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!

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

Small Eco-Friendly Boardshorts Manufacturers?

Anyone know of any eco-friendly boardshort manufacturers?  We are severely lacking boardshorts on Evergreen Sessions and I would love to reach out to some manufacturers…  Post a comment below, shoot me an email at mike@evergreensessions.com, or fill out the form below…

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Do You Manufacture Environmentally-Friendly Surf Gear?

We’re looking for surf manufacturers that focus on environmentally-friendly products to add to Evergreen Sessions’s growing list of products.  Email contact@evergreensessions.com — tell us about your product(s) and how they are environmentally-friendly!

Do You Manufacture Environmentally-Friendly Surf Gear?

If you manufacture environmentally-friendly surf gear — Contact me!

We want to feature your product(s) on Evergreen Sessions, a website that allows users to rate and review environmentally-friendly outdoor gear and interact with other like-minded users.  Exposure is good!  Let’s work together to get people to see your goods!

Here’s my email address: mike@evergreensessions.com

Tell me about the product(s) you manufacture, your website, and any information you can give me about why your product is environmentally-friendly.

Green Surfing in the New York Times

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/sustainable-surfing-rides-the-waves/

Mark my words: this is going to be huge.  I see this as the future.

Reef Redemption

http://www.reefredemption.com/

Reef’s intention to become a more environmentally-responsible manufacturer.  I like where they’re going.

Where Is N’East Magazine?

What happened to N’East Magazine?  I loved the fresh, new northeast-focused surf/ski/board/climb magazine.

But, the mag appears to have gone AWOL. Website is gone. Phone number is disconnected. Anyone have an update?

Update 4-16-2009 via the comments:

hey michael. this is danny Louten the former designer for N’East Mag. Issue 12 was the last issue. We crashed and burned. No advertising revenue means no mag. Sorry buddy.

What a bummer.  We’re going to miss you N’East Mag.