The Best Sustainable Surf Gear (2026): Patagonia, Billabong, Outerknown

If surfing is fundamentally astir moving successful harmony with the ocean, the past happening you privation to bash is lend to the ocean's pollution. Although the surf manufacture has a long, unfortunate past of utilizing harsh chemicals and landfill-bound materials, a caller question of surf cogwheel is emerging with sustainability astatine the forefront.

This is immoderate of the champion eco-friendly surf cogwheel that I've tested portion surfing my section interruption (Venice, if you're interested). Don't spot thing you like? Check retired the remainder of WIRED's outdoor guides, including the Best Gravel Running Shoes, the Best Electric Bikes, and the Best Lightweight Hiking Boots.

A Good Wetsuit

For some men and women, Patagonia’s Regulator line is the crème de la crème. Patagonia has agelong utilized Yulex and people derived rubber alternatively of neoprene, which is derived from petroleum oregon energy-intensive limestone. Up until a fewer years ago, Patagonia's sustainable wetsuits were a spot stiff, but past the institution changed its formulation. It switched to a recycled c pulverization called Bolder Black. Not lone did that marque the rubber much sustainable, but it made it much flexible. The exterior and interior linings are made of recycled nylon, polyester, and spandex, and they’re made successful a Fair-Trade Certified factory.

The suits travel successful a wide array of sizes and thicknesses, and their plan has improved massively successful caller years, adding amended flexibility and sealing. This fall, Patagonia volition motorboat a caller U-Zip mentation of the suit, featuring a agelong zipper that arcs from 1 enarthrosis to the different crossed the chest. I tested it this wintertime and it kept maine highly lukewarm and prevented flushing (when h2o gets down your neck), amended than immoderate wetsuit I’ve utilized before. They are connected the pricier side, but they are durable and should past you a agelong time.

If you’d similar to prevention a small money, Billabong’s Upcycler enactment is different fantabulous option. I tested the 3/2 Furnace Natural Upcycler ($380) past twelvemonth and it was 1 of the astir comfortable, flexible wetsuits I’ve ever worn. Like Patagonia, it’s besides made from natural, sustainably harvested rubber (Hevea, alternatively than Yulex), Bolder Black, and recycled polyester and elastane. It did commencement leaking astatine the seems faster than the Patagonia suits, but I inactive emotion it connected less-frigid days. The women’s enactment is constricted to 4/3 thickness, which is unfortunate.

Comfortable, Affordable Swimwear

On the men’s side, the astir comfy committee shorts I’ve ever worn are besides precise sustainable and affordable, and that would beryllium the Hurley’s Phantom-Eco Block Party boardshorts ($52). Its four-way agelong cloth is airy and ace flexible, and it’s made from recycled polyester and ocean-bound Repreve fabrics.

For axenic sustainability, it’s hard to bushed Outerknown’s Apex Evolution Trunk ($168). 90 percent of the trunks are made of Boreo’s NetPlus, which is simply a nylon derived from recycled sportfishing nets (one of the astir harmful things that tin beryllium near successful the ocean). They’re a truly good made trunk that sheds h2o and reduces drag, with a bully zipper pouch successful the back. They are connected the scratchy side, though, and I decidedly felt a spot of chafing aft agelong sessions. They’re besides highly costly for boardshorts.

On the women’s side, determination are a ton of eco-friendly and surf-friendly options. While I did not personally trial these, I’ve heard truly bully things from pistillate surf pals astir Carve Designs. The marque was founded by pistillate surfers and offers a wide assortment of functional (and attractive) surf wear. Virtually everything the marque makes is made from recycled (and/or organic) materials, and is Oeko-Tex certified, Fair Trade Certified, and more.

If you unrecorded successful a blistery summertime location, oregon are traveling to the tropics, you’re inactive going to privation immoderate prima protection. I americium besides not a instrumentality of grinding my bare ribs into a waxed board. That’s wherever rashguards travel in. Patagonia's surf shirts ($65) are made with 85 percent recycled materials and are Fair Trade Certified. Outerknown besides makes a hooded rash defender ($125) successful the Apex Evolution line.

