Sustainable Surfboards: Porovnání verzí

Surfing is global. It has no gender, age or socio-economic boundaries. Although surfers come from many different backgrounds and approaches, they all rely on the same things. Surfers are like a family connected by the deep respect for and love of the ocean. As most surfers are conscious about environment and thus trying to keep plastics out of the beaches and oceans and trying to create healthier environment, there is demand for production of sustainable surfboards (‘Moss Research Announces “Industry-First” Sustainable Surfboards’, 2011). As surfing is an interaction with simple forces of nature on a sustainable level, it has the image of very pure sport. There is no trace left on the face of crashing wave by a surfer, however, the surfboard production industry has a great impacts on natural environment (Sullivan, 2007).

''”The dirtiest thing about surfing is under our feet — a conventional surfboard is 100 percent toxic”'' Frank Scura (Woody, 2009).

The typical modern surfboard is made of polyurethane foam, polyester resin and fibreglass. The process is mostly carried out by using environmentally harmful products. A lot of materials are wasted and those are un-recyclable. During the manufacturing, the workers are surrounded by dust and toxics. Prolonged exposure to fibreglass and polyester resin is harmful for health of shapers as it may be cause of lung cancer (‘Moss Research Announces “Industry-First” Sustainable Surfboards’, 2011; Sullivan, 2007; Vartiainen, 2018).

According to the life cycle analysis conducted by California-based non-profit group Sustainable Surf, a typical 6’0” short board, weighing approximately 2.5 kilograms emits over 270 kilograms of CO2 during its lifecycle, spanning from manufacturing to disposal (‘The Ecoboard Lifecycle Study |’, 2016).

#'''Wood''' has been used as a principal material in the surfboard construction since ancient Hawaiians started to shape wave-riding tools. However, wood is heavy and does not have same performance (Barcelos, Magnago, & Leripio, 2018).

#'''Cork''' is completely natural, recyclable and biodegradable, it does not absorb water and, therefore, it does not rot, it resists and absorbs impacts. However, it is expensive to build cork boards and it is hard to adapt to serial manufacturing (Mateus, Bordado, & dos Santos, 2017).

#'''Mushrooms''' – Eco friendly Mycelium material is a glue made from fungus roots, and binds plant-based materials – usually crop waste like plant stalks and seed husks. This agricultural waste and mushroom mycelium are put into a mould, where it grows into a shape of the board. It is very strong material which floats and repels water jus as effectively as the foam plastics. It is biodegradable, sustainable and 100% natural (Brodeur, Brunet, & Primiani, 2011; Vartiainen, 2018).

#'''Super Sap''' made by Entropy Resin is made of byproducts of the pulp and paper industry and the biofuels industry, with total biological content varying between 25-50% depending on the specific resin used.  Research showed 50% reduction of CO2 emissions in Super  Sap resin compared to normal resins (Michelena, Graham-Jones, Summerscales, & Hall, 2016).

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