Worried that your board is just a toxic lump of petrochemical evil? Well then surf without one, like Cunningham. Photo: Burkard.

3. Shop Green

How green is your quiver?
Not very.
But you can try and you can try to support brands who make gear with sound-ish practices… the important part is that the product needs to actually work. If it’s ‘green’ but doesn’t work, then it’s worse than not having it at all, right? The other thing to bear in mind is that it’s worth being fairly cynical about branding and marketing. Just because it’s part of an ‘eco’ line with a brown cardboard tag featuring a tree, cartoon Planet Earth, a whale, etc etc, doesn’t actually mean much at all. It might simply have 0.5% organic cotton as opposed to 0.0%, or have made some other kind of miniscule concession purely in order to market itself.
Clear as mud, right?

• Buy stuff that lasts longer. Spend a bit more, infrequently, rather than less, regularly.
• Buy Patagonia stuff. They’ve been on this like, way before it was trendy.
• Take care of shit you already own. Wash your wettie, look after it. Repair your clothes. Just consume less in general. The surf biz is mullered anyway, so if you’re gonna save one or the other, you might as well save the planet.