Getting Traction

There are fewer things much frustrating than being successful the cleanable spot for a large wave, lone to person your manus oregon ft gaffe disconnected your committee astatine a captious moment. Surf wax was traditionally made chiefly of paraffin (a byproduct of lipid refining), but present determination are alternatives that connection each the show without each the chemicals.

The O.G. successful this abstraction is Matunas Surf Wax, which has been astir since 1998. It’s made from locally sourced ingredients connected their 25 acre workplace successful Santa Cruz, California. The wax is organic, biodegradable, and non-toxic.

If precocious show is captious to you, a section (to me) marque I emotion is Sister Betsy’s surf wax ($23). It’s known to beryllium 1 of the stickiest and longest-lasting waxes, and it’s vegan, non-toxic, and biodegradable. It’s hand-poured successful Venice Beach, California. While they support a lid connected precisely what the ingredients are, immoderate of it is sourced successful Brazil, which would adhd to the c footprint. Still, their waxes execute (and smell) great.

The bulk of surfers who thrust shortboards and mid-lengths (and adjacent immoderate longboards) slap a foam traction pad connected the tails of their board. They springiness your backmost ft other grip for pushing done turns. Some person a small kick, oregon rise, to assistance support your ft from slipping disconnected the back, oregon adjacent person arch support.

Deck pads (for your thorax and beforehand foot) person go much popular, and I indispensable accidental I’m a fan, arsenic it means having to usage little wax, and it's much comfy for my sternum and ribs. For both, I’ve been utilizing Firewire’s traction pads for years. Not lone are they exceptionally grippy and comfortable, but they’re starring the complaint for sustainability. Its traction pads are made of Bloom, a foam made from algae biomass which they harvest from assorted planetary freshwater sources. This helps cleanable those waterways and immunodeficiency successful c dioxide seizure and sequestration.

For the tail, I similar the five-piece designs, similar the Slater Designs 5 Piece Action Pad ($58), arsenic it gives you much flexibility successful however you acceptable it up. Honorable notation goes to GryptaLite. GryptaLite isn’t truly a pad, but a bladed movie that covers the full platform of your board, and it’s designed to regenerate wax entirely. It has a soft, unsmooth texture but it has immoderate absorbing hydrophilic properties. When the aboveground gets bedewed it becomes tacky, and your hands, feet, and wetsuit booties instrumentality to it similar glue. It’s made from a benignant of plastic, which is simply a tiny sound connected its sustainability meter, but you conscionable enactment it connected once, and it stays connected for the beingness of your board, and it works successful each h2o temperatures.

Never having to interest astir wax again is truly nice. I’ve enactment it connected 2 of my most-used boards, and I truly similar it, but determination are caveats. It isn't rather arsenic sticky arsenic a well-waxed board. While my hands/feet/booties instrumentality to it nicely, wetsuit worldly is mode much slippery, truthful I often person to usage my hands to stabilize myself portion paddling, which I don’t love. Still, it's truly convenient.

Fins and Leash

Fins are 1 of the astir captious components that interaction the mode your committee volition ride, and yep, determination are sustainable versions! Paving the mode is Futures Fins Alpha Netplus ($65). Nearly each committee I’ve owned implicit the past 20 years has had Futures finboxes, arsenic I find them to beryllium the astir reliable and stable, and fundamentally each fin institution makes fins that are compatible. Futures’s Alpha enactment is an fantabulous all-arounder, with a large equilibrium of speed-generation and control, and Alpha Netplus incorporates Bureo’s Netplus material, which is made from recycled sportfishing nets collected successful Chile. The fins themselves are made successful Huntington Beach, California, and virtually each exemplary they marque is disposable successful Alpha Netplus. They are ace versatile and thrust truly well.

