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.

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!

[Profile] Rerip

A few weeks ago, we visited the Patagonia Cardiff Board Swap and had a chance to meet up with the founders of Rerip, Meghan Dambacher and Lisa Carpenter.  Rerip finds ways to save surfboards that would otherwise be thrown out (who wants to see surfboards in the trash!).  The organization is also raising awareness about our need to reduce our collective footprint on the world.  The organization accepts donations of used, damaged, or broken equipment and finds ways to recycle the gear by either giving it to local youth, repairing the damage, or giving the ruined equipment to artists.

The founders of ReRip, Meghan and Lisa

The board swap was a great venue for Rerip, not only because Patagonia Cardiff is a major supporter, but also because of the myriad of boards there.  In fact, throughout the course of the board swap, people donated to ReRip about 10 boards in a variety of conditions that would have otherwise been trashed.

Some boards collected by Rerip during the board swap at Patagonia Cardiff.

One underlying goal of Rerip is keeping surfboards out of landfills.  In addition to fixing boards and giving boards away to kids and artists, the organization is also thinking up inventive ways of using donated boards and other equipment that cannot be riden or repaired.  One way that they have experimented with is using ruined surfboards as a concrete filler, known as Surfcrete.

The organization offers memberships, the proceeds of which help Rerip grow and help maintain a variety of programs designed to keep surfboards out of landfills and in use.  In addition to helping Rerip, a membership donation gets you a Rerip sticker, towel, and water bottle.  Head on over to Rerip’s website, read more about the organization, and consider signing up for a membership!