World's First Beer-Can Surfboard

Richard Morrison

Morrison threw Modelos, PBRs, Rolling Rocks, Boddingtons, and Bud cans together to create this rocket fish board.

You've probably seen -- or even own -- Reef Fanning flip-flops, which are an epic combination of beer opener and shoe. But one of our readers, San Diego artist Richard Morrison, sent us a statement about his own (far more epic) creation: a surfboard made entirely of 72 recycled beer cans. It turned into a larger project, and Morrison is now working on his own Enviro Surf Art Series. Read his story below, and watch out for the surfboard this summer, as Morrison takes it out on its first spin:

This beer can surfboard all started when I was drinking a beer at a local beach bar and I saw a bunch of other folks drinking beer from cans and throwing them away. Then I saw the homeless collecting the empties from the trash cans down at the beach to recycle them and get some money. I was thinking to myself that it would be cool to make something out of empty beer cans that were not crushed. Well, the bar I was at is a surf related band/music club with surfboards hanging in the rafters and I thought that it would be kind of fun to try and construct a surfboard out of recycled empty beer cans and try to ride it!

I went home and did a thorough search on the computer to see if I could find a board made like this already, and I could not! So I went back to this bar that gets quite a lot of people and asked one of the nice bartenders to help me collect the empty uncrushed cans. She gave me three or four big bags of still wet, used, smelly beer cans. I was stoked! They were different brands and in good condition for what I had in mind. I was now in surfboard blank building creative mode.

Richard Morrison

I went over to a surfboard shaper named Gary Seagraves in La Jolla, who wanted me to make a movie poster for his new surf movie, using my new enviro art technique that I had recently developed. So I said, Let's do a trade, I make your poster, you glass my crazy art project. Done! We agreed.

The outcome of this enviro surf board project is a success! The board is now ready to surf, it is a 6'2" rocket fish design, fully equipped with twin fins, double stringer, a beer can channel bottom, great rocker, a sweet performance swallow tail. 72 beers later, she is now ready to rock!

Go green or go home!