Using Cigarette Butts and Surfing to Build Ocean Mindfulness and Stewardship

Our Vissla & Surfrider 2017 Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest (accepting entries for this years contest now through August 10th)brought us Taylor Lane - a San Jose State University graduate that created a surfboard from over 10,000 discarded cigarette butts found along the California coastline. Rightfully so, he took the win, but this wasn’t the end of his journey.

What started as an idea from our #creatorscontest has turned into a full-time pursuit of using cigarette butts and surfing to inspire, address and build ocean mindfulness and stewardship. In his new film, The Cigarette Surfboard, Taylor, his team & a group surfers, raise awareness about ocean pollution through art, surfing and conversation. Hit play to check out the trailer and stay tuned for the feature-length documentary, The Cigarette Surfboard, coming 2021.

"The premise of The Cigarette Surfboard project is simple. Small decisions and actions, like littering a cigarette butt, cumulatively can have a large impact, for better or for worse. Our story offers the perspective of the surfing community we share as insiders. If we choose to be inclusive, to invite others in to see and experience that joy, to create a common ground of appreciation for the ocean, surfing can help deliver the important messages about what we must do to protect it. Now an internationally celebrated sport (that is increasingly commercialized), surfers have a growing responsibility to speak up on behalf of the ocean... how will we choose to use our voice?" ––The Ciggy Boys (Ben Judkins & Taylor Lane)

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P.S.
We are accepting entries for this years Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest through August 10, 2020.
Head to vissla.com/creatorscontest for more details on how to enter.