The place I call home, Braunton recently announced that all independent sellers will no longer be selling cheap single use polystyrene bodyboards. This is big news round here. Thousands of these single use boards get left behind on the beaches each year, only to broken down into tiny pieces littering our beautiful coastline. So cheap to buy and even easier to just discard because of this.
The amazing people Plastic free north Devon, Plastic free Torridge and the Ocean recovery project have worked with parishes across North Devon encouraging a voluntary ban on these boards. Other local villages Saunton, Croyde Westward Ho! also fully support the ban.
There is a long way to go to get the rest of the world on board (pun just sipped in!) but it’s all heading in the right direction.
The guys at Plastic Free North Devon lent me one of their wooden alternative boards to try for the evening and it didn’t disappoint. far from it. the sea was freezing but my head-to-toe neoprene kept me toasty in the choppy waves. The board was just as good as a standard board and was so much lighter to carry and manoeuvre about. Yes, they are more expensive, but these alternatives are for keeps and they don’t leave a mark on the environment. PFND are also working hard to get these boards into holiday homes for guests to use to dissuade them from taking the quick fix option. You can purchase these boards and find out about where to hire them on their website.
Please visit to https://www.plasticfreenorthdevon.org/ to keep up to date on all the other amazing work they do.
Thank you to my friend Dean at https://www.deanchapple.com/ for making this video highlighting the issue.
