bulb moment’ and decided to manufacture boards from foam, they were all made of wood.

Now imagine if you can, trying to surf on a small refrigerator. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that these old boards were awkward and very heavy to handle, some up to 100 pounds (45kgs) in weight and up to 10 to 16 feet long.

Fast forward a few generations and through some trial and error Polyurethane foam, fiberglass and resin burst on the scene. These materials prove to be a game changer, one that changes the whole surf industry and steadily becomes the new norm.

However, polyurethane has a dark side, it’s actually pretty nasty stuff, it contains toluene diisocyanate (TDI), a cyanide-rich compound that, when heated, releases fumes that can cause asthma, cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, hearing and vision loss.

The fiberglass and resin in these boards also hold volatile organic compounds. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute significantly to photo-chemical smog production and can cause severe health problems. Polyester resins used in many foam boards (and the acetone to clean up after it) are also significant VOC emitters.

The industry is and will continue to be dominated by fiberglass/ foam surfboards, that’s always going to be the case, so to say that we’ll all be riding wooden (or any other material) boards in the next 5, 10 years would be pretty optimistic to say the least. However there are plenty of indicators that wooden surfboards are making a real comeback and are (slowly) becoming more popular.

A simple internet search for wooden surfboards reveals there are some really passionate and talented people out there in the world, crafting beautiful and functional wooden boards that not only look pretty awesome but perform just as well, if not better than their foam counterparts.

We have much better tools, technology and materials available now than we have ever had previously. The need to find sustainable alternatives to the toxic, unsustainable and non-biodegradable materials used in foam and fiberglass surfboards is definitely upon us. It’s time to take the lessons learnt from the past, apply a bit of today’s knowledge and ingenuity and work towards creating a better future, one board at a time.