Cleaning up the ocean one board at a time

Wellington surfer Jack Candlish, 29, is putting his $10,000 AMP Scholarship into his start-up business Organic Dynamic producing environmentally-friendly surfboards that protect the ocean, instead of polluting it (an average surfboard weighing three kilograms will emit 300 kilograms of carbon dioxide).

Organic Dynamic use 100 per cent recycled EPS foam and sustainably grown Paulownia (a lightweight salt-resistant wood) sourced from a Waikato dairy farm. The boards are coated with Entropy Bio-Resin. All offcuts are either recycled or re-purposed into other products. Candlish is also set to rent a space in Lyall Bay from late March, where people can see the boards being made and try out demo boards, and also to carry stock and begin to supply other surf board shapers around New Zealand with eco-friendly blanks and surfboard building materials.

Candlish has also made the decision not to export the boards overseas which means reduced fuel consumption but also means Organic Dynamic can repair any damage boards may incur to prevent them from ever going into landfill. “Instead we are going to sell and license our technology so that other board makers around the world can make surfboards for the local surfers from locally recycled or locally grown materials,” says Candlish.