In the winter of '06/07 I became very concerned in creating a more sustainable product. After researching the history of Greg Loehr's progress in Epoxy resin's I though it would be a great undertaking for Haze.

(EPS/Epoxy, Parabolic. Notice resin containers in bottom right corner)

I quickly began pushing EPS foam cores with Epoxy resin glassing. Discouraging in the beginning, it led me to a better understanding and more finely practiced skills a few months later. In the opinion of my own and customers and team riders, EPS/Epoxy boards were much more responsive.

The epoxy resin Loehr developed releases fewer VOC's (volitile organic compounds) into the atmosphere and cured resin in composite application holds it's strength and flexibility longer than polyester resin, due to the tighter chemical bonding in the hardening process. These two important factors mean that the finished board lasts longer, while releasing fewer toxins. The glassing process is also more of an exacting science, leaving a very little amount of resin to waste. The resin/hardener mixture is very viscous, saturating the fiberglass cloth easily and making it possible to use exact calculations per board.

After more research, I found recycling facilities that would take the scraps of EPS foam from shaping.

So with less waste in shaping and glassing I pushed myself to experiment more and research deeper...

 

(Resin buckets from board art project. Buckets are reusable by peeling cured resin out for trash.)

 

As part of a coordinated project I learned about Bamboo, Hemp and other alternative cloths to use in lieu of fiberglass. These cloths are highly sustainable due to the repleshment speed of bamboo and hemp crops.

In addition to experimenting with these cloths, we made a large batch of boards shaped with HomeBlown's BioFoam blanks, which are a soy based foam. The foam itself shaped beautifully, but through experimenting in the surf we found it didn't stand up very well against buckling. However, it seems like they have been making great progress in their formulations, so we look forward to having a quality, and sustainable alternative foam in the future.

(BioFoam Core, Hemp Cloth with E-glass Epoxy. Boards in background: Biofoam cores, Epoxy glassing.)

In the Fall of '07, Haze, working with NVS Surf won a contest through Surf Expo's "Launched." It was a contest searching for promising businesses with unique business models and products. We were awarded the front booth in the section for our work with BioFoam, Hemp cloths and Epoxy resin.

 

Thanks for your interest,

Kiernan Brtalik

 

-Thanks go to:

BioFoam, NVS Surf, Marko Foam, Resin Research