Patagonia’s Plant-Based Wetsuit

Patagonia announced that it will manufacture a wetsuit made with 60% plant-based material.  The plant-based biorubber is made from the flowering shrub guayule and it’s created by Yulex in Phoenix, Arizona.

Today, Patagonia released a ton of additional information about the suits.  Here’s what the suit layers look like:

Cross-section of Patagonia’s plant-based wetsuit material.

Patagonia acknowledges that it’s not 100% plant-based, but that this is “just a first step” and its made clear that it wants to get to 100%.  Patagonia also called on other brands to “join the effort to innovate and implement alternatives to traditional neoprene that is used in wetsuits.”  I don’t know about you, but it’s refreshing to see a surf company innovating on the environmental aspect of its products and challenging others to do the same.

Patagonia hasn’t stated what the environmental savings are with using the Yulex material, or the footprint of making a wetsuit with the material, but it says it is working on that data.  Stay tuned for more on this.

Look for these suits in the U.S. in Spring 2013.

Building A Better Surfboard

Surfrider Foundation’s website.

Surfrider Foundation CEO Jim Moriarty has a great series of posts up on his blog about having a “better” surfboard built for him.  He explains what he means by “better”.  For the board, he used Marko EPS foam blank, had it shaped locally and for his use, and had it glassed with Entropy Resins’ “Super Sap” bio-based epoxy resin.

Our buddies over at Sustainable Surf’s Waste to Waves program have a great breakdown on the series.

Jim’s last post on glassing is especially interesting for those looking to geek out on board resins and tensile strength.

Speaking of Jim Moriarty’s blog, his posts over at The Intertia are especially prescient for those interested in current issues plaguing our oceans.

Surfline’s Boardshort Buyer’s Guide

Surfline just released their annual boardshort buyer’s guide.  In this year’s guide Surfline features four companies that manufacture and sell boardshorts with an environmental eye.  Here they are:

Hurley’s Phantom Shutter shorts use recycled polyester (Surfline link).

Nike’s GS Boardshort by Nola Wilson and the GS Boardshort use recycled polyester (Surfline link).

Greenlines’ Glide Recycled and Glide Eco Dobby boardshorts (Surfline link) use 100% and 90% recycled polyester, respectively.  We also feature Greenlines’ boardshorts on Evergreen Sessions!

Patagonia has four boardshorts: Light and Variable, Stretch Wavefarer, Wavefarer 21″, and the Paddler boardshorts (Surfline link).  While Patagonia may not use recycled content, the company has an incredible warranty/guarantee, the closest thing that I’ve seen to a lifecycle analysis for a surf gear company, a clothing recycling program, and a commitment to donating to environmental organizations.

Hats off to Surfline for featuring these boardshorts in its guide!

Evergreen It! Save Products To Evergreen Sessions While You Browse The Web.

Today, we’re rolling out a new, exciting feature to Evergreen Sessions: bookmarking.  Are you buying sustainable gear?  Now it’s super easy way to add that product to Evergreen Sessions.  Here’s how it works:

First, visit your user page on Evergreen Sessions and add the bookmark link to your bookmark bar (check out this instructional video to learn how to do this).

What the bookmarklet will look like in your user profile.

Then, while browsing for gear online, if you find a product, service, or company that you think  is sustainable, green, eco-friendly, or otherwise mother nature-awesome, just click the “Evergreen It!” bookmark while you’re on that webpage.  When you click the bookmark, we perform some magic to have that product, service, or company added to the Evergreen Sessions database.  And…that’s it!  All you have to do is click that button once!  We’ll handle everything else to get whatever it is posted on the site.  Users of Pinterest, Svpply, or other bookmarking sites might be familiar with this bookmarking feature.

This is a bit of an experiment for us, so bear with us while we perform that magic to post gear that was shared using the bookmarklet tool.

Why would you want to do this?  First, it will help grow our database of sustainable gear.  This will help everyone find eco-friendly alternatives to the normal gear that they want to purchase.  By helping others we reduce our dependence on virgin, non-renewable materials and we show companies that consumers are looking for sustainable, socially-responsible gear.

Here’s a video we put together to show you how to install and use the bookmarklet (it’s super easy):

Want to start bookmarking now and growing our database of gear?  Login or signup to Evergreen Sessions and let’s create the world’s largest publicly-accessible database of sustainable outdoor gear.

Have thoughts on our new bookmarking feature?  Having trouble using your bookmarklet?  Talk to us, we love hearing from you!  Post a comment below or chat with us on Twitter (@evergreensessns) — feel free to use the hashtag #evergreenit.

Interview with Wave Tribe Founder Derek Dodds

I had the opportunity of chatting with Wave Tribe founder Derek Dodds.  Wave Tribe is doing some excellent things in the green surf space, including using hemp as a board bags fabric, selling upcycled board bags made from used billboards, and manufacturing leashes made with recycled plastic.

In the video interview, Derek talks about how he started Wave Tribe, why he chose hemp as the material for Wave Tribe’s board bags, how Wave Tribe manufactures its gear, and where he sees the surf industry moving with respect to green gear.