Leashes are tricky to marque sustainable, but immoderate companies are taking a bully stab astatine it. The Revolwe Evo-Bio Leash ($45) has a cord made of 30 percent recycled TPU; the interior cuff is made of Yulex plant-derived rubber; the outer cuff and leash drawstring is polyester made of 100 percent recycled post-consumer PET-bottles; its packaging is recycled cardboard, and it adjacent uses ink made from algae. It besides features idiosyncratic replaceable parts, truthful if the cord breaks, you tin conscionable regenerate that alternatively than buying a full caller leash, which helps support worldly retired of landfills. Unfortunately it lone comes successful 6-foot and 7-foot lengths, currently, truthful longboarders are retired of luck.

Sunblock

To me, the fig 1 astir important sustainability metric for a sunblock is, “Is it reef-safe?” Most commercialized sunblocks person chemicals that termination coral and harm delicate reef ecosystems (Hawaii has afloat banned them). Beyond that, it’s got to beryllium skin-healthy and springiness you lasting extortion adjacent erstwhile your look is perpetually being splashed by saltwater. I’ve tested tons implicit the years, and truthful acold the champion I’ve recovered is Thrive Bodyshield 50 ($30).

It’s a zinc-oxide base, but erstwhile you hitch it successful it doesn’t permission you looking similar Casper the Friendly Ghost. It’s SPF 50 and holds up to 80 minutes of saltwater abuse, but it’s besides reef-safe, cruelty-free, vegan, and made from regeneratively-farmed, plant-based ingredients successful the United States, the vessel is made from recycled plastic. It’s unluckily rather pricey, but it does spell connected merchantability connected Amazon from clip to time.

Towels

Gotta adust disconnected post-surf, right? For sustainable towels, determination are mostly 2 ways you tin go: recycled-synthetic oregon organic-natural, with the erstwhile mostly being lighter and quicker to dry, portion the second is mostly much comfortable. Either way, you privation designs that are specifically made to shed sand. On the synthetic broadside determination are 2 standouts. The Nomadix archetypal towel ($45) is 90 percent recycled, and each towel is made from 30 recycled integrative bottles. They're light, quick-drying, soil resistant, and travel successful a clump of styles.

Sand Cloud's Turkish formation towels ($48) travel successful extra-large sizes that are made from 100 percent integrated Turkish fabric that is woven successful a mode to support soil from sticking. Quahog Bay Bedding Company’s organic fabric formation towels are besides woven to beryllium sand-resistant and are made from integrated cotton.

Sandals

You request sandals to get to the formation and backmost to your car, right? Indosole’s flip-flops ($45) travel successful men's and women's versions and are affordable, comfortable, and are made from recycled nylon and tires. For the midsole, Indosole recycled EVA and earthy rubber. The flip-flops are made without carnal products oregon fuel-powered machinery.

Sunglasses

Good quality here: There are tons of eyewear companies that are prioritizing sustainability, including utilizing recycled and/or people derived plastics successful their frames, truthful determination are a batch to take from. Eyewear is simply a precise idiosyncratic thing, Camp Eyewear's glasses are affordable (starting astir $80), person polarized lenses (very bully for cutting glare erstwhile staring retired astatine the surf), and diagnostic frames made from plant-based bioplastic derived from castor legume oil, and astir person earthy walnut oregon ebony wood inlays successful the arms. Every brace comes with a unsocial "sleeping bag" question pouch made from recycled materials, and the institution is Climate Neutral Certified. My idiosyncratic brace is the Camp Arrowcrest ($79), which I deterioration each the time.

Smith Optics has besides been making a large propulsion into sustainability utilizing much and much bioresins successful its frames, and portion its products are much expensive, it besides offers a ton of variety. While I emotion its Chromapop lenses for clarity, the astir sustainable Smith glasses I’ve utilized are the Lowdown 2 Core, which diagnostic frames made from recycled post-consumer h2o bottles, polarized bio-based lenses, a microfiber container made from recycled integrative bottles, and 100-percent recycled packaging. Alternatively, Joycoast makes a enactment of sunglasses that are each earthy wood and metal—no plastics astatine all—that are worthy checking out.

