Cardboard is a great material, and not just to build a castle out of boxes in your backyard. You can make furniture out of it, coffins, even a cathedral. However, one of the drawbacks of cardboard is that it is not water resistant, which makes the idea to make a surfboard, something that is made to get wet, out of it perhaps a little farfetched. Yet that is exactly what François Jaubert did.

The idea came to him thanks to the Upcycle Contest 2016, hosted by VISSLA, that aims to transform waste into “something that can be used in the ocean”. Jaubert, who is a young retired architect and became a surfer, designed the surfboard that is made for 90 per cent out of recycled materials.

The main structure of the eco-surfboard is made up of cardboard strips of which the broad sides are glued together, the corrugated side facing up, so that it becomes a plank-like structure that is slightly see-through. The shape of the surfboard is then cut out and sanded down. To make it waterproof, it is covered with homemade pasta and coated in a finish composed of polyester and fibre resins. The dimensions of the board are 160 x 64.6 x 7 cm (63 x 21.5 x 2.75 inch) You can watch the entire process here.

All the hard work was not for nothing: the board actually works, as you can see below:

Photos: Jaubert