A California surfer has won a recycled surfboard contest with an entry covered with 10,000 cigarette butts.
Taylor Lane’s creation beat boards made from potato sacks, used packaging, an old bathroom door and throwaways picked up from dumpsters.
The entries were for the third annual Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest, hosted by the Vissla surfing gear brand and the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.
A dozen entries were displayed at the Ecology Centre in San Juan Capistrano.
Lane and his friend, Ben Judkins, spent the summer plucking butts from the sand, beach car parks and local paths in Santa Cruz.
Contestants had three months to make their surfboards.
Judkins said: “It’s visually disgusting — but awesome in how gross it is.
“It just ties together surfing and something we care about – the environment, the ocean and the health of the ocean.”
Vissla founder Paul Naude said the contest was designed to encourage creative thinking about sustainability.
Naude said: “This new culture is asking questions today. What are we doing to the environment?”