Backpack/Bag

So, you’ve got each this gear. How are you going to get it down to the beach? Many of the champion surf breaks are a spot of a locomotion from the closest parking spot, and you’ll person your committee tucked nether 1 arm. Sure, you tin worldly it successful immoderate aged backpack, but what astir erstwhile you person a sodden, dripping wetsuit successful tow? It took maine a agelong clip to find the answer, but for years the champion solution has been the Dakine Mission Surf rolltop backpack ($102).

Its massive, top-loading, waterproof interior is ample capable for a hooded 5/4 wetsuit, booties, gloves, swimsuit, and a towel, and it’s ne'er leaked connected me. It has a fleece pouch for sunglasses, an insulated pouch for wax, a h2o vessel pouch, a hidden pouch for valuables, a level pouch for your fins, and more. The assemblage is made from 84 percent recycled polyester, and the bottommost is made of 100 percent recycled 600D polyester. I would similar to spot much recycled components, but it has enabled maine to locomotion alternatively than thrust to my section surf interruption respective times a week (without dripping down my back), which has saved a full batch of c emissions.

Surfboards

I saved the trickiest for last. The surfboard itself is made up of respective antithetic materials, galore of which person been historically nasty for the planet. The astir sustainable surfboard is 1 that already exists. In different words, bargain used! Go to your section committee shop, cheque retired OfferUp, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace. (Here's our usher connected How to Buy connected eBay if you request immoderate pointers.)

If you can't find a utilized stick, I’d advocator for keeping it local. When I wanted a customized committee made for my formation interruption successful Venice, I went to Venice uber-local Guy Okazaki Surfboards. Not lone does Okazaki cognize my circumstantial question amended than conscionable astir anyone connected the planet, but helium gets his foam blanks from US Blanks, which operates successful Los Angeles. The institution is taxable to the astir stringent biology standards successful the nation. It’s conscionable a 20-minute thrust from Okazaki’s store to the factory, truthful the proscription c footprint is minimal, and US Blanks is afloat solar-powered.

If you’re successful Europe, Notox Surfboards is different tiny institution that has been a pioneer successful low-carbon manufacturing for years. Based successful France, Notox uses components similar flax fibre (a earthy alternate to fiberglass), cork decking, and plant-based resins. The boards are specifically designed to beryllium non-toxic, some for the situation and the radical who signifier them.

While amended known for making snowboards, Lib Tech has been a pioneer successful the satellite of surfboard construction. Its newest flagship exertion is called Eco Impacto 2 Lite, which uses 25-40 percent upcycled epoxy foam, G+ solid (which is safer to enactment with for the craftspeople arsenic good arsenic the environment), and a Bio Matrix plant-based resin. These boards are highly hard to ding, but adjacent if you do, the foam wrong is closed-cell truthful it doesn’t instrumentality connected h2o similar a modular board, meaning this committee is apt to past you a batch longer.

They’re besides each made astatine the zero-hazardous discarded Mervin Factory successful Washington State, which saves CO2 emissions versus boards coming from overseas. The Lib Tech Lost Puddle Jumper ($850) is my go-to small-wave groveler this summertime due to the fact that it’s light, catches waves ace easily, takes disconnected quickly, and volition beryllium resilient if I accidentally thrust it close into the sand.

The 2nd large subordinate is Firewire, whose boards I precocious reviewed. Firewire was the archetypal planetary shaper to person its full banal of boards certified by the Ecoboard Project (you tin find a database of different certified surfboard makers here). Firewire reduced its discarded per committee by implicit 95 percent and uses Entropy bio-resins successful its builds. It's a certified B Corp, too.

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