Disposable Bodyboards Banned In Maui!

We’ve all seen them before—rearing their ugly head out of an overflowing trash can at the local beach access, or still wrapped in plastic at the supermarket, covered in cheesy graphics next to the reef walkers and cheap snorkel gear. (We’re looking at you, Foodland) 

Their destiny from day 1, landfill.  

That’s right, we’re talking about the disposable bodyboard. The one and done drag craft and the blueprint behind the insidious Wavestorm. 

Well, The County of Maui has finally had enough, and as of Tuesday, August 9th, they have banned the sale of disposable bodyboards – A disposable bodyboard is defined as having a thin polystyrene foam core covered in a thin layer of nylon (usually with some kind of darkly ironic smiling sealife print).

Almost all of the foam used for bodyboards and surfboards alike take over 500 years to decompose in a landfill. But unlike our polyurethane or epoxy surfboards or other bodyboards made from a high-density polyethylene or polypropylene core, the cheap polystyrene boards that are sold to tourists are brittle and often break and buckle in their first encounter with the ocean.

With the influx of tourism Maui has been receiving, the result has been a flood of broken foam discarded across beaches, either to be blown away by the trade winds and consumed by birds and marine life, or to rot in the landfill for the next 500 years.

Coule Wavestorms be next? I sure hope so. (Soz Gerry)

Tourism businesses are being encouraged to loan out durable bodyboards and promote reusable recreation.

It begs the question, will the Maui Foodland have a Drag I can borrow this winter for Peahi, and if so, do I need to sign a waiver?