Emile Theau
HP Generation Impact Incubator Winner
Sine Surf
Emile Theau is the co-founder of Sine Surf, a company which produces sustainable and durable performance surfboards and surf wear through the use of wooden materials, resulting in producing 1/12th the amount of plastic waste compared to regular surfboard production.
LinkedIn: Emile Theau
Company: Sine Surf
Website: https://sinesurf.com
The Innovator:
Emile Theau is a nanotechnology and data recovery systems engineer who has developed environmentally sustainable surfboards. The idea was born after Emile discovered that products currently available on the market are environmentally damaging and are at odds with the nature-loving surfing community.
The Innovation:
The manufacturing of a typical foam and fiberglass surfboard produces approximately twice its weight in industrial waste. This waste is generally plastic foams and PET or Epoxy resins that are often reduced to microplastics. With approximately 20 million surfboards sold per year globally, this accounts for 160,000 tonnes of plastic waste, much of which can take over 500 years to biodegrade.Emile’s company, Sine Surf, is a startup aiming to shift the surfing industry towards more sustainable practices. Sine Surf has developed a new method and a new hollow structure to reinvent a more sustainable, wooden surfboard material. These methods drastically reduce the manufacturing time of hollow wooden surfboards to 25% of the previous 30 hours it would generally take a skilled craftsman. Furthermore, with new automation and design, surfboards are over 95% biodegradable by volume, produce less than 0.5 kg of industrial waste during manufacturing, and are better than net zero emissions.
Why is innovation important:
‘If we continue on the path we are on we will destroy our environments and oceans. Our CO2 emissions will heat the ocean further, the oceans will rise, coral will become extremely rare and many species will go extinct because of these rapid changes. Plastic wastes are non biodegradable and when they enter our oceans they disrupt ecosystems both large and small further catalysing species extinction. A future with dirty, polluted oceans, sparse of any life is a sickening thought and I believe we must all contribute to change this current eventuality. There is a future where we can live in harmony with our surroundings and our oceans and I am determined to work towards it.’ - Emile Theau
