A Tongue Twister of Inspiration
By Kailani Wetherell for Sustainable Surf, 05 June 2024.
“If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. That’s Henry Ford and I think more surfers need to recognize this. Stop buying PU boards and try something different”
~ Jack Candlish, Verdure Surf.
Jack Candlish was running a signwriting/timber product company when he got back into surfing in his early twenties. It wasn’t long before he got sick of repairing his PU boards so he decided to put his industrial design background to work and have a go at making a hollow wooden board on the laser cutter.
Today, their groundbreaking technology has already made waves, with licensing agreements reaching across Europe and Australia.
Verdure prioritizes eco-friendly boards, placing a primary emphasis on the health of shapers, with environmental benefits as a secondary priority. Their current construction includes EPS foam, with all offcuts meticulously recycled. Parabolic bendy Ply rails, hemp fiber laminated with a 40-60% plant-based epoxy, Paulownia bottom skin, and a cork top skin round out their innovative materials lineup. Utilizing cutting-edge machinery, most of the manufacturing process is automated, ensuring precision and efficiency while minimizing waste. The resulting boards are then either hand-finished or sent to shapers for final touches, generating mainly wood and cork dust. Hardware installation is carried out using bio resin, with a final coat of natural oils and hard wax for added durability and sustainability. This sophisticated approach to eco-friendly board construction is underpinned by custom-made machinery, enabling domestic manufacturing of bespoke boards tailored to individual preferences. At Verdure, the focus is squarely on achieving optimal flex, durability, and ease of repair, ensuring an unparalleled surfing experience for both the rider and the environment.
When it comes to what’s next for Verdure, Jack explains to us that he’s been tinkering away in the garage for about 10 years, focusing on developing a construction that could genuinely change the industry. After heaps of hard work, he feels like they’ve finally got the product right about 3 months ago. An exciting milestone, he is keen to work closely with Michael and our team here at Sustainable Surf to introduce the construction to America.
Jack hopes that his work with Verdure will inspire small domestic shapers who want to try something new while enabling local shapers all over the world to be able to offer their shapes in a truly eco friendly/non toxic, high performance surfboard to their local surfers.
Verdure customs are currently available in New Zealand and coming soon to Europe and Byron. In the meantime follow their mission along Instagram @verduresurf.