Agave Surfboards v's Balsawood Surfboards
Agave Surfboards Explained compared to Balsawood surfboards
The Construction Process
Unlike a foam blank that comes in one piece, agave blanks are almost always chambered or laminated:
- Harvesting: The stalks must be harvested after the plant has flowered and dried out naturally.
- Milling: The small round stalks are cut into rectangular "cants" or strips.
- Glue-up: Because stalks are narrow, many pieces must be glued together (laminated) to create a slab wide enough for a surfboard using a PVA glue.
- Shaping: The fibrous slab is then shaped using traditional tools like planes and spokeshaves with difficulty because of the 30 different densities.
Common Challenges
- Availability: Finding straight, thick stalks can be difficult, depending on your region.
- Labour Intensive: Preparing the wood takes significantly longer than working with balsa or Paulownia because of the prep work involved in squaring up the round stalks.
- Sealing: The end grain is very "thirsty," so it requires careful sealing before fiberglassing to prevent the wood from soaking up too much resin.
- Waste: There is a lot of waste due to the small diameter of the stalk
Balsa: The Speed Demon
Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) is famous for being one of the fastest-growing trees on Earth, which makes it an incredible short-term carbon sponge.
- Sequestration Rate: Because balsa can grow up to 3 meters in a single year, it pulls CO2 out of the air at a frantic pace during its first 4–6 years.
- Storage Density: While balsa is very light, about 47% to 50% of its dry weight is pure carbon.
- The Harvest Cycle: To keep balsa acting as an effective sink, it must be harvested at its peak (around year 5 or 6). By turning it into a surfboard, you are essentially "freezing" that carbon in place for decades.
The "Hidden" Carbon: Waste
One of the most important findings in recent lifecycle analyses is that waste accounts for a huge chunk of a board's footprint.
- In a standard "polyurethane" build, nearly 40% of the carbon footprint comes from resin and foam that never even makes it onto the board (drips, offcuts, sanding dust).
- With wooden boards, your offcuts are biodegradable, and because wooden boards are typically glassed with thinner layers of resin due to the wood's inherent strength, you can often use less resin overall.
- Balsawood boards use less resin than agave boards.
- Balsawood boards use less resin and glass compared to a PU board
Balsa vs Agave.
Agave stalks do not absorb as much carbon as a balsawood tree, nor does it lock the carbon dioxide away.
It takes 15 years to grow one agave stalk
It requires 30 stalks to make one board.
One Balsa tree matures in 5 years and produces 30 surfboards.
Agave surfboard blanks are not fully biodegradable because of the PVA glue used to join 30 pieces together.
A balsa board will use half the amount of glue to build a board.
Agave boards use more resin than balsa boards.
Agave boards are very fibrous and difficult to get a smooth finish for glassing.
An Agave board uses 30 different stalks, whereas a balsa board uses the same tree for a board that gives it a consistent finish, weight and density to build a more balanced board.
Less time and glue, and resin to build a balsawood board
No butt joins or scarfed joints are used to make balsa boards, giving it a better finish.