Jonathan Tollefson

To the Snowboarding, Wakeboarding and Wakesurfing industries, this challenge is for you!  If you have not been to a grocery store, or picked up a bag of Sunchips lately, you must do this now.  It will sound a little different, and it might feel a little different than your standard chip bag.  That is because it is NOT your starndard chip bag.

The New SunChips Bag

In the past year PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Div. has decided to go green and to do this they have came out with a 100% compostable bag for their SunChip brand.  This bag will break down to nothing in 12-16 weeks.  Through testing and more testing the SunChip bag became a reality and is now sold in stores all over the USA.  Once you buy this product and enjoy the great taste of the chip, you can take the bag and throw it into your composte pile in your backyard and walla it will be gone.  This might be bad for states like Michigan where a huge percent of their Ski Hills are built on landfills, but for the overall packaging industry I think you will be seeing a lot more products coming out that mimic the SunChips Bag.

The Challenge!

With a background in Composite Materials Engineering, I see products that are being produced using unique resins, fibers and fillers everyday.  The problem?  These products are never going to go away after we are done using them.  Where do they go?  To the landfills (Good for MI Snowboarders).  My challenge to the Snowbaording, Wakeboarding, and Wakesurfing industries is to start thinking outside of the box and start using products such as the SunChips bag in your products.  To be clear, I don’t ever think the boards that are being produced will be able to become 100% compositable, but I do think we can come up with some inovative ways to use products like the SunChips bag.  Can it happen, will it happen?  That is up to us to decide.  The SunChip bag is at the tip of the iceburg, and some folks are already on board with going green.  Now lets take it to the next step and see how much of our products can waste to nothing after we are done using them.  Are you up to the Challenge?

A new wakesurfing community has erupted!  Ragboy and the folks over at wake9.com have started a community where wakesurfers around the world can come together and post events, blog, share ideas, or figure out the next best wakesurfing idea.  Wake9.com started in 2009 and has had a huge impact in the wakesurfing community.  Through hosting events, participating in other wakesurf communities, and posting great information, Wake9.com will continue to impact the wakesurfing industry.  Click the snapshot of Wake9′s new website (shown below), and you will be able to join the community and explore some of the most up to date information in the wakesurfing world.

It is great to see people like this who are pushing the sport of wakesurfing, and I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeve for the 2010 season!  Go to the wake9 community, sign up, add me as a friend, and enjoy the ride.  I have a feeling this one is not going to end unless you fall off the wave.  Keep it fresh, keep it clean, and come with us as we watch this sport grow into the masses.