Master shaper to John John Florence turns muck into magic!
Yesterday, while trawling for stories, I engaged in a brief exchange with John John Florence’s shaper Jon Pyzel.
I had asked if he wanted to do an interview in regard to surfboard design for pools in light of the Founders’ Cup.
“I’d rather wait before I start blabbing,” he said, indicating that he would ride the pool shortly before the WCT event there in September. “I have some theories and I can clearly see that we need to make pool specific boards.”
Any other design news?
“Algae foam. The future.”
Really?
“Are you joking with me? Where have you been?”
I rummaged through my memory. Bondi!
“Clearly not on the tip of surfboard technology development.”
In wonderful bullet-point form, Jon quickly added:
“JJF is the first surfer to ride this is in any CT events.”
“We’re hoping to make 99 percent of our US-built PU boards with it by 2019.”
“Exactly the same feel as your normal PU boards but 25 percent less shitty for the world.”
Gotta be some negatives in there, I said. For only Jay Harvey Christ is infallible.
“That’s the best part, no negatives!” said Pyzel. “Once they nail the formula down (which is getting closer every day) we will be making your boards with algae and they will be exactly the same as they boards that you love right now. The algae is just a replacement for Polyols, so the blanks feel and act exactly the same as all traditional PU foam, but with less stress to our environment. If you have a choice at the same boards, but one is less damaging, you are gonna chose that one every time.”
How did Pyzel get turned onto algae blanks?
“First off, and for full transparency, Andrew Jakubowski and Marty Gilchrist own and run Arctic Foam and are very close friends of mine. Andrew and I grew up together in Santa Barbara and Marty was the Rip Curl rep there. We were both sponsored by Rip Curl though Marty and Andrew went on to take over as RC rep later on.
Fast forward thirty years and Andrew owns Arctic and I make surfboards with their foam! But, friends or not, I only use blanks that I believe to be the best that I can get and Arctic makes the best foam in North America.”
What an environmental kink you have Mr Pyzel. Tell me more!
“Most surfers will tell you that they are all about environmentally friendly living, keeping the ocean clean, but the facts remain that surfboards are some of the most environmentally damaging things made. Seeing the chance to help make a dent in the harm being done by building surfboards for a living made me excited to partner with Arctic to help develop solutions.”
Pyzel explained that Arctic started sending him small batches of blanks to test the strength, weight, colour (gotta be white) and consistency.
“I made myself a few first, and then when I started to feel confident that they were getting good, I started making a few for John John as well. He was really stoked to try the foam, since he tries to live his life in environmentally conscious ways and goes through a lot of surfboards every year. From the very beginning the Algae boards felt great and worked just like their normal counterparts, but there were a bunch of issues with the consistency and strength along the way. Building PU foam is already a tricky job since it can be highly susceptible to small environmental changes in temperature, humidity, etc. Getting your formulas just right can require a lot of dialing in and the Algae is no different. At this point they have it pretty dialed in, but they want to be sure all the issues are taken care of before we start making our paying customers surfboards from algae.”
Are they green, like algae? Does it mean you gotta spray all your plain boards white?
“If you were handed two boards, one algae, one normal, you could not see any difference. No need to paint. Also, on the shaping side these blanks are easy to work with and seem to have a slightly tighter cell structure, which means they may absorb less resin during glassing and that makes for a lighter, stronger surfboard.”
Five years on, where’s this thing going to be?
“Every blank company will want to shift in this direction, and maybe Arctic will be selling/licensing the formula around the world. I feel that all surfboard makers should be looking for solutions to minimize the damage we do to our environment and this is just a small step to take in that direction.”
Nothin to do with Algae, but..
Seen a presentation about France cracking down on waste and banning unsold clothing from being thrown away.
They throw out 700’000 tonnes of clothing a year!
Takes 2700lts of water to make 1 cotton tshirt.
Thats the same amount the average person drinks in 2.5 years.
Surf companies would do better to use recycled material from all the shit designs that nobody buys each season.
Everytime i now see a shit surf shirt i think, theres 2.5years of drinking water wasted!😁
Let’s get one thing straight: this is not environmental clean-up wild algae that is being repurposed. Instead, this is laboratory-grown algae from a university in San Diego, California. The algae has to be genetically engineered to produce enough oil fraction for conversion to polyol. Essentially, the algae cells are engineered to become morbidly obese and this allows for high enough extraction rates and commercial viability.
There are environmentalists concerned for what could happen if this lab-grown algae leaks into natural habitats and outcompetes native algae. The calming assurance to that concern has been that there is a “kill gene” built into the lab-grown algae which prevents it from surviving in the wild and risking any kind of catastrophe. We’ll see.
Ahh – the murky world of genetic engineering raises its ugly head.
Thanks for that.
yeah been watching the Algae blank situation in the USA for a few years , actually met the scientist who developed turning Algae into petrol , and then the petrol into PU foam.
I have one big reservation about Artic foam and that is they have their factory in Mexico , cheap labor and don’t have to comply with Califoria’s EPA laws which are some of the strictest in the world.
US Blanks comply with all the California EPA laws , they are run on solar , have zero emissions as they have filter systems , and have just completed a new blank pouring program , which is a world first…..so its really Algae Petrol Vs fossil fuel petrol……needs to be a lot more study’s done, but I am stoked that Pizzle has got the new blanks to perform as well as a normal PU…..just need Pizzle to glass them in Bio-Epoxy and we could change the Surfboard industry and surfing from using antiquated toxic technologies thatr are 60 years old and become more responsible for our kids!
