If you're a bodyboarder heading to England, Wales or Northern Ireland, note that you can now hire wooden boards free of charge thanks to the "Surf Wood for Good" initiative. The program will run until the end of October and seeks to raise awareness about pollution from single-use plastic boards.
Often made of polystyrene, bodyboards require significant production of plastic material. They can also cause pollution to beaches and oceans because of their limited usage. In fact, the boards are often left abandoned on or near beaches when vacationers head home.
To promote a greener approach to water sports, some manufacturers are now opting to make boards from wood, a more resistant and sustainable material. This kind of alternative is now being offered by "Surf Wood for Good," a free rental program for wooden bodyboards, available in 24 coastal locations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The initiative was started by Jamie Johnstone of the "Dick Pearce Bellyboards" workshop, which makes wooden bodyboards and beach items in Newquay, a seaside resort in the southwest of England. After becoming alarmed by the large number of polystyrene bodyboards being left on the resort's beach in the summer, he decided to contact surf shops around the UK and provide them with a stack of bodyboards directly from his workshop to rent out free of charge, whether to visitors or year-round residents.
"The plan is to offer free wooden bellyboard rentals as a positive alternative to cheap, often environmentally-toxic polystyrene bodyboards that are so often discarded on beaches," Jamie Johnstone explains on the Dick Pearce website.
"Our aim is to make long-lasting sustainable products, and support British manufacturers wherever possible," explains the bodyboard maker.
According to the Ocean Recovery Project, more than 16,000 polystyrene bodyboards are discarded on British beaches each year.
