{"id":12382399,"date":"2025-12-26T04:30:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T12:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/?p=12382399"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:34:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T08:34:40","slug":"surfcycle-3d-printed-environmentally-conscious-surfboards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/12\/26\/surfcycle-3d-printed-environmentally-conscious-surfboards\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘surfer’s paradox’ is that their boards can harm the oceans they cherish. A new process is helping to change that."},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years ago, Patricio Guerrero was surfing the rolling waves of Santa Cruz when the leash on his board broke, sending it flying into a nearby cave and shattering its nose. As Guerrero worked on repairs, he was shocked at how much plastic waste was building up beside him.<\/p>\n

When the board was fixed, he loaded the plastic into the blue recycling bin outside of his house, but the next morning the bin had not been emptied. The city recycling plant wouldn\u2019t accept the material because it was a non-recyclable kind of plastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started talking to my buddies and we realized this was an industry-wide problem. There\u2019s so much waste generated from building surfboards,\u201d said Guerrero, who is now CEO at Swellcycle, a Santa Cruz company that creates 3D printed surfboards from renewable materials.<\/p>\n

Guerrero has always been interested in building environmentally friendly products. In high school, he converted a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle into an electric vehicle. Later he gained a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering and a master\u2019s in design and manufacturing. Guerrero 3D-printed his first prototype board less than a year after his surfboard broke, marking the beginning of what would become Swellcycle, which aims to turn the tides on surfing\u2019s harmful impact on the planet.<\/p>\n

\"ATraditionally, surfboards begin their lives as a large rectangular block of rigid polyurethane foam \u2014 a type of plastic made from fossil fuels that can\u2019t be easily recycled. The blocks are carved away to form the desired surfboard shape, generating a large amount of waste.<\/p>\n

Oil-based plastics like polyurethane are terrible for the environment. In fact, the carbon emissions from manufacturing a typical six-foot surfboard are equivalent to one person flying 1,005 miles on a long-haul flight, according to a 2022 report from Wavechanger, an Australian organization dedicated to reducing the harmful environmental impacts of surfing.<\/p>\n

\"SwellCycle's
SwellCycle\u2019s Pol Riera, right, cofounder, graphic designer and surfboard shaper, helps surfer Ricardo Urbina, from Aptos, with a Lava surfboard by Spina during a SwellCycle demo day at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some newer foam materials that use fewer fossil fuels have gained popularity, but these alternatives break down easily into tiny pieces of plastic that can harm ocean wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine the contents of a beanbag,\u201d said Tom Wilson, founder of Wavechanger. \u201cIf you break a surfboard in half and rub it just slightly, the beads fall off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those beads can be swallowed by seabirds and other marine animals, leading to internal injuries, intestinal blockages, and even death.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see photos of birds that have their stomachs opened after they pass away, and they\u2019re full of plastic,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Instead of nonrenewable materials, Swellcycle boards are built from polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable plastic made from fermented corn starch and sugarcane. In addition to being eco-friendly, surfboards made from PLA are stronger and lighter than typical foam boards.<\/p>\n