By Linnie Rawlinson for CNN
Chris Hines is a committed surfer and green campaigner who's set himself the task of clearing up surfing's dirty secret. With 750,000 non-degradable surfboards sold each year, and pro surfers going through a board a fortnight, the sport isn't as squeaky clean as its eco-friendly image might suggest. So Hines developed the Eco Board.
Passion for surfing
As Sustainability Director of the Eden Project, Britain's leading environmental tourist attraction, Hines is on a mission to cut the site's waste, recycle as much as possible and demonstrate sustainable alternatives to non-renewable products.
Away from work, Hines's passion is surfing. He earned his first proper board painting his parents' garden fence and spent much of his youth surfing in Cornwall, in southwest England, where he's now based. As a founder and director of pressure group Surfers Against Sewage, Hines led the campaign to clean up Britain's beaches. It was a mammoth achievement: "We helped clean up 400 million gallons of crude sewage discharged around Britain's coasts every day," he says.
Surfers are renowned for their love of nature, the ocean and a desire to protect the environment. But their ecological devotion is marred by a dirty secret, Hines reveals: "Surfing has this wonderful green image, but the reality is that the surfboard is a lump of horrible petrochemical plastic and will sit in landfill sites and have a negative environmental footprint."
Surfing's dirty secret
Modern boards are composed of a core of polyurethane or polystyrene foam, coated with fiberglass cloth and sealed with polyester or epoxy resin. This chemical cocktail doesn't decompose, and with professional surfers replacing their boards once a fortnight, surfing's toll on the planet is increasing.
Hines believes that for surfing to be truly green, surfboards need to be sustainable. His upbeat, hands-on approach set him on a quest for an eco-friendly board, which began when a balsa wood tree fell to earth at the Eden Project. "I said, let's see what we can really do as surfers and the Eden Project. We can actually make a completely sustainable surfboard," he says. The first prototype used a balsa wood core laminated in hemp cloth with a plant-based resin, and once it reached the end of its sporting life would break down in a standard household composter.
A green alternative?
But the Eco Board needed further refinement. Balsa proved too heavy for the board's core -- pro surfers need a board that's more lightweight and maneuverable, so they can respond faster in the water. Hines recognizes that the board will only succeed if it's as good -- and as affordable -- as current surfboards, so he worked with local firms Homeblown and Sustainable Composites to develop low-density plant-based foams as an alternative to balsa. The eco surfboard cores (or blanks) should hit the shelves in two to three months, with the plant-based laminating systems following closely behind.
With an estimated 750,000 boards sold each year, the environmental impact of surfing is quickly mounting up -- and Hines is confident that the fit between a sustainable board and its green-thinking target audience will lead to success. He says, "In ten years' time, the phrase 'eco surfboard' won't be used because all surfboards will be eco surfboards."
Distributed without profit to ESA Great Lakes District surfers and Great Lakes surfers for educational and environmental purposes.
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