Every surfboard, traction pad, and leash we build is designed with a single goal in mind – to improve the surfing experience as much as possible while impacting the environment as little as possible.

We also believe that the current ‘take.make.waste’ consumer culture and the associated unfettered capitalism with its sole focus on the bottom line, will not get us from here to there without degrading the planet to the point where life as we know it today will be lost forever.

It’s time for a new paradigm, one where consumers demand more environmental responsibility from the brands and products that they support, and a company’s ‘performance’ is measured by the impact that their operations have on the planet and its people, not just how much profit they make.

In that regard, Firewire has certainly put its money where our collective mouths are! We support a number of non-profit, environmental, and humanitarian organizations around the world including Surfrider Foundation, Surf Aid, Share the Stoke Foundation, Parley for the Oceans and Surfers Against Sewage – to name a few of the high-profile ones. You can find more information on these organizations here.

When it comes to our products, even though our EPS/Epoxy surfboards already emit only 2% of the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) compared to traditional Polyurethane/Polyester (PU/PE) boards, we are constantly searching for opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint of our entire company, not just our surfboards.

For example, we’ve gone even further since then, once again partnering with Sustainable Surf’s SeaTrees mangrove reforestation program on the Indonesian island of Biak.

Mangrove trees can live in both salt and fresh water, prevent coastal erosion and sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. We’re planting enough mangrove trees every year to wipe out our entire annual carbon footprint, and over time we’ll sequester more CO2 than we produce.

While the ultimate goal is to build surfboards without any virgin raw material inputs at all by using only recycled and up-cycled options, we are not quite there yet.

For example, over the past two years we have reduced our waste per board built by over 95%, and we will be Zero Landfill by the end of 2021. We achieved the reduction through a number of initiatives, our ‘foam dust to garden paver‘ up-cycling being one of the most innovative.

In addition, in partnership with Bloom Foam, the Slater Designs and Firewire algae-based traction have won over core surf fans around the world, while helping to clean up rivers and lakes that are susceptible to oxygen killing algae.

Furthermore, since July 2014, ALL Firewire stock boards have met the standard for Sustainable Surf’s Ecoboard certification.

In fact, in partnership with Sustainable Surf, Firewire played a pivotal role in developing consumer awareness of the Ecoboard project in general and raising consciousness around the issue of surfboard toxicity.

All of that said, we also understand that whether you consider surfing a sport or an art (we think that it’s both), we all know that performance matters! Whenever we evaluate a less toxic material, we always benchmark its performance against our existing technologies, and if the performance isn’t there, we go back to the drawing board.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to continuing our journey towards less toxic and higher performance surfboards along with all of you!!

Our very best,

The Firewire crew