Wetsuits, Reincarnated
For years Surfrider Pacific Rim has been actively searching for ways to recycle wetsuits, through our famous Trading Post and beyond. Luckily for us, one of the highlights of our present day is the ease at which we can collaborate, so when a fellow activist manifested the solution to this issue, we jumped on board. The solution is Suga, the brainchild of Brian Shields, a yogi, surfer, and entrepreneur who wanted to address the paradox of how surfing creates reverence for the environment but produces waste that pollutes since petrochemical based neoprene wetsuits are non-biodegradable. Once a wetsuits lifetime has ended, it is destined for the sea or landfill. Brian realized this shouldn’t be the reality, so he began working closely with engineers to recycle these products, saving them from a grim future and transforming them into the light and bliss that is the yoga mat! The Suga mats are high performing since they are crafted out of neoprene, which has a super grip as well as a distinctively closed-cell foam material, so there is no room to soak up unwanted sweat, bacteria, dust, and dirt from yoga floors and any other space the mat is situated. Suga is made out of 100% recycled wetsuits and connects the two worlds it incorporates, surf and yoga, made where these two passions thrive in Encinitas, California.
The values of Suga is based on environmental stewardship, with the intention to lead by way of example for corporate and social responsibility. The Suga business believes “If corporations are afforded personhood by law, we believe they should be held to the same ethical standards as humans. To that end, corporations should take responsibility for their products from cradle to grave.” Suga shows how corporations can shift to become more ethical, which reflects an idea put forth by environmental activist and theorist Joanna Macy. She discusses the greening of the self, which means widening the scope of our self interest to the larger ecological whole, which according to Suga can apply to both individual and corporate citizens. Macy uses a fellow activist friend to illustrate this, she tells the story as so,
“He replied ‘I tried to remember that it’s not me, John Seed trying to protect the rainforest. Rather, I am part of the rainforest protecting itself. I am part of the rainforest recently emerged into human thinking.’ This is what I mean by the greening of the self. It involves a combining of the mystical with the pragmatic, transcending separateness, alienation and fragmentation. It is a shift that Seed himself calls ‘a spiritual change’, generating a sense of profound interconnectedness with all life.”
Under this perspective, people like Brian and Surfrider Foundation volunteers are not just activists, we are the ocean trying to protect itself. As Macy says, “we are beginning to realize that the world is our body.” To really take care of ourselves, we must take care of the earth. Suga weaves all of this together in a cool, literal way: we bring our bodies to a Suga mat to practice, meanwhile, the use of this conscious product is a part of a greening of the self, which carries the belief that the earth is our extended body. As Brian and the Suga team show, innovation of this age has the power to connect beautiful aspects of our existence with our ecosystem in mind. The more connected we are, the more conscious we become. This applies to the businesses we create, or the ways we sustain our lives and how we navigate our relationship with the earth.
As Bruce Lee wisely instructed, “Be water, my friend.”
You can recycle your wetsuit at Surf Sister Surf School and Tofino Recycling, as well as Howlers and Relic Surf Shop in Ucluelet, so it too can be reincarnated into one of these sweet Suga mats. Make sure it is dried out before dropping it off! Suga mats will be available for purchase at Relic and Surf Sister, so join the movement and enjoy yourself!
