Greening our industry – Eco surf products take 2

The team at Byron Surf is always on the lookout for great products that not only do what they are supposed to do but go some way to reducing our environmental footprint so this is the second in the ‘Greening our industry’ series.

Santa was extremely generous to me this past Christmas, which I am incredibly thankful for, but I have to say that one of the best gifts I received was a new rashie. I’ve been known to wear rashies until they almost fall off and are riddled with holes and do nothing to protect my skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays so a new one is generally a hint from my mates that it’s time to retire old faithful.

The Rip Curl bamboo rashie (image courtesy of Surfstitch)

This year I was treated with a new product from Rip Curl – the Rip Curl Icon Bamboo rash shirt. What makes this product unique is that it is made from 65% PET platsic plus 25% eco-friendly bamboo. This would have to make it one of the most environmentally friendly rashies around.

Now this would be a good thing in itself but the best part is that it’s also the most comfortable rashie I have ever worn. The bamboo makes the inside of the rashie feel almost like cotton and with 11% spandex, the combination of the 3 products which go into its construction means that it’s almost like wearing a fitted t-shirt.

Rip Curl have really nailed it with this product as far as I am concerned so I decided to a bit of online research in an effort to find out more about what went into the production.

First stop was the Rip Curl website – not only was there nothing whatsoever about this rashie on their site, there was nothing about rashies full stop. Seems Rip Curl have left this out of their online product catalogue for whatever reason. Next stop was my old mate Google and all that this elicited was a listing on the SDS website with a brief description plus a listing on Surfstitch with no description.

Another half hour or so of searching and I’m still none the wiser when it comes to this innovative product. Plantation bamboo is being used more and more clothing and textiles these days, in fact I even have a few pairs of socks containing bamboo so I was keen to find out why Rip Curl incorporated it into a rashie and if we’re going to see it making an appearance in other products.

If the surf industry is serious about making a difference, it’s not good enough just to produce a product, they need to market it to show people what they are doing and present consumers with a choice. The major surf brands have been nothing short of marketing machines in recent years so the lack of info on this product just leaves me a little perplexed.

Disappointed but not completely discouraged, stay tuned for an update as I intend to put a call into the product gurus at Rip Curl to see what they can tell me and see if I can get the inside track on any other products that fit the eco-friendly bill.