If you think back on times you have visited the beach, how many cigarette butts have you seen scattered throughout the sand? Did you pick them up? Taylor Lane did, and he created a surfboard out of it.
On Oct. 10, Bend held its 21st annual film festival, which showcased many incredible independent films and filmmakers. I got the chance to see lots of these films but the one that truly stuck with me was “The Cigarette Surfboard.” It all started when two guys, producer Ben Judkins and board designer Taylor Lane took their love and passion for surfing and their growing concern of beach pollution, specifically, cigarette butts, and turned it into a film. Lane, the creator of the “Ciggy Board” invented a way to make surfboards out of cigarette butts found on the beaches of Santa Cruz. He submitted the “Ciggy Board” to the international Creators Innovative Upcycle Contest held by Vissla Surf and won.
After winning the contest, Lane’s board began to gain the attention of professionals who wanted to surf the board. He started to work with board shapers up and down the West Coast and ended up with a grand total of 10 “Ciggy Boards.” Lane was able to get surf legends such as Jack Johnson, Easkey Britton, Cliff Kapono and many others to ride and rep his boards. It ended up all coming together to turn into an inspiring story that shaped into the film, “The Cigarette Surfboard.”
Not only is “The Cigarette Surfboard” an epic surf film but it also aims to spark awareness and action towards ocean stewardship. Lane and Judkins tell their story as they fight the city of Santa Cruz to ban the sale of cigarette filters. Cigarette filters have now been proven to not make smoke inhalation healthier, but in fact they make your risk of cancer increase by great amounts. Originally, cigarette butts were designed to make smoke inhalation healthier but according to The National Institute of Health, cigarette butts are one of the worst frauds in history. Not only that, every cigarette butt floating around in our oceans and rivers emits toxic chemicals such as arsenic, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, which directly harm fish and other sea creatures. Lane and his team were able to effectively take these statistics and motivate the Santa Cruz City Council to start making progress on banning the sales of filtered cigarettes in areas of the county.
After seeing the film, I was able to talk with Lane and Judkins and I was able to surf one of the 10 total “Ciggy Boards.” It inspired me to take a step back and ask: What changes can we make in our community? There are many simple efforts one could take, start recycling, stop idling and watch water waste. But the issue is, not many people actually take these steps.
There are changes that we can all make in our everyday lives. Every day, I walk through the Summit High School parking lot and hear the echo of engines idling all around me. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “Personal-vehicle idling wastes about 3 billion gallons of fuel— generating around 30 million tons of CO2 annually in the U.S.” When you look at those statistics, how can you not want to make a change?
Recycling, you would think, is such a simple thing. However the U.S. alone puts 10 million metric tons of paper and cardboard waste into landfills annually, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Eila Overcash, Summit’s librarian, is very committed to making environmentally aware choices.
“I wish I would see more recycling, I take the trash out everyday and I see tons of cans and papers in the trash. I thought this generation was supposed to be into recycling!” Overcash said.
With Halloween decorations coming down, take into consideration where the wrappers and leftover cobweb is going. Consider this, can you do something crafty with the waste? Can you reuse it? Could you recycle it? Our very own Summit Environmental Club is actively doing a pumpkin composting drive, there are bins outside of the front doors so make sure your pumpkin doesn’t end up in the trash.
Not only are there the little things such as picking up wrappers laying around, but the bigger issue of our own environment like air, plastic and water pollution which we’ve already seen affect our rivers and mountains.
In our city of Bend, we have amazingly easy access to Mt. Bachelor, but we have all seen the traffic lines and the idling up and down Century Drive. Our powder days are slowly slipping through our fingers and we have already seen the devastating impacts climate change has had on our precious ski resort. It is only up to us to make the changes to keep it from falling through completely. For this upcoming season, consider using the bus more, carpooling as much as possible, maybe even skipping a pow day when you know the traffic will be bad.
If Lane was able to find the time to make a surfboard out of cigarettes, maybe we can take a page from his book and realize that together we have more than enough power to rally as a community and make small changes to change the outcome of our mountains and rivers.
