Patrick Quealy
Aquatic Oddities and Moss Research Surfboards, Glasser/Shaper
Hunter: Tell us what you’ve been up to this past year.
Pat: This last year I’ve been working on rebranding, remarketing, and restrategizing Moss Research Surfboards and building our first sustainable and environmentally friendly surfboard production facility located in San Diego.
Hunter: How long have you been working on surfboards?
Pat: Prior to this year, I’ve been working on surfboards for about 16 years professionally and probably total 20 years doing backyard stuff. It’s been good.
Hunter: Have you always been interested in pro-environment, sustainable alternatives?
Pat: I haven’t always been pro-environment, necessarily. I mean I’ve always believed in pro-environment practices, but being in status-quo surfboard production for 14 years you see all the toxic materials that are being used. I would say my biggest motivation to use the materials that we use is, in all reality, is personal safety, and the pro-environment aspect in kind of a bonus for us. Jake [Moss] is definitely pro-environment; he’s heading up all these programs and collectives and what not to bring awareness to the world and teach the general public about what’s wrong and what’s right, how to better ourselves and our own personal practices
Hunter: And when you say personal practices…
Pat: Waste disposal and consumption
Hunter: So it seems like a huge plus for the shapers’ and workers’ benefit.
Hunter: How did you connect with Moss Research Surfboards?
Pat: I got connected to Moss Research through my friend Eric, who surfs nobes once in a while, really good surfer. He and Jake were thinking about how to restructure the company and they asked if I wanted to come onboard and help out, which I did. So we started brainstorming and coming up with ideas and new things. We realized it was time to pull the trigger and find a space, which is the place we’re in now.
Hunter: Where does your passion and creativity come from?
Pat: Inspiration just comes from surfing and being in the ocean. From the environmental standpoint, like seeing trash on the beach or plastic bags floating by in the water, it’s kind of a bummer. As I’ve immersed myself more in the materials we use, I’ve become a lot more aware of what’s out there. The best performing boards have always been the most toxic and mass produced. I mean at the end of the day we’re making a plastic product, the boards don’t decompose and the sit in a landfill until they turn into little particles that will end up in the pacific gyres. As we expand and become a better situation we’re going to do a lot more Research and Development. I really love engineering; coming up with new flex patterns and more durable products. So as time goes on we’ll be able to allocate a whole portion of our factory to Research and Development, like vacuum bagging, natural fiber, hemp cloth, so we can actually a much stronger more durable board. We always get questions like, “Are you guys using bamboo cloth?” People don’t realize that to turn a lot of natural products into a textile is actually more damaging to the environment than you’d think. There are a lot of other chemicals and solvents to make those materials pliable and flexible; turning something into a thread is pretty radical stuff. People are getting sick from working in the factories producing these toxic materials. All in all, fiberglass production has lower carbon emissions than producing natural fiber textiles.
Hunter: Do you think the environment could benefit from the lower impact materials you use?
Pat: I think the environment will definitely benefit from the materials that we’re using because we are creating a lower impact product. Our foam is basically 80-90% recycled Styrofoam. It comes from a number 8 Styrofoam, which is a real standard material in coffee cups, beer coolers, and instant soup cups. Our blank supplier has a recycling program on-site. They have a machine, so when cuts blanks they’ll collect all the dust and treat it and put it back in the molds to pressurize it, heat it, and make a brand new board out of it. They’ve also been implementing some recycling programs with local elementary schools, where they have the kids collect all their Styrofoam and put them in special containers. Then Marco will come by and pick up the foam and make a new board out it, then donate it to the school. It’s pretty cool. We’re currently in the process to set one of these programs up at High Tech High and Middle schools in Point Loma. It could hopefully transition into other stuff, too, besides surfboards. We could use the surfboard as the vehicle to instigate awareness and make people think twice about the versatility of using recycling programs.
Hunter: Tell us a little about the materials Moss Research and Aquatic Oddities uses and where they come from.
Pat: So as of now we have a sustainability certificate from a company out of San Francisco that is one of the main LEED Certification companies for the composite industry. They went through from the production of the materials, to the production of the board, and to its life cycle in the field, which is way above their criteria for just passing certification.
Pat: Our blanks come from recycled Styrofoam and our resin is actually based from pinesap. The main component of the epoxy is the pinesap. They take the molecules and stretch them out, turning them into polymers, which is the basis of the resin. Then they take industrial by products from standard epoxy and resin production that would usually be discarded and the blend it with the pinesap to create a whole new epoxy system. So besides the tape I use and the fin plugs, everything I use in my surfboards is sustainable and repurposed, even the paper I use is recycled. I believe as of now our boards at 90% repurposed materials.
Hunter: And what are some comparisons between other alternative material boards, Moss Research and Aquatic Oddities boards, and standard, mass-produced boards?
Pat: It’s really awesome, they’ve really nailed the performance on the head, whereas in the past people who have made surfboards out of alternative materials and they’ve been too noodley and they fall apart. At the end of the day a customer just wants a board to perform well. If they immediately dislike the board it really defeats the purpose because they’ll get rid of it and buy a new board right away, which is basically the opposite of what we should be trying to do. A lot of the mass-produced boards, like Rustys and Merricks, they’re almost designed to have a shelf life. They fall apart at a certain point so you have to go buy a new one and throw the old one out. We do not do this; we want our boards to last as long as possible. Our boards aren’t biodegradable and they won’t decompose, so they’re not perfect, but they last about 3-4 times longer than your average board that’s out there so that’s really cool.
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