Former WQS Winner Gordon Fontaine launches The Green Wave, a brand new online store specialising in eco-friendly surf gear.

After several years juggling his marketing studies with the European WQS, Fontaine has combined his degree with his knowledge of the surfing industry and passion for the environment to create The Green Wave.

“Everyday, surfers rely on the environment to provide them with clean water and waves. This is what keeps us surfers stoked, and most believe in environmental causes but we don’t always follow this through with the products we buy. Despite the existence of some ethical surf brands, there is a distinct lack of availability when it came to eco-friendly alternatives.”

Gordon found there was a misrepresentation of the eco-friendly segment in the surfing industry, generating misconceptions regarding the quality of the gear. The premise for The Green Wave is to prove to surfers the sustainable surfing products can perform just as well if not better than traditional gear.

Fontaine explains: “Several years ago I made the move away from one of the big industry players to support smaller independent eco-brands. Over the past four years I’ve been able to put these products through their paces and discovered that not only the gear worked great in terms of performance, but it also outlasted all the previous equipment I had used before in terms of durability. ”

The Green Wave’s sustainability policy answers to the following four notions: curate, recycle, inform and support.

An important part of the selection criteria comes down to the materials used in the manufacturing process, but that’s not all. As a high-level athlete, Fontaine wanted to offer products that would provide the same level of performance as the traditional brands and make them easily available to the public.

“Performance is paramount to me, and I know that most surfers are the same. That’s why exchanging performance for eco credentials was a no go. They must come hand in hand.”

While guiding environmentally aware consumers through how they can ‘green up’ their surfing experience, The Green Wave will also invite them to take part in current environmental campaigns.

“What I’d love is for surfers to unite and start buying more sustainable products, showing that they care about the playground that nature provides. Most surfers already support environmental campaigns, but there is still a real laziness about the gear they buy. In my eyes that’s how we’ll get the surf industry to change. And if we can show the world that surfers can do it, then other industries will follow.”

The Green Wave currently stocks Wavetribe, Rareform, GreenFix, Dritek and more, and will introduce new exciting brands as it develops, more on the Green Wave wesbite.