Yea, made old style.
Deck pad. Full laminate coat, filler coat then gloss coat.
Cured properly between coats.
Strong as fuck.
Prob should have waited for John John to win a heat or two before telling everyone he’s riding different materials.
That was my first thought as well. I know Pyzel is saying “same same” but John ain’t blowin’ up the CT right now so maybe it’s actually “shit shit.”
Yeah he’s on a mean bogging streak now
Help
I would love to see Pyzel lose the gay star in his logo.
Hey, it’s not all gay…
See what I did there?
All-gay
Algae
You see?
ALLGAY/ALGAE
Wigs?
Wigs? Where are you going?
I refuse to buy one due to the star, despite falling in love with a very nice round/ thumb tail pyzel on loan for a day from a mate. I fucken hate stars
“We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
– Carl Sagan
“he tries to live his life in environmentally conscious ways and goes through a lot of surfboards every year.”
“..but the facts remain that surfboards are some of the most environmentally damaging things made.”
..you could make them from 50% algae and it still doesn’t change the fact that 90 fresh blades a year is an astronomical amount of boards compared to the average surfer. Just cuz you cut your foam with microorganisms doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a dickhead with way too many surfboards.
I’m still wondering why Gabs’ Samsung galaxy digital surfboard with a built in LCD screen (and ability to take expert instructions in the water from the greatest surf coach in the world, Charlie Rodrigues) hasn’t taken off.
And the best thing is you have a built-in readymade excuse.
“Yeah, I would have made that reverse rodeo mctwistle flip, but I dinged the rail and slipped on some leaking algae”.
I’d hate to be the Daddy of a baby algae right now.
So. Same chemical, just ‘fresh’ instead of from oil.
Interesting. Would love to think it could be viable and not a gimmick.
I’d love to see some data on mass algae farming and the actual sustainability /energy budget of this sort of aquaculture.
Yea – The actual “footprint” of area required would be enormous, I’d imagine.
Then you’ve got carbon footprint to establish the facility, then harvest them. Energy in (sunlight or artificial, heating), disposal of waste, water purification, nutrients yada yada yada. How many kilos of dry matter to make an average shortboard ? How does that compare to traditional pu ?
lotsa crap I skipped over.
https://www.google.com.au/a…
Well here’s a little info.
I’m sure there are plenty of unloved semi-polluted water bodies which could be harnessed.
Thanks, I think.
She lost me at “harmonisation study” ….
I maintained a steely grip and went back for more.
My take away – they haven’t got a clue and more research is required.
No surprise there.
It wasn’t really what I was after but it basically said general cost is about $US 10-14 a gallon but when it reaches $3 a gallon it’ll be cool and groovy.
Well, maybe.
But you know and I know that surfers are cheap skates and if I’m offered at board at $850 or the same model that’s 25% green at a grand – then I can tell you straight up. No contest. Gimme the $850
One less pie and sauce a week and you can afford to go green! 😜
Kinda green. Sorta.
I do know I’ll be helping Jon.
Fuck him, I’ll take the pie.
I think this is where the $3 a gallon comes into it.
Algae cleans water so I’m trying to figure out what the waste would be. The only water quality problems are when you get algae blooms that aren’t harvested and when the algae dies the decomposition robs oxygen from the water ie “dead zones”
Good read here on HAB’s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…
I suppose the other thing would be more processes in the production line to then remove those up-taken pollutants from reaching or interfering with the end product.
But yeah it could be win-win.
I think you have to weigh the end of life cycle into the calculation too — is this stuff easier to dispose of or biodegrade than PU? My impression is that it is, but I don’t know for sure.
I was talking to another shaper who is super excited about it. Will post soon — I gotta wait for something to run before I share it here.
Algae farming and shellfish farming are the only sustainable types of aquaculture at the moment since they remove nutrients from the water and most bodies of water in the world have increased nutrients from ag runoff. There’s plenty of seaweed farming globally that has zero inputs and actually cleans the water
Why don’t CT guys ride XTR boards. They last insanely longer than PU and feel the same if not better. They could have a magic one that lasts years.
Are you there Jonny Pyzel? Step in and tell us why!
yes tell us , as the WSL refused to adopt a greener surfboard initiative , will you glass the algae blanks with Bio-epoxy , so we can clean up the worlds most toxic industry , and so buyers of surfboards actually become the solution , and not willing consumers of pollution , and maybe join the rest of the world in becoming conscious that bad habits breed bad results!
Your thoughts on XTR Brutus?
I think Xtr is probably the best construction for light weight boards. I see Javier as a really creative person in how he creates his own materials and has his own Bio-resins , and he makes all the custom Tomo’s and the Slater customs which are far superior to the Asian ones!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate.
I shape an have ridden a few of my friends XTR boards in Hawaii an liked it. Haven’t had much luck gettin my hands on any in oz though.
Same with varial foam. I know it’s expensive but I like to test out the materials myself (with my own designs)before I start selling it to people.
I see Javier is making your designs available. Might have to order one!
XTR now offering 1 year warranty on delaminations.
May I suggest reading Understanding Planned Obsolescence Unsustainability Through Production, Consumption and Waste Generation
By: Kamila Pope (Editor)
I have not had a new board in years. Most of my boards are epoxy, some homemade, and they work great and last a long time.