Sustainability

Firewire Believes

Firewire is dedicated to elevating the surfing experience through innovative design, new materials, and advanced construction methods. 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.

Bloom Foam | Harvesting Algal Biomass

In pursuit of Kelly Slater’s commitment to sustainability, Slater Designs has collaborated with BLOOM Foam to develop the most eco-friendly traction pad on the planet today.

BLOOM is a high-performance flexible foam made from algae biomass harvested from freshwater habitats at risk of toxic algal bloom.

About the BLOOM Foam process:

• It helps improve the quality of waterways by removing excess algae that harm plants, animals, and people who rely on the ecosystem for survival.

• It recirculates fresh water back into the habitat.

• It aids CO2 capture and sequestration.

The BLOOM Foam process literally scrapes pond scum, dries it, pulverizes it, then forms it into a foam blend that helps rebalance the natural ecology and also reduces our dependence on non-renewable oil

Through this patented process we have created a traction pad with increased durability, improved shock absorption and reduced weight over conventional foams.

Kelly directed us to wrap it in eco packaging made with post-consumer backing, soy-based inks, and a biodegradable wrapping.

By choosing Slater Designs Algae Traction, you are helping make the world’s waterways cleaner. Find it at surf shops here.

The Leash | Lowering Carbon Footprint

The Slater Designs Leash in Fiji. Photo: Todd Glasser

The Slater Designs Leash looks like any leash, but it’s different from every other leash.

Made using plastic bottles, partially recycled Urethane and Yulex, it’s a collaboration with our friends at Revolwe that lowers the carbon footprint of this leash by 80% when compared to traditional leashes. And that’s just the cuff alone.

Aside from the eco-merits of the leash, we love how comfy the cuff is. And we’re stoked that Kelly hasn’t broken a single one, because from Cloudbreak to Rincon and Reef Road, there isn’t a better test pilot on the planet to test leash toughness and performance.

The Leash is available at surf shops around the world ( find them here ), sized with comp thickness at both 5’6 and 6’0, as well as regular thickness at 6’0 and 7’0.

You can learn more about using waste as a resource in surfboard accessory design from our friends at Revolwe.

Paving Stones | Upcycling EPS Foam Waste

At first glance a surfboard has nothing in common with a paving stone – but we found a connection.

Producing anything new creates waste in some form, and in the case of surfboards, it’s EPS foam dust. The Dust is leftover from shaping blocks of EPS foam into finished surfboard shapes like the Gamma or Seaside.

Morning light hits our paving stones at Surf Ranch. We make these from upcycled EPS foam waste that is leftover from the surfboard building process.

We don’t want to put that EPS dust into a landfill, so instead, we dump it into a big green machine (you’ll see it in the video above) that heats up and densifies the EPS dust into a hot material that we mold into paving stones like you see at Surf Ranch.

Before we announced this paving stone project in October 17′ we expected a lot of excitement on social media. But we didn’t expect to receive so much interest from people who want to buy them.

Right now we only donate these paving stones to friends, partners, and projects that need them but if we ever make them available for purchase, we’ll announce it.

The ECOBOARD Project |Reducing Toxicity in Surfboard Production

Look for the ECOBOARD lamination around the leash plug of every Firewire surfboard, like the Seaside, pictured here in the hands of Rob Machado.

Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond the materials we source and the boards we manufacture but it begins with a simple goal: to ensure that the best performing surfboards also leave the smallest environmental footprint possible.

That’s why we’ve qualified 100% of our surfboard production in accordance with either Level One or Gold Level ECOBOARD Certification as verified by Sustainable Surf, who audits our factory each year to verify our manufacturing processes and materials.