Ken Cole buoyed in the cold autumn water on his new 9½-foot surfboard. For 25 minutes, he floated there, off the shore of Sheboygan, waiting for the right wave.
His uncharacteristic hesitance was a result of unfamiliarity. This board had just touched water for the first time. As 3-to-4-foot sets rolled by, his mind drifted from one cautious thought to the next. Can it handle this wave? Too big? Too small? What if the board breaks?
This surfboard was not just new to Cole. It was his vision, a prototype that was the product of a quest to make surfing more environmentally friendly – the first, he hopes, of many boards made of coffee bags and palm leaves.
Frustration was about to get the best of him when the right wave, a 4-footer, presented itself. Instincts honed by nearly 30 years of surfing took over as he paddled into the wave. His inhibitions set aside, he popped up into his stance and cut hard right, the board carrying him on their maiden voyage. It wasn’t until halfway through the brief ride that he remembered he was making history. He raised his arms triumphantly in the air and let out a loud holler as he plunged back into the water. “Complete joy on a seven-second wave,” Cole says. “Typically, you go right back out and catch as many as you can. In that moment, one wave was all I needed. That’s all I needed.”
That wave was the realization of six years of Cole’s life. After starting a surfboard-shaping business in 2019, he became troubled by the toxic materials, specifically polyurethane foam, that makes up roughly 98% percent of modern, non-wooden boards. He began looking for a better way.
It was in a friend’s garbage that Cole, 60, discovered his answer: a disposable plate made of palm leaves. Already using repurposed Colectivo coffee bags and wood for his original boards, he employed the help of engineers and fellow surfers like Ted Burdett, of Chicago, to create a composite similar to plywood of the leaves, bags and an eco-friendly resin.
They tested the material by making a bench and a skateboard, but no one had ever made a surfboard using these materials. Without a blueprint, they created a sort-of skeleton, hollow interior with a fin and side rails shaped using the composite and a nose and tail made of repurposed wood.
Whether it worked or not, though, wasn’t the end goal.
“I’m an old middle-aged psychologist in Milwaukee who made this happen,” Cole said. “With the help of a lot of people, we want this to symbolize ways to re-create – that there are other ways to engage with products and not have them be destructive.”
The journey isn’t over. There are still waves to catch on prototype one. But, beyond the board, beyond the waves, Cole wants the idea, and what it represents, to spark a dialogue about sustainability and the materials we use in products.
“This is about the passion for what it’s trying to convey,” Cole said. “The conversation is much, much more than making a surfboard out of leaves. It’s about being inspired and inspiring others. If we can make a board, what else can people make with this?”
