Updated: June 27, 2012, 5:20 PM ET
After more than three decades spent refining an eco-alternative to the traditional high performance surfboard, Mike Olson and Lib Tech have officially announced the release of their long-anticipated line of surfboards, the Lib Tech Waterboards.
Lib Tech is highly regarded in the snowboard and skateboard industries for its environmental board building practices and original, artistic board designs, but the company's roots are actually in surfing. It is a little-known fact that Mike Olson, co-founder of Lib Tech, generated a large portion of the original funds he used to finance his early snowboard projects by shaping and selling surfboards in the Pacific Northwest in the late 70s and early 80s. Unhappy with the toxicity of the materials used to create surfboards, Olson set out to find alternatives.
Though almost every component in the Waterboards, from the fins, fin boxes, (non-rusting) leash plugs, foam, fibers, resin and graphics, is an original design -- with many components having only been dreamed into existence by Olson himself in the last two years -- the crowning achievement is that the boards are virtually "unsinkable."
If you were to get a ding that penetrated all the layers you wouldn't have to ever take [your board] out of the water...
"If you were to get a ding that penetrated all the layers," says Olson, "you wouldn't have to ever take [your board] out of the water -- which I hate." This, Olson explains, is due in part to the unique layering technology utilized in making the boards.
Instead of fiberglass, Lib Tech uses something called Volcanic Organic Basalt Honeycomb Technology. Basalt is an organic fiber that is damp, impact resistant, and unlike traditional fiberglass, contains no boron and other harmful additives.
Unsatisfied by the limitations of epoxy and the toxicity of polyester, Olson came up with what he refers to as LVR43 High Rebound Matrix, a chemistry of his own design that has higher elongation, extreme ding resistance, and what he refers to as "responsive rebound." Rails are wrapped in rubberized metallic fibers called Elastomatrix Perimeter 2D2D Dampening Web, which give the boards a smooth, chatter-free ride. According to Olson, the Waterboards feel like a polyester board underfoot but have more durability than a Surftech.
Board cores made with materials that won't lose their pop and won't absorb water means less broken boards in landfills. Additionally, the foam core contains up to 50-percent recycled content, using ozone-friendly blowing agents, and 100-percent of the off-cut foam produced while shaping is recycled into new blanks.
Tim LawlerLib Tech's Mike Olson (right) delivers the very first shipment of Waterboards to the shop he was working at when he first developed his passion for surfboard design.
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