A surfboard made from 10,000 butts
It was while helping clean up a beach in northern California that Taylor Lane - a 24-year-old surfer - realized that cigarette butts were the most common pollutant waste on beaches. Saddened, he decided to use this pollution to participate in the Creators and Innovators Upcycle Contest, organized by the surf brand Vissla and the NGO Surfrider (NDRL: which campaigns for the defence, safeguarding, development and sustainable management of the ocean, the coastline, the waves and the people who enjoy them).
The objective was to design a functional surfboard, built mainly from recycled objects. Taylor Lane therefore decided to use 10,000 cigarette butts to present the Surfboard Cigarette. After 200 hours of work and a few unsuccessful attempts, he won this international competition.
A documentary to promote the vision of a pristine ocean environment
Now, with the help of filmmaker Ben Judkins, the young surfer would like to make a documentary about environmental surfing with his "Surfboard Cigarette." He would like to show the harmful effects of beach pollution, but also get enough notoriety to surf on a recycled board alongside great international surfers.
He plans to build three different models of his "Cigarette" board and take them to various coastal regions of the world to raise awareness about pollution. "You don't throw a candy wrapper on the ground, through a car window, or into the ocean, so why are cigarette butts thrown with such indifference?" explains the young man.
For its Cigarette Surfboard Documentary Cigarette, Taylor Lane launched a fundraising campaign through the Kikstarter platform. He hopes to raise $20,000 to pay for equipment, travel and filming expenses.
The film is expected to be released in late summer 2018, but it is possible that the release date will be pushed back to late 2018/early 2019 so that the board can be filmed in the best possible waves. We will have to take into account the risks of board breakage, which requires a lot of repair time and even more design.
