Arctic Foam is comprised of entrepreneurs, scientists, and surfers sharing a passion for a more sustainable planet and clean ocean.
There are seventeen trillion pounds of plastic on this planet. Eighteen billion pounds of plastic flows to the ocean every year. This is the equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic entering the ocean every second.
Few know and experience the extent of this pollution more than surfers. But traditional surfboard foams, like other plastics, do not biodegrade and are manufactured with non-renewable petroleum. Despite surfers’ respect for the ocean, the surfboards they ride contribute to ocean plastics pollution.
With the help of science, a small group of surfers from San Diego decided to do something about their industry’s contribution to ocean pollution. Arctic Foam, a San Diego–based surfboard foam and complete-board manufacturer,
evaluated the full life cycle of its surfboards—from manufacturing to disposal—to determine if it could produce and dispose of high-performance polyurethane foam more sustainably.
In partnership with algae researchers at University of California San Diego and Algenesis, Arctic Foam not only developed more sustainable source materials (bio-based polymers) for manufacturing its surfboard blanks, it developed surfboard foam that can biodegrade or be repurposed into other valuable products.
Without compromising performance, Arctic Foam has developed algae-based polyurethane surfboard blanks that are biodegradable and sustainably produced with organic algae-based oils.
The Algae Foam boards can be shaped like traditional polyurethane boards and glassed with polyester, epoxy, or bio-epoxy resins.
To address the waste generated during blank manufacturing and ultimately at the end of a surfboard’s useful life, Arctic Foam collaborated with Earthwise Sorbents to develop innovative oil spill cleanup products derived from the polyurethane waste stream of the Arctic Foam factory.
Arctic Foam also partnered with Waste Management and Solar Turbines to reuse the large quantities of bubble wrap used in the shipment of large turbine equipment to protect fragile surfboards during shipping thereby cutting Arctic Foam’s bubble wrap expenses and waste.
Arctic Foam also distributed the bubble wrap to other like-minded surfboard brands for reuse.
Arctic Foam strives to be the best foam and complete-board manufacturer in the world and is excited to add Algae Foam to the array of products it offers.
The caliber of our riders reflects the quality of our products—a majority of the pro circuit (World Surf League) uses Arctic Foam blanks.
With Algae Foam becoming commercially available in 2020, a growing number of pro surfers are transitioning to this innovative product line.
