A sustainable lifestyle is as hot of a topic as ever in the surf industry. It doesn’t take an expert surfer or an environmental scientist to notice that our love of chasing down an empty wave often requires a large carbon footprint. Of course, it is not entirely the individual’s fault. It will be hard to be sustainable as long as fossil fuels and disposable materials exist. Ecological choices are still generally more expensive. That’s why, at Solid, we take a holistic approach to sustainability.
Durability is Sustainable
Not only do we use sustainable materials in every aspect of our board building process. We also build our boards to last. This way, you can be sure that it will be worth paying a few extra bucks for a board that will last you a lifetime. We also see sustainability as supporting communities so they have the resources to pursue surfing in their local areas. Often the people in places we travel from the US to surf have less economic power than we do as visitors. So another small way we can ensure that we are supporting the local community is by providing boards to locals. The goal is for locals to have as much access to surfing as we do when we show up in their town.
Supporting Local Communities
At Solid, we’ve always built boards with more sustainable materials. We’ve always built boards that last longer. And we’ve always given them to people in all the places we go. Founder Dan O’Hara learned these principles from the shapers who taught him. But we wanted to showcase this for our audience and tell everyone how we strive to be more than just a surfboard company.
Sean Santiago went down to Costa Rica in the fall with the Solid team. Instead of flying out a team of surfers from California, we flew out a bunch of boards. Then we recruited local rippers to be in the movie. The movie, “De La Tierra,” will screen on our East Coast + West Coast tours in April and May. It will premier at surf festivals in the fall. Stay tuned for dates!
