Can you imagine riding a cork surfboard? A small company from Bristol, UK, has decided to produce environmentally conscious surfboards that perform very well with an alternative material.
The crew at Cork Surfboards have decided to provide affordable, more eco-friendly alternatives to conventional surfboards without sacrificing performance or durability. Is it possible?
Apparently, yes. Their hollow cork composite construction method has already been tested in the waves and got thumbs up.
"Whilst hollow surfboards are nothing new, we are the first and currently the only company in the world to offer completely hollow cork surfboards and we firmly believe cork as a material has a big role to play in the future of surfing", the Cork Surfboards team explain.
"We take most of the foam away and replace it with thin cork skin. This creates very strong monocoque shell - it works in rockets, planes and cars - now in surfboards too!", they add.
Developed over three years, these surfboards take advantage of cork's incredible properties: low density and light weight, capability of being compressed to about half its width without losing flexibility, elastic memory, performance in water and high buoyancy.
One full grown tree can yield enough cork material to manufacture more than 200 cork surfboards. Moreover, when a cork tree is harvested it benefits the atmosphere it absorbs up to five times more CO2 than one which has not been harvested.
Time to test the first cork surfboards and leave wax behind, as the unglassed cork deck provides natural grip.