Hunters and poachers have historically made some of the best conservationists—they know the animals, they know their environment.
In that vein, who better to advocate for protecting the ocean than those who have felt its power and seen its beauty over and over and over again?
Surfers are lining up to try out a Swellcycle board, a new line of bespoke, 3D-printed surfboards made from a biodegradable plant material with almost no waste.
Regular surfboards are made from blocks of petroleum-based foam, manufactured from fossil fuels. Craftsmen and board designers then cut, shave, and sand away the foam to shape the board, throwing some 40% of the block’s original weight in the landfill.
Against the rigors of the sand and sea, those blocks of foam begin to wear away, shedding microplastics into the ocean and its life.
“This is the future, I think, of surfing,” said big wave surfer Tyler James, a Swellcycle ambassador, to CBS News Bay Area, which attended a Swellcycle demonstration and test day at a famous surf spot called Steamer Lane.
“It’s so important for surfers to understand that if we want to keep surfing, that we got to care about our oceans, we got to care about the process that’s making our boards.”
The company was founded by Patricio Guerrero, and uses various feedstocks like corn and sugarcane to produce a malleable material called polylactic acid. This is excreted through a 3D printer into a latticework that’s then laminated with a 30% degradable epoxy, producing a semi-hollow surfboard that’s more durable than foam.
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“They’re really fast, they’re really fun,” said surfer Keaton Mayo, who tested a Swellcycle board at a recent test day. “They’re not your traditional board. It was a blast.”
“I thought it was sensational,” said another surfer, named Sam.
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Swellcycle works with popular surfboard designers like Spina, Iconoclast, and Tigre Bona, uses almost only solar energy to power its Santa Cruz factory, and reuses the very small amount extra material leftover from the boardmaking process.
The company regularly does demonstration days, the dates for which can be gleaned by following the firm’s Instagram page.
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