While trawling through the great big car boot sale in the sky, EBay, I came across a vendor that caught my attention. A company called ReRide were advertising an old Apo snowboard. Their slogan impressed me: ‘We are ReRide. We never put a good board down.’
They claim to be: ‘Committed to getting that board in the back of your garage back out on the slopes, strapped to the feet of a new snowboarder.’
What an absolutely fantastic base for a business! There must be thousands of disused snowboards lurking in the UK’s garages and sheds.
My old snowboard has been proudly turned into a piece of art by hanging it on the wall. I have friends that have converted theirs into benches in their bar. That same bar is home to a very old and uber-cool mono-ski that was found at the end of the season sadly discarded into the rubbish room. It now has pride of place above your head as you enter the bar. This has got me thinking… If snowboarding became a mainstream sport in the 80’s and is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, then where are these retro boards?
Surely they can’t all be in landfill?
The original boards of the 60’s were made of varnished plywood but modern snowboards are built of fiberglass and plastic. Fiberglass recycling is extremely expensive and very rare, so most equipment ends up in landfill. The Snow Sports Industries of America is currently in its third year of developing a snow-gear recycling scheme. In 2009 it took in the equivalent of 80,000 snowboards. That’s a lot of snowboards.
While I acknowledge that the UK does not have a snow sports industry on its soil, equipment must be finding its way back here and into lofts and sheds. Any company that is committed to ensuring that snowboards can enjoy a second life deserves praise.
Well done ReRide! Keep up the good work!
Anybody with an old snowboard can trade it in against the cost of a new board through http://www.reride.co.uk/. You can also follow their blog http://reride.co.uk/blog/.
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| ReRide's website |
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