Brittany. Mushroom surfboard could hit the market in 2025

Thibaut and Pierre literally grow surfboards in their workshop in Carnac (56). The two Bretons, who created “Koz Surfboards”want to demonstrate the capabilities of mycelium, the underground part of mushrooms, these filaments which can quickly form a vast network. After multiple tests, the results are now perfectly controlled and surprising. They manage to create a surfboard… made of mushroom.

What is the manufacturing process?

“We are going to take plant waste, explains Thibaut : straw, hemp, etc… We will mix with mycelium and a little water. We’re going to put all of this in a surfboard-shaped mold. There are conditions to be met: we are on a living organism, it needs to eat, and it must have a certain oxygenation. But from that point on, you get him to do pretty much whatever you want. We will wait 5 days, the fungus will grow and agglomerate the plant waste, and we will have a complete form.

Then we will dry it, and we will add flax fiber and biosourced resin. These are much more flexible boards than traditional plastic boards… protected by flax fibers and resin, they will not be destroyed by water when submerged.”

Credit : Yann Launay

Thibaut and Pierre fill a mold with plant waste, and the mycelium as it develops does the rest, cementing the waste together and filling in all the voids. The board is unmolded, dried and covered with linen fibers and resin. The goal is to offer boards that are as strong as any plastic board, but significantly more durable.

Boards “self-repairable“

In every sense of the word, since these boards will be “self-repairable“. Demonstration with a test board which was deliberately holed by Thibaut. “We removed all the damaged material, we mixed it again and pasteurized it, we reinjected a little mycelium inside. We let it grow and we see the mushrooms coming out of the board. This filled the hole. The goal is for people to be able to do it on their own. We are in the process of seeing how we can perhaps offer kits, so that people open the damaged area, put the living matter there, and let the fungus act.”

Ultimately the objective is to offer completely biodegradable, and even compostable, boards. Boards developed with a concern for preserving the environment, and to demonstrate the still unknown powers of mycelium. “The mass of a forest in general is 60 to 70% mycelium. If there is no mycelium, there is no life and we will appropriate its consolidator powers to make surfboards.

If we can make a surfboard, after all everything is possible…

Surfing is a great medium, it’s a relatively simple object, and at the same time super complex because there are lots of shapes to have, there are weight constraints, shock constraints, etc… The idea was to say to ourselves: if we can make a surfboard, then anything is possible. We could make wind turbine blades, for example, we can use it as an insulating material, we can use it as packaging, to transport and protect your TVs… The only limit is imagination.”

Thibaut and Pierre are now looking to make their boards completely biodegradable.

They are planning a commercial launch in 2025, with models sold for around 450 euros, to make them accessible to as many people as possible.