Here’s the video interview:

[vimeo 34824433]

EnviroSurfer’s Incredible Infographic on the Toxicity of Surfing

The team over at EnviroSurfer released a great infographic on the unintended consequences of the surf industry:

Created by Envirosurfer: Eco-friendly Wetsuits & Surf Clothing.

It’s a great image that profiles some of the reasons we’re working over at Evergreen Sessions to help people find eco-friendly surf gear.

EnviroSurfer highlights some alternative solutions for avoiding the dangers highlighted by EnviroSurfer.  Over on Evergreen Sessions, we are actually luck enough to have a bunch of products for people looking to purchase these alternative solutions.  Below are some options if you’re looking for a new, eco-friendly surfboard, wetsuit, surf wax, or sunscreen.  We’re tracking:

• Shortboards: 17 made with epoxy, bamboo, and wood: http://evergreensessions.com/products.php?filter=tag&fid=129
• Longboards: 7 made with epoxy, bamboo, and wood: http://evergreensessions.com/products.php?filter=tag&fid=128
• Wetsuits: 2 made with recycled bamboo: http://evergreensessions.com/products.php?filter=tag&fid=146
• Surf Wax: 5 made with non-petroleum ingredients: http://evergreensessions.com/products.php?filter=tag&fid=54
• Sunscreen: 6 made with all-natural ingredients: http://evergreensessions.com/products.php?filter=tag&fid=140

Visiting Eco Board Works

Eco Board Works' in-house brand of boards, E-Tech.

We stopped by the Eco Board Works facility in Hawthorne, CA a few months ago to chat with Ryan, Todd, and Chano about their facility, the boards they’re making, and their inspiration for opening the facility.

We filmed a short video of our visit, which you can see below.  They encourage people to visit their facility, design a board with them in their design studio, and then jump into the back where they can shape it in front of you.  It’s a pretty cool idea if you’re close enough to the facility to take the trip.  They’re sourcing their blanks using Envirofoam from Marko Foam, using bamboo decks, and plant-based resins from Entropy.

Here’s the video from our visit:

I am also happy to report that Eco Board Works’ surfboard lineup is listed on Evergreen Sessions: http://evergreensessions.com/company.php?id=42

Grain Surfboards

We visited Grain Surfboards headquarters towards the end of the summer and got to check out some of the boards they were working on.  If you’re new to Grain, they build surfboards from locally-sourced wood in Maine.

Grain works out of a giant barn in York, Maine, a beautiful coastal town on the south eastern tip of Maine.  They had just recently held a festival at their headquarters where a bunch of surfers and folks in the surf industry gathered to raise some environmental awareness and talk about creativity in the surf world (Grain’s page on the event) (article on the event).  It’s a yearly event and we’re hoping to make it next year!

The Granite Stoke put together this video from the event:

We stopped by on a Tuesday and they were fresh off of a board building class the previous weekend.  Founder Mike LaVecchia showed us around the barn and we were able to snap a few pictures!

If you’re in the market for a new board, check them out!

Progress: Drug Tests on the World Tour = Legitimacy & Role Models

The ASP announced last week that it will begin random drug testing for athletes starting in 2012.

I can only speak to this as a surfer, a consumer of surf gear, and enjoyer of surf content (including contests), but I see this as a fantastic step for the tour.  Some have argued over at ESPN.com that it doesn’t matter whether the athlete is on drugs as long as they perform well, while others say that drug testing in sports is fundamentally flawed.  If done correctly, however, I believe this step moves the tour forward immensely for two reasons, one that will directly affect the tour and the other indirectly: additional legitimacy for the tour and maintaining role models.

With drug testing comes legitimacy.  As far as I can tell, almost every major sports league drug tests its athletes.  Yes, testing isn’t perfect, but the testing methods show that the league wants drug-free athletes competing.  It protects the athletes and shows that the league is serious about making its sport about fair play.  Testing brings legitimacy to a league.  Sports leagues also drug test because it recognizes that kids watch these sports and look up those sports athlete as heroes, as role models.  Would you want your kid see their favorite athlete involved some type of drug scandal?  No, of course not.  Have you seen the swarm of kids around ASP surfers when they get out of a heat?  They look up to these guys.  Now, we can’t change people — these sports stars are going to do whatever they want to do, especially in the off-season — but, leagues can tell them that it’s no longer acceptable.  It’s not a cure-all, but it’s the right first step to make.

And, so, progress.

– Mike Caruso | evergreensessions.com

(Image credit: fstorr)

FCS Green Flex Fins

While I was out in California, I met up with Matt from FCS and had a chance to chat about FCS’s new Green Project and FCS’s Green Flex fins.  The fins are made from 25% post-consumer material — specifically, recycled used carpet.  They’ve also introduced some new packaging that is made from wood pulp (and therefore you can compost it!).  We’ve got FCS’s Green Flex fins now listed on Evergreen Sessions: http://evergreensessions.com/product.php?id=265 (check ’em out!)

Here’s the quick interview I did with Matt about the new fins:

Here’s a link to FCS’s press release about Green Flex fins: FCS Green Flex Release