I don’t want to be a hypocrite - but I am.
I’m the same as so many people on the planet who say they do one thing but actually still do the another but I try and do my bit. I care about sustainability, yet buy endless products online. As a surfer my wetsuits is still made in Asia, and delivered to the surf shop wrapped in plastic, hanging on a plastic hanger. Am I alone? Have we reached the point of no return, can we avoid being hypocritical? Unless we buy bespoke, often more expensive, and locally sourced products then it’s a tough sell. But can we do more? Absolutely. This is such a tired and old debate but of course we can do more, for a start we can change our habits and change our ways. That might also mean changing brand loyalty because our favourite brands haven’t got the greatest green values and some simply mislead the consumer with a load of greenwash. But we might also trust our favourite brands to do the right thing. I love Vans shoes, I’ve never been sponsored by them, and never will, but I’ve been wearing Vans shoes for forty plus years. I know they’re made in Asia, but while I took a lap around their website, I found that under their environemental policy, they are committed to reducing single use plastics and sourcing renewable materials by 2030. Are the shoes functional? 100% Yes. Have they got the best soles for Skating and BMX? Without a doubt. Will I stop wearing them? No. Do they support Surfing, Skating, BMX? Yes, without a doubt, and have done ‘Since 1966’. They are a brand that gets behind young athletes and sticks with them, but they are also having their operational problems right now and thats a different story. I support my local surfboard shaper, but that wasn’t always the case and I think this is the same for many surfers. As I entered the world of surfing and began to understand more about where the direction of my surfing was heading, I bought imports from California or Australia. During the late nineties and very early noughties, longboarding was booming again but Longboards were still quite progressive, performance driven, three fins and lightweight. I wanted heavy 1960’s inspired ‘logs’. I wanted one fin, I wanted Californian, but it took a while of experimenting to know that. My first longboard was shaped by the legendary Australian Sam Egan, but I sadly snapped that one. I then had two performance longboards shaped by Brett Munro, who I'd met at the Byron Bay Malibu Club in 1997. I took these boards off travelling but after a year or so I snapped another, and knew the lightweight performance board was not for me, and certainly not sustainable due to the lightweight glassing. Three boards in and a couple of grand down, I knew I wanted something heavy and indestructible! When I walked into my local surf shop in Brighton around 2000, I saw a ‘Nine Plus’ Kevin Connely shaped 9’6” heavy single fin log, it was love at first sight. This was a thing of beauty, this was what i’d been looking for. A British brand but shaped by a great Californian surfer, who surfed how I wanted to surf. I rode that for years, and as my addiction grew for Californian boards and the Californians style surf. I bought boards by the likes of legendary shapers like Terry Martin (Hobie), Robert August, Donald Takayama and Rich Harbour. The more I learnt about surfing and the better I got, I understood what it means to the local shaper and to have support from a community. Still living in Brighton back then,there was only one shaper, Steve Darch (FILF) but he wasn’t shaping longboards but I also never asked. I had a Chris Jones (RIP) board made in 1999, with custom artwork from local Cornish artist Lou Tonkin, but the glassing wasn’t heavy enough, but that was my mistake. I had a couple of boards made by Albi Harris in Wales but again couldn’t relay what I actually wanted so got the wrong shapes. I had a Custard Point shped by Tim Mellors, (vreased that one in Costa Rica on my first day there}, a Guts Griffiths from Wales, a couple of classic Bilbos and then over the next 15 years I picked up some more imports, mainly shorter boards like a 6'8" Joel Tudor for bigger waves. I then began to have some absolute beauties custom shaped by Jools at Gulfstream Surfboards, and still ride them today. But as fond as I am of those boards I found Hugh Brockman at Bos Surfboards just West of Penzance at a time when I wanted to really buy as local as I could. Ten minutes from home, and after so many years of surfing, finally I was getting to buy and support a local shaper to me. I was looking for an 8’2”, a board that could be surfed in a variety of waves, something I could take on a trip. I spoke to Hugh and after sitting down chatting design and function we nailed it, and then Hugh shaped it and he nailed it again. ‘The Whatever’ was born and after testing and riding this board for two years now, MK2 is on the cards. Then in late 2020 we designed the ‘Chunky Brother’ a 9’8” Single fin traditional longboard, a tip of the hat to the classic California Pintail point break boards of the sixties. Pintail boards are not for everyone but I love the smoothness of the turns, the drawn out lines and the aesthetic of an unbroken line from nose to tail. These two shapes alone have got me so stoked on surfing. Two boards under our belt and I could not be happier. I can drive, or even ride (more sustainable) 7 miles to the factory, or pop in on the way home from work. Chat boards over a beer or two, and talk stories. Having a great local shaper, trained by some real heavyweights, and with a real eye for design and shapes so similar is a godsend. Having a local shaper who is accessible face to face, who surfs the same waves and the same type of boards as you, and a shaper that can surf really bloody well is an absolute bonus. Find that and you’re on to a winner. So after this gleamingly long intro what's my point? Everyone has a shaper that is near, or at least within their radius. As surfers we can all try and be a little more sustainable by buying British. Even being a landlocked surfer you can seek out a shaper on either coast, who is local to you, If it’s 100 miles then that’s still your local shaper. Do a little research, check their team riders on social media, and try and get a general feel for the boards they shape and the reputation of the shaper. In Cornwall we have some amazing shapers that all have their own credits. Shapers like Bro Diplock, Tim Mellors, Steve Darch, Ben Skinner, and Nigel Semmens, are perfect examples. Steve shapes for some of the best surfers in the country, and ghost shapes for other brands. Ben, whilst being one of the Worlds best longboarders also shapes for his amazing 14 year old son Lucas who has a bright future