In the spring of 2017 the Center for Surf Research team initiated what we are calling “Sustainable Stoke Product Reviews”. Everyone in the surfing community will probably have noticed a welcome increase in the number of surfing products that are making claims of sustainability in the past few years. From sunscreen to boardbags and even boards themselves a push is underway to transform consumer surf products to better reflect surfers’ concern for the ecosystems we play in, but can these claims be trusted?
Wary of industry greenwashing, the CSR team is engaging with brands and products that are making sustainability claims to test the voracity of the claims being made, and to test the performance of the products. In our next newsletter, the CSR team will begin reporting on our findings from products including Slater Designs’ traction pads made from algae harvested from polluted waterways, new sustainable product footwear and apparel offerings from Vans, and reef friendly suncreens including Bali-based company Yogi Surf and SDSU start-up Soul Spot Suncreen. Sustainability claims will be researched and tested, and the products themselves will be used in the field and we’ll relate our experiences with them providing readers with a sustainability assessment and an idea of actual product performance.