9 Eco-friendly Surfing Habits For The New Year

Wave Tribe

Published by Wave Tribe

Single-use plastics found in surfing spots.

1. Walk or Bike to Your Surfing Spot
2. Use Glass Bottles for Drinking
3. Use Organic Wax for Your Surfboard
4. Use Recycled Products Whenever Possible
5. Shift to Alternative Surfboards and Bags
6. Pick up Trash Everytime You Go Surfing
7. Eat Less Meat Before Surfing
8. Go Local Surfing
9. Help Spread Awareness

Eco-friendly surfing habits.

Everyone needs to walk more these days. Walking is beneficial not only for burning calories but also for putting you in the happy state of mind. More importantly, it cuts your personal carbon footprint by 75%.

If walking isn’t feasible because the surfing site is on the opposite side of town or relatively far away, consider biking. Bikes don’t use fossil fuel so all that you’ll be releasing to the environment is your sweat and expended energy.

Walk to your favorite surfing spot with your bro..

Instead of bringing single-use plastic drinking bottles to the beach, switch to a glass drinking bottle instead.

Glass drinking bottles are recyclable. There’s also a demand for recycled glass. Once it’s deposited in the recycling bin, manufacturers recycle it immediately so that in a month or so, it’s back on the shelves. It also has a high percentage of recovery. It’s estimated that about 80 percent of the recycled glass is used for new glass bottles.

Using recycled glass to make new bottles also reduces the manufacturer's carbon footprint. This is because furnaces will be able to run at lower temperatures because the recycled glass is easily melted down to the right consistency.

Avoid using single-use plastic bottles, use glass bottles for drinking.

Commercial surfboard waxes tend to use paraffin as a base ingredient. Paraffin is a petroleum by-product, which means that in order to get paraffin, one needs to burn fossil fuel, which in turn causes carbon emissions.

The good thing is that there is now an alternative: the eco friendly surf wax. These eco-waxes use beeswax and natural organic resins so they don’t produce carbon emissions during production and when they gradually dissolve into the ocean, they don’t release toxins.

Surfboard Organic Wax use beeswax ad organic resins.

Whether it’s your surfboard leash or your rash guard, patronize the use of recycled products. Not only are you supporting the recycling industry, but you’re also creating a consumer demand so that more and more industries will shift towards using recycled products.

Similarly, make a habit of recycling anything that can be recycled. Not only will you save more in costs, but it also saves raw materials and energy. It also helps reduce air, water, and land pollution.

Sustainable surfing products by Wave Tribe.

Modern surfing boards generate a lot of carbon emissions during production. Not only that, they also pose a risk to marine wildlife when they are abandoned at sea.

The good news is there are now advances in surfing technology that use recycled materials or sustainably sourced materials. Not only do these eco-friendly surfboards and surfboard bags benefit the environment but it also shows others that surfing the waves need not be toxic.

Wave Tribe's travel bags are made from sustainable hemp.

You don’t have to join or organize a beach clean-up just to pick trash on the beach. Making it a habit to pick up small pieces of trash on your way to the ocean is easy and very helpful for the environment.

Something as simple as picking up bits of plastic, general trash, and cigarette butts from the beach will not only help save marine wildlife but also prevent toxicosis in animals and even small children. Cigarette butts, in particular, have nasty chemicals in their filters that pose a high toxicity threat to aquatic environments.

Of course, joining other people cleaning up beaches is also a fun way to meet like-minded folks to save the environment. If you want to learn how to organize a beach clean up, check out this post.

Make it a habit to pick up trash every time you go surfing.

Sorry meat-loving bros, but meat production can produce lots of carbon emissions. Beef production is particularly a top carbon gas emitter.

New research published in the journal Global Environmental Change shows that if enough people adopt a mostly vegan diet that includes small amounts of animal products, it would go a long way towards reducing America’s climate emissions to where they need to be to help the planet avoid catastrophic levels of climate change.

Make it a habit to eat less meat before surfing. Go gorge on organically grown vegetables. Not only does organic farming help the environment but an organic vegetable diet can be a recipe for winners. Just ask a lot of professional surfers who swear by a vegan diet. You can be a winner by eating veggies.

Surfers eating organic vegetable diet.

Airplane flights cause a lot of carbon emissions, even more than cars. If you like to travel to international surfing spots, consider reducing your international surfing travels and start hanging out at your local surf.

And when you’re flying, choose an airline with carbon off-set options. And fly direct, if possible. The concept of sustainable flying maybe debatable but there are still options that you can do to make your air travel have way less of an impact on the environment.

The gang's all here and ready for surfing.

Even though surfers experience the ocean firsthand regularly, not everyone of us is conscious about the various issues affecting our ocean environment. That’s why if the opportunity presents itself, then we should always grab it and educate others about the problem of climate change and its impact on the ocean.

Even better, the best way to educate anyone is to walk the talk. Actions speak louder than words. By setting an example, we’ll be more likely to convince people to take action for the environment. Like Gandhi said, if we want to be the change, we have got to be the change.

Wave Tribe eco-friendly surfboard travel bags.