in the competitive world. Over in Plymouth there’s Luke Young, with his trade being learnt in Hawaii, Pete Symms on the South Coast at Chichester, Stu Thomson in Cromer and Jay Burnett up in Edinburgh. But, and here’s the but. Although there are other options like bio based blanks, Surfboards are predominantly petrochemical based and part of a toxic industry. Add to that the imported materials, it’s very hard not to be a hypocrite when we say we care for the environment but buy into this. Yes we can support our local shaper but can the local shapers support a manufacturer of bio resin and cloth? How do we offset this? If you're having a board made and it contains Carbon cloth, it might make the board last longer but you might also want to check if it’s recyclable, before claiming sustainability. Carbon Fibre in the most part is not recyclable, but there are a couple of bike manufacturers using variations that are and I hope these are finding there way into the surf industry. We could all move to Wooden Surfboards, like those produced by the super talented James Otter from Otter Surfboards. Shaping out of Perranporth Eco Park, James creates some stunning wooden boards using sustainably grown timber. One day I’d like to shape myself a wooden beauty at one of his workshops, but until then I’ll be content with my wooden hand plane. I remain a supporter of a local shaper, within a toxic industry and community full of surfers who probably think are saving the planet, signed up to activist groups, whilst driving their diesel vans hundreds of miles to surf, or hopping on planes to tropical climates. But here is some simple economics. If we walk into a surf shop and buy an imported board off the rack, we're partly contributing to what is known as the multiplier effect, meaning some of that revenue will contribute to shop wages, those wages then spent in the local community, and so on. However, there is also Leakage. By buying an imported board we're essentially providing revenue to and supporting an overseas shaper, and this is not local. Think about this….Australians or Californians are not buying British, they support their own shapers. We should all be supporting our local surf shops too. They provide local jobs so essentially we might be supporting our friends in many cases, and they do often stock locally sourced products. It becomes such a difficult, confusing and contradictory statement. ‘Support your local surf shop’, but don’t buy imported surfboards or products. I also believe that the local surf shops should be supporting the locals too. A bar of wax should not be charged at full price, knock a quid off, please. That little discount goes a long way, I've always believed a discounted bar of wax to a local surfer is a community service, and if that shop supports a community then success will follow. That's the same for the local bike shop and I try and support mine as much as possible, yet here lies another gem of my hypocrisy. My bikes are not ‘Made in Britain’. I could have easily bought a frame manufactured in the UK like Cotic, Stanton, or Orange, and ordered through a bike shop, but as weak as it sounds it wasn’t an aesthetic and design thing, I just knew what I wanted, so I bought my MTB from a French company called Commencal. Partly because they only use Aluminium and this can be recycled but I also value their ethos as a company, and they fully support their athletes who are the best in the World. Other decisions for my bikes simply came down to price. No excuses nor reasoning, just price and no middle man, straight to the manufacturer and this meant getting a lot more for my money. But what I have done though to help redeem myself is slowly accessorise my bikes with British made precision parts like brakes and hubs from Hope Technologies and having wheels built at the local shop. I’m lucky enough to have support from British brands like DMR who make no bones of the fact that their products are made in Taiwan, whilst being 100% proud of their sustainability. Their products are designed in Britain by a brilliant team, they’re serviceable, recyclable, and super long lasting and a globally respected brand supporting cycling at grass roots level and beyond. . Sadly surfboards are not serviceable and not a quality shapers can shout about, They're repairable but not serviceable. They do have a good life when used well, and respected. They can be sold and re-used, then resold and used again, until the day they eventually die. Some are reborn and made into art, some are stripped of glass, reshaped and rise again as something totally different, so they can live to be surfed again, some are sadly landfill. As I reach the end of another unintentional poorly argued essay, I hope I have made some kind of point. We can make good decisions, but we can also make great decisions. If we try our best, we can be sustainable by not renewing everything we own every year. I own surfboards twenty years old, and have new ones that I know I'll never sell. I've bought walking boots that will last ten from an Italian company based at the foot of the Dolomites. My cycle shoes are German based and I know they won’t fall apart because I bought the best on the market. I have clothing that is not affected by fashion, It’s just functional, and therefore timeless. My bikes (one steel, one titanium and one aluminium) are all made in Taiwanese factories and built to last. Not everything needs to be purchased online, but it might well be the best option for you based on your circumstance. As businesses or consumers don’t preach about sustainability and climate change whilst sitting on a German Ebike, made in a Taiwanese factory, with production fuelled by fossil extraction, also buy a bike made of Steel that will last a lifetime, just look up vintage bicycles online, you’ll get the picture. Add a custom surfboard to your quiver from your local shaper, especially made for you, or a board developed by the best local surfers in your local waves, not an import that's been tested on a grinding point break in a far off country that you may never get to. We are only hypocritical if we choose to ignore the actual impacts our own lifestyles, our purchases, our way of life. If you can justify your choices then that’s your business, but the least we can do is try to make better decisions when we can, and despite others telling you it doesn't, it does....Every little helps.
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AuthorHi, I'm Russ Pierre, a Cyclist, Surfer and outdoor enthusiast. Please join me as I have some fun on my adventures and write about all the stuff that makes me tick. Archives
October 2023
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