Abstract
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Surfers are well aware of oceanic sustainability issues such as water quality and
pollution, impacts of tourism, and local conflicts over coastal development. But
there are also sustainability problems associated with the very equipment needed
to participate in a surfing life. Surfboards are manufactured items that entail a
host of upstream labour and environmental issues. This chapter accordingly discusses
environmental sustainability issues in the surfboard-making industry, and
dilemmas that arise as a consequence of uneven regulation, and the industry's
combination of structural economic features and subcultural origins. We draw
on qualitative, longitudinal research where we have visited and interviewed
people in 36 surfboard-making workshops in Australia, Ha wai'i and Califomia
over half a decade (see Warren and Gibson 2014). In this chapter we document
sustainability issues such as dependence on petroleum products and harmful
chemicals, differences in environmental regulation and poor waste management
practices - issues related to making surfboards with which many surfers may not
be so familiar.