Night at the Movies

I attended the screening of Manufacturing Stoke last night.  I see most of the new movies, some good and some bad but this it the one movie every surfer should see. The show starts by sharing the surf industries dirty little secret. Surfboards have historically been made out of rather nasty, cryogenic petro chemicals.  This is not the "Better living thru chemistry" that the Dow corporation promised us in the sixties.  From creating the blank to the resins used in glassing, the process is dangerous and there was no real way to recycle your board once it had reached it's useful end of life. How many surfboards is your wife going to let you put up on the wall to commemorate the swell of '69'? 

The good news is that several of the small manufacturers that rushed into the void left when Clark Foam closed it's doors are working to provide a "greener" product. There are more options in glassing as well.  I'm excited about tree sap resin! (How often do you use that phrase?)  Less you think that the movie is a buzz kill the surfing in this surf movie is quite good, well shot, well lit and makes you want to go surf. (The litmus test for all good surf movies)  The soundtrack is good and fits the action and the tone of the movie well. There is a fair amount of bodysurfing with a handplane in the movie. Ed and Kipp of Enjoy handplanes are interviewed. Enjoy handplanes are made from broken boards which otherwise would be headed for a landfill. It's nice to know that some people take the Reduce, Recycle and Reuse motto to heart.

In the end the decision it's up to us the consumers of surf products and surfwear.  There are options in the marketplace and how you spend your money will determine the direction the industry goes in the long run.

Oh and Kendog flys by on his mat near the end.

Now that's a surf movie!