Solid Surfboards
Shaper: Dan O’Hara
Location: San Diego, CA
About: Since 2008 Solid Surfboards has been a somewhat silent pioneer of sustainable surfboard manufacturing.
Our early constructions won an award from Hurley in a local San Diego board building competition to achieve the most eco-friendly surfboard of the time. Back then we were taking scraps of eps foam from shaped blanks, and remnant construction foam using that as a core and laminating with a variety of bamboo’s, using bamboo fins, bio-plastic leash plugs and even an hemp leash loop.
Back in 2005 we were even building boards out of EPS foam scraps due to piles of blank scraps “bones” laying around and wanting to make use of it. The results were nicely finished boards with vertical glue lines every 2-3″ where the scraps were glued together.
Our latest build is one we are most proud of. Inspired by the technology being applied to surfboards around the world and sourced from other industries seeking a more organic approach to reinforcements and composites.
Bio-Resin
40% Plant Based Epoxy Resin developed with Pro-Link out of San Diego. Began developing this resin in February 2016, first resins were 20% plant based and yellowed extremely quickly, too fast for practical applications without resin color, also not suitable for the retail floor. Within a few months and some close work with David and our friend Jeff at Yulex, we developed a resin that yellowed 10x slower than our original formula, is brighter than its competing resins and has 2x the bio-content of the original formula. It is also very workable in the way of turnaround time, strength, flexability, viscosity for laminating and hotcoating, etc… The only issue we are currently still facing is a lower UV stability as compared to other competing Non-Bio resins. This is the brightest and most UV stable Bio-Resin on the market, however as compared to non-bio these boards do yellow slightly faster over prolonged UV exposure.
Our next formula will be brighter, even more UV resilliant and higher bio-content.
The “Bio” content of the resin is various plant and vegetable oils that have replaced the petroleum, fossil fuel, non-renewable content of standard industry resins.
Our goal in 2017 is to have an 80% plant based epoxy resin.
Basalt
Basalt is a mineral, produced by volcanoes. It is a rock that is 9x stronger than steel by weight. The manufacturing process to make Basalt into a fiber takes 670x less energy/petroleum as compared to the manufacturing of fiberglass. The process of manufacturing fiberglass requires broken glass and other glass materials to be molten for 14 days and then extruded into a fiber, this takes a massive amount of energy and resources. Basalt, only has to be molten for 30 minutes before it can be extruded into a fiber.
Hemp
Hemp is one of the strongest and most renewable natural plant fibers.
Sustainable Hemp grows without the need of harmful herbicides and pesticides; hemp is planted in dense crops not allowing sun light to penetrate, which reduces weed growth by 95%, eliminating the need for herbicides. No pesticides are used due to the inherent properties contained in the plant itself. Hemp is commonly used as a companion crop bordering family gardens as a deterrent to insects and infestations. Hemp is an ideal rotation crop due to its long taproot structure that helps retain topsoil, while also replenishing soil quality due to the natural leaf composting that regenerates vital elements in the soil. Hemp does not require irrigation unlike other natural fibers. The unique inherent characteristics of the fiber of hemp have the additional ability to suppress the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi, making it the ideal “fiber for our future.” As a result of the above, hemp does not require organic growing certification.
Hemp is an extremely fast growing crop, producing more fiber yield per acre than any other source. Hemp can produce 250% more fiber than cotton and 600% more fiber than flax using the same amount of land. The amount of land needed for obtaining equal yields of fiber place hemp at an advantage over other fibers.
According to Popular Mechanics, Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONSTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel.
Recyclable EPS Foam
While EPS foam is by no means “clean” it is by far a significant improvement on its predecessor, polyurethane foam. Not only from performance characteristics – such as being more buoyant (more air in the foam), less compressable (less denting) and overall lighter – but also from an environmental stand point. The foam is typically expanded with steam – which as we know is simply water, heat and air, compared to its predecessor, polyurethane foam which is expanded with TDI (Toluene diisocyanate), one of the most toxic human formulated chemicals on the planet.
All of our un-used, scrap, biproduct EPS foam that is not under your feet, in your surfboard, is recycled by us. Monthly we deliver a bus load of foam to our local recycling facility which has a densifier. The densifier compresses the scrap EPS foam into ultra-dense bricks where are then re-sold to foam manufacturers around the world to be re-expanded into new foam products. The foam that is inside of your board can also be recycled when you are done with the board simply by stripping the fiberglass and bringing to a local densifier which can easily be found online – or we can help you. Simply search for foam recycling facilities.
