The Sum of All Fears

We knew that we were taking a risk by printing with recycled fishing nets. Even before it gets soaked in the ocean and recycled, the plastic itself (polypropylene) is so difficult to work with that only a few 3D printing companies will touch it. 3D printing polypropylene is extremely difficult as it warps and changes shape as it cools down. Its difficulty and higher cost than other plastics are why most people won't print 3D with it. We found one supplier, and although it was fairly pricey, we thought it was worth it to make good surfboards. We spent the better half of last year trying to make good boards with it. Why? It's light, strong, flexible (not brittle), and easy to sand/ work within the shop. After roughly 6 months of R&D and a lot of failure, we finally figured out how to get good boards from this plastic. We had one supplier and we put all of our eggs in that basket. Maybe that was a bad idea.

When printing polypropylene filament, it was uncommon to tape it down to keep it dimensionally accurate.

At the end of 2024, we found out they went bankrupt.

This is not my first time trying to build a product using new technologies, and it definitely isn’t the last time a critical supplier will leave us up a creek. It comes with the territory. If you are trying to innovate, you’ll probably work with others doing the same, and something like 90% of startups end up failing. In the future, we’re going to try to build our foundations on more solid ground. For those of you who are waiting to place an order or waiting for a board to be delivered, we appreciate your patience. Our new suppliers and materials are the best in the world, recycled with an environmentally responsible process. If there’s one thing that surfing in New England and running startups have in common, it’s that forecasts aren’t perfect. The best preparation is adaptation, or something like that.