Sustainable Surf joined with Waste to Waves partner, REEF, on Thurs, April 19th as they closed up the corp offices in Carlsbad, and held their company Earthday event at Buccaneer Beach in Oceanside, CA.

Along with the usual beach cleanup activities, we held a Waste to Waves styrofoam drive event open to the public, which included a contest for bring the most styrofoam packaging waste ( a.k.a. EPS foam) – with the winner getting a free surfboard made from a 100% recycled EPS blank from Marko foam, shaped by SD North County transplant Hayden Cox of Hayden Shapes (www.haydenshapes.com).

Style master / surf legend Rob Machado showed up to help us out, as did DIY-er Cyrus Sutten from Kordory TV (www.korduroy.tv). The guys from Transworld SURF were there too, and thanks to Jessie for bringing the Marko Foam van as our styrofoam collection vehicle. Thanks to all those folks who brought us their waste foam for recycling, and big congrats goes out to Sean, a research student at UCSD, for  his winning load of 15.6 lbs of EPS packing foam – enjoy that new custom ECOBOARD tm version of a Hypto-Krypto model from Hayden Shapes, courtesy  of our friends at REEF.

See all the fun in this video/photo feature from REEF on Transworld SURF: http://surf.transworld.net/1000146050/videos/reef-tws-celebrate-earth-day-in-oceanside/?pid=62706#ngtop

Ps. and a big thumbs down goes out to the Oceanside Parking Patrol for giving the Marko Foam van a ticket, as it was parked to collect foam from the public in the Buccaneer Beach lot – bummer …

Jason Gardiner, you just won yourself a brand new Timmy Patterson Ecoboard, painted by Mike Losness.

When Jason picked this up, he was grinning from ear to ear, stoked.

Stay tuned for another raffle soon.

We partnered with Trumer Pils to provide raffle surfboards for event-goers. These Ecoboards were made by Stretch out of recycled EPS and glassed with Entropy Super Sap bio-resin. Congrats to the lucky winners!

We collected styrofoam again at the City of Malibu for Earthday. In a word, they are stoked on Waste to Waves and are pushing foam collection hard in the city. It makes sense, because of Malibu’s history as being a leader in banning single-use food containers and of course because of Malibu’s exalted position in surfing lore. We are now working on a deeper collaboration going forward involving local schools.

In addition to a Beach cleanup and surfboard demos, Reef is inviting the local community to bring any unwanted polystyrene foam (aka “Styrofoam) to the Buccaneer Beach Parking Lot that will be weighed, collected and eventually up-cycled into Marko Foam blank surfboards as part of the Waste to Waves Program, powered by Sustainable Surf. The foam collected is the white packaging foam from fragile consumer goods such as televisions or furniture. It is also the same material used in EPS surfboard blanks.

It takes 5lbs of recycled polystyrene foam to create one surfboard blank. The person that weighs in with the most foam will get a free sustainable EPS surfboard utilizing the foam collected through Waste to Waves. They will also receive a Reef Redemption prize pack including Reef’s collection of sustainable products.

Reef has invited all employees, their local retail partners like Surf Ride, Sun Diego, K-5 and Hansens, and the entire San Diego community to participate in the beach clean up and event.

Agenda for the Day (10:00am – 4:30pm)
10:00am – 4:00pm Waste to Waves Styrofoam Drop Off
10:30am- 12:30pm Beach Cleanup
12:30pm- 4:30pm Lunch, Surf, Sup and Sun

The event is designed to be as sustainable as possible utilizing FROOTS (an organic food vendor) and partners like HDX Hydration Mix (an environmentally friendly sports beverage company) and Alex sustainable bottles. In the spirit of celebrating Earth Day, Global Surf Industries will also be on site to provide attendees with surfboards and standup paddleboards for participants to demo and enjoy.

Aside from the beach clean up, surf demos and styrofoam collection, The Reef Earth Day celebration is also an opportunity to share information about Reef’s own sustainability program, Reef Redemption, which launched in 2007.

“Reef Redemption is a company-wide sustainability initiative that directs all of our decision making,” says Reef Director of Marketing Pj Connell. “From packaging and products, to events like our Earth Day celebration and even declaring our own headquarters as a ‘plastic waterbottle-free zone,’ we are striving as a brand to make more sustainable choices through all aspects of our business.”

For more information about the event please visit to www.Reef.com

Each semi-truck holds about 1,500 lbs of EPS foam.

We are wrapping up Phase 1 of Waste to Waves. The response so far has been fantastic. We’ve collected over 4,500 lbs of EPS foam. The raffle for the free surfboard will happen March 9th at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.
Phase 2 is now starting. Our goal is to increase polystyrene foam recycling programs everywhere. Stay tuned for more info.

You can still take your foam to surf shops… and if you have a lot of foam, contact us first.

Movie Credits:
Shot and Directed by Noah Carlson (vodafilms.com)
Edited by Noah Carlson
Additional footage provided by Russell Brownley and Mike Losness
Produced by Russell Brownley and The Wuss Productions (thewussproductions.com) and Reef

Scott Tye of Marin Surfrider helping out at Proof Lab

We wanted to give a shout out to – Proof Lab Surf Shop – as being our farthest north collection spot for gathering waste styrofoam for the W2W program! Just across the Golden Gate bridge from SF, Proof Lab owners Nate & Will, offer those lucky residents of sunny Marin a chance to turn their – trash into slash -  too, just like their neighbors in foggy San Francisco . The W2W program is a perfect fit for Proof Lab’s new shop space which includes room for holding art & environmental (permaculture, films, etc.) workshops and demos; I’ve even seen fresh veggies from the local farmers market for sale on the front counter…  Thanks also to Scott Tye (seen here holding up a bag of collected foam) from the Marin chapter of the Surfrider Foundation (http://marin.surfrider.org), who has been helping to spread the word about the W2W program. Keep up the great work boys – and thanks for anchoring down the far north section of our collection efforts!

The City of Malibu hosted an EPS collection drive on January 21st, 2012.  The event was successful, with many residents bringing their waste foam to the event.  Some people were very enthusiastic about the potential to turn their trash into new surfboards.