Plastic pollution: British beaches offer free wooden bodyboards

If you are a boogie boarder and are planning a trip to England, Northern Ireland or Wales, know that thanks to the “Surf Wood for Good” initiative, you can rent wooden planks for free. A program that will be offered until the end of October to draw attention to the pollution of plastic sheets.

Often made of polystyrene, bodyboard boards generate a significant amount of plastic, the microbeads of which then flow into the oceans due to their limited lifespan (the boards are often left behind on the beaches).

To raise awareness of a greener practice of water sports, some manufacturers are opting instead for wooden planks, a stronger and more durable material. It’s this kind of alternative offered by “Surf Wood for Good”, a free wooden boogie board rental program available at 24 coastal locations in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The initiative originated from Briton Jamie Johnstone, alarmed by the impressive amount of polystyrene bodyboards left behind over the summer on the beach at Newquay, a seaside town in the south west of England, where he set up his “Dick Pearce” workshop. who makes wooden boogie boards and beach gear.

He then decided to contact surf equipment shops on the coast in the UK and supply each of them with a stack of boogie boards straight from his workshop so that these shops could rent them out to followers for free. or year-round residents.

Surf Wood for Good offers a positive alternative to the cheap and often environmentally polluting polystyrene bodyboards that are so often dumped on beaches across the country.

Jamie Johnstone on the Dick Pearce website

“Our aim is to make products that are sustainable and to support UK manufacturers where possible”explains his passion for sliding, experienced in making surfboards, which he has been practicing since childhood.

More than 16,000 polystyrene boogie boards wash up on UK beaches every year, according to the Ocean Recovery Project.

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