Yesterday, i was reading the Discovery Magazine when I saw an article on a man who was making eco-friendly surfboards for people. Furthermore, these surfboards are supposedly better than the surfboards made with oil-based materials to cover the board.
How it all began
Gary Young first thought of making eco-friendly surfboards in the mid 1970's because there was an oil shortage and thus not many surfboards could be build. Gary Young then decided to replace the oil-based materials with more natural materials to counter this oil shortage problem. In 1976, he was the first known surfboard shaper to "make wood-veneer boards using a vacuum- bagging technique that laminated veneer over the deck of a board." He then patented his technique based on his principle compound curvature.
The modern eco-friendly surfboards of Gary Young
In the mid 1980's he changed his board material from ordinary wood to bamboo which he believed was more sturdy, more reliable as well as visually more appealing. After experimenting for more than a decade he released his first prototype called Hokua which was a big-wave surfboard for surfer star Robby Naish. This board had an outer layer of Koa veneer and its inner structures was layers of bamboo. the board proved that it was stronger than a normal board when Robby Naish rode the board on gigantic waves of Maui's vaunted Jaws.
While bamboo itself is weak and will degrade after multiple use, gary Young has a secret that strengthens the board. Gary uses bamboo veneer which is made up of tissue thin sheets pressed into one. Using this material uses less epoxy than glassfibre and is twice as strong. The reason why these boards are eco-friendly is because the bamboo veneer does not produces sawdust when cleaned or when in the sea. Furthermore when the bamboo decomposes after the board is no longer in use it decomposes into the ground instead of the usual glassfibre which takes many years to decompose.
I think that these eco-friendly surfboards are a very good thing because they are promoting saving the Earth as well as saving Earth resources.
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