SB_issue55_Digital

As a sport and
lifestyle, surfing
is as eco-friendly
as you can get,
and disturbs
little of the
environment but
the footprints
you leave behind
on the sand.
As we all know, polyester resin paired with PU
foam and epoxy resin paired with EPS foam
are the long-time standard materials used by
the majority of the industry. While both resins
are favoured for their performance-based
advantages, they are incredibly toxic and leave
behind one hefty carbon footprint when used.
While there are many manufacturers that have
increased the percentage of biological materials
in their resin, the question still remains if it’s
possible to create a natural, well-performing
resin in the surfboard manufacturing process
without using any synthetic materials.
Enter experienced Brazilian shaper, Mario
Ferminio, who has managed to create a 100%
natural and biodegradable vegetable-based
resin that can be used to laminate surfboards.
Mario said his journey in surfboard shaping
started in 1985, when he started crafting PU
boards and then travelled to France to learn how
to build epoxy boards from the best in the world.
“Upon returning to Brazil I lived in Guarujá, São
Paulo, because at the time it was the best surf
city in Brazil. While I was there, I surfed and
worked with some amazing professional surfers.
I can say between 1989 and 2012 I made more
than 10,000 surfboards with epoxy.
However, where surfing can sometimes suck
for sustainability is not in the act of carving
waves, but in the manufacturing of surfboards.
While we have previously covered how the
industry is making huge leaps in becoming
more environmentally conscious, it’s still hard
to avoid producing a lot of carbon emissions in
the surfboard shaping process when some of its
key components are hazardous chemicals like
styrene and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s).
65 / #55 / SB