We Care About the Earth
Photo: T Sherms
As reliant and connected surfers are to mother nature's gifts of land and sea, the board industry is a far cry from lending a hand in preserving our planet. With an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 surfboards made and sold annually, landfills stay littered with yesterday's foam.
The onus isn't solely on governments to mandate and implement green-living. As a society, we are individually and collectively responsible for the home we keep. Our privilege as caretakers of the earth should rightly prompt us towards intentional living aimed explicitly at reducing consumption.
At Dark Arts, we've considered this mandate with deliberate thought. Our role as innovators isn't a detriment to the environment. Rather, because we care for it, we're constantly asking ourselves: "How can we create surfboards that last a lifetime without compromising performance?"
Serious surfers replace their boards on average every 6-8 months. Such a decision is hardly a choice on epoxy and polyester construction. These materials are simply unable to handle session after session without snapping in two or losing that elusive pop.
This conundrum ultimately led Dark Arts founder Justin Ternes to the solution of carbon-wrapped surfboards. In his quest to construct a board that could withstand the pounding of wipeouts and savage-like riding, he discovered that the earth doesn't need to be the victim of our indulgence.
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"Before getting my Dark Arts board, I put a hole in the deck of every board I've ever owned due to my front foot. I like to surf big powerful waves. Eventually, to make a board last, I had to add layers of glassing to the front of it to keep my front foot from destroying it. But that soon wore out too, or the board became too stiff that I couldn't ride it properly.In two years of riding my DA board, I've never had one ding repair or put a hole in any part of the deck. The durability is mind-blowing.” - Grant McGann
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