Pt. Loma San Diego, CA- Coconut Peet's Surfboard Repair and Trading Co. is more than your typical surf shop. This company is a friend to the neighborhood and known for its green efforts and affiliation withRERIP.ORG, a 501c 3 organization striving to keep surfboards out of landfills. Coconut Peet's is the central hub of operations for surfers to donate their damaged surfboards so they can be repaired and given a new home. With lots of hard work and dedication these boards are repaired on site to circumvent their once predestined fate of the landfill to a newly stoked owner. "I love that this shop is all about getting back to the roots. Everything we do here is to keep people stoked and surfing," says Danielle Marriott, a store employee and new ding repair craftswoman.
The crew at Coconut Peet's deals with everything from minor damages on the nose and tail areas, to boards that are split in multiple pieces, no repair too small or to large. Some boards are sanded down and reused for canvases by local artists and others are scrapped for parts to be reused again. Some surfboard parts have been turned into "Surfcrete", an experimental concrete project. Rerip and Coconut Peet's are always looking for ways to test and try the scrap materials into new projects. Coconut Peet's and Rerip have donated surfboards to Mexico, Ecuador and are in the process of setting up other global charities. Owner of Coconut Peets, Billy Burns, sums it up best: "Knowledge is Power. We live in a throw away society. If you know there's a way to improve our economic situation and reduce waste you have the power to change an outlook and how people think."
Consumers are becoming more aware of their daily carbon foot prints and it is important to understand the need for sustainability. The Miramar Landfill was originally expected to close in 1995 and has been pushed back to 2022 because of Rerip and other efforts in San Diego to educate and encourage citizens about the importance of recycling. Burns adds, "It's our civil duty as tenants of the earth to utilize our resources to the greatest potential. While surfboards and other related production wastes are a small part of the big picture but it gets people talking and thinking about their daily habits.
Rerip and Coconut Peet's help consumers save money, assists the county in waste management and gives back to the community. "I think it's awesome that we keep a bunch of boards out of the landfill and we can recycle them so they can see their fullest potential," says Kyle Fisher a surfboard repair technician. Reduce, Reuse, Rerip...
