The Ultimate Guide on How To Lower My Carbon Footprint - Surfer's Edition

Wave Tribe

Published by Wave Tribe

As these fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide and other toxic chemicals that pollute the environment. When carbon levels increase in the atmosphere, they create a greenhouse effect, trapping the heat inside earth’s atmosphere.

Modern surfing boards are a toxic lot. Made from polyurethane, a petroleum by-product, and wrapped with layers of toxic polyester resin, it’s basically the poster boy for why the surfing industry is so not eco-friendly.

From the time it is manufactured until the point when it ends up in your purchasing hands, a typical 6’0” shortboard will have contributed more than 270 kilograms of CO₂ to our atmosphere. No wonder that surfers have 50% more carbon footprint than an average person!

Fortunately for us, there’s a new breed of surfboards that have lower carbon footprints because they use recycled or sustainable materials.

The neoprene wetsuit is basically made of synthetic rubber that’s produced from either oil or limestone, both of which are non-renewable sources. This means that this isn’t a sustainable source of raw material and depleting these resources will have a negative impact on the environment.

Even more problematic is that the extraction methods for oil and limestone have high carbon footprints. So essentially, you’re wearing gear that contributed a lot of carbon emissions to the atmosphere and will most likely become toxic once you’ve disposed of it in a landfill.

Don’t just stop at using eco-friendly alternatives to surfboards and wetsuits. Switch to eco-friendly surfing board bags and recycled leashes.

Wave Tribe’s hemp-based surfboard travel bags are high-quality bags that don’t break. That’s because it’s made of hemp, which is one of the most versatile and durable alternatives to commercial fiber. The coolest thing about this is that it has great potential to be a climate change solution. Industrial hemp farms are natural carbon sink reservoirs. The plants trap carbon dioxide, bonding it permanently to their fibers so that when they are harvested and processed, the carbon dioxide isn’t released back to the atmosphere.

We know how important surfing waxes are for our boards. But conventional surf wax is toxic because they are made from paraffin, another by-product of petroleum. Not only do they have a high carbon footprint, but they also contain dangerous substances like benzene and toluene which have been determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as probable human carcinogens.

They also pose a threat to the environment. When they degrade off the surfboard, they become part of the marine debris responsible for the deaths of marine wildlife. They pollute beaches, costing local governments a lot of money for clean-ups.

These days, even a small thing like sunscreen can have an impact on the environment. Titanium oxide is the latest chemical now used in most formulations of sunscreen these days. But producing this chemical is both resource-intensive and environmentally-taxing.

Similarly, oxybenzone and octinoxate, two of the common chemicals found in sunscreens, are toxic to coral reefs. They cause the corals to undergo bleaching. With coral bleaching already as widespread as it is due to the warming of the ocean, the addition of these chemicals into the mix will aggravate the phenomenon.

Transportation is also a major contributor to the carbon footprint. In America alone, the transportation sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, our combined vehicle emission is responsible for about a third of America’s climate changing emissions.

To lessen your carbon footprint, the best thing to do would be to walk to your regular local surfing spot. The other option would be to take a bicycle ride. Both options are also healthier for you.

But if bicycles are not an option, then share a ride with your surfer friends. One vehicle ride will be far lesser in carbon emission than a group of vehicles going to the surfing spots. In fact, ride-sharing has been found not only to reduce pollution but also to reduce traffic congestion by a factor of three.

Stop drinking plastic bottled water. Plastic water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which are also derived from fossil fuel. This means that during its production, a lot of energy and carbon is emitted which adds to the global warming.

Bottled water, in general, is wasteful. And I’m not just talking about the plastic. In fact, the process of producing bottled water requires 6 times as much water as there is in the container. So it makes more sense to just use a glass drinking bottle and refill it when needed.

We throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles a year and only 23 percent of that is recycled. The rest ends up in the landfill and the ocean where it becomes an environmental and wildlife hazard.

Whether you’re using plastic for your wet bag or for packaging your surfing gear, you need to find other alternatives. Worldwide, about 40 percent of plastic packaging is produced, used once, and is immediately discarded. This plastic finds its way to the ocean where it forms 80% of the floating trash that’s found there. That’s why we need to reduce our dependence on plastic because this is the only way that we can stop more plastic from ending up in the ocean.

And there are alternatives. Using compostable bags is a great way to store your essentials when traveling for surfing. But if you’re going to countries where there is no way to compost these bags properly, be responsible enough to bring it back home and dispose of it properly. Just because it’s compostable doesn’t mean you can throw it anywhere; a compostable bag won’t decompose in the ocean and marine turtles will still die from choking on it.

People don’t realize it but air travel actually has a negative impact on our atmosphere. Not only is it the quickest way to increase one’s carbon footprint, but it also spews other toxic fuel by-products into the air when it burns its fuel.

A plane trip from Europe to Australia adds about 4. 5 tonnes to your carbon footprint. For professional surfers hopping around the world in between tournaments, that’s a very significant carbon load.

To reduce that, pick direct route flights as much as possible in order to cut down on carbon emissions. Much of the carbon is generated during landing and taking off; if you change flights frequently, you’ll have contributed more carbon to the atmosphere by the time you reach your destination.

Eating more vegetables and cutting down on your meat is not only healthier for you but also for the environment. In fact, there is a study which shows that the widespread adoption of a vegetarian diet can bring down carbon emissions by 63%.

That’s because livestock farming, next to transportation, is the second highest source of carbon emission. It emits 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the leading cause of deforestation and water pollution.

In America alone, animal factory farms generate more than a million tons of manure each day. This is stored in football field-sized pools which are always in danger of leaking. When that happens, animal wastes can pollute the environment because they contain dangerous phosphorus, nitrogen and antibiotics.