SUNKEN FINS
With this upcycling project called “Sunken Fins”, I wanted to create something beautiful and useful out of trash, which was recovered in the local Eisbach river in Munich and use design to contribute something to create a more sustainable world. In this case the “trash” are surfboard fins, which were lost during surfing at the Eisbach wave – a famous river surfing spot in Munich. Because the fins can not be used again for surfing I started cleaning, grinding, “repairing”, painting and illustrating the “sunken” and recovered fins and turned them piece by piece to handcrafted table clocks.
Projecttype: Product Design
Client: free work
Date: 2020/21
From trash to art
Sunken fin design
My design for the table clocks combine a minimalistic approach, simple elegance and natural design with funny illustrations, which represent typical moments every surfer knows and can identify with.
Sunken Fin | New surfboard
Sunken Fin | Anyone leaving trash?!
Sunken Fin | No Crowds
Sunken Fin | Trying new tricks
Sunken Fin | Waves looked smaller
Sunken Fin | One last wave
Sunken Fin | Onshore wind
Sunken Fin | New wetsuit
Sunken Fin | Thicker wetsuit
Sunken Fin | Style is everything
Sunken Fin | Capturing the flow
The story
Being a (river-)surfer myself, I have spent lots of time in the oceans around the world and I am really sad to see how much the amount of trash and especially plastic is increasing in oceans and rivers worldwide, polluting and poisoning our environment. When I went to the Eisbach wave a couple of months ago for a surfing session, I’ve recognized a local diver collecting trash out of the river around the surf spot. He recovered LOTS of broken surfboard fins, which often get lost when surfboards are smashing against the surronding walls during wipeouts. I remembered that I alone lost around five fins in the last two years and felt a bit ashamed that I unintentionally contributed to the pollution problem. So I set myself the goal to act locally against the pollution problem and make something beautiful and useful out of the lost fins to avoid having to throw them away and creating even more plastic trash on the planet.
The idea
1.Lost
Surfboard fins get lost during surfing wipeouts.
2.Recovered
Local Diver retrieves drowned surfboard fins.
3.Upcycled
Fins are cleaned and turned into handcrafted table clocks.
4.Sustainable Packaged
Every fin comes with a vegan, recycleable and plastic-free packaging.
Why broken surfboard fins can not be easily repaired or reused for surfing
Most of the time surfboard fins, which broke or got lost during surfing can not be used again for surfing, because the base already broke or in case the base is visibly still intact, certain breakingpoints might exist, which would easily break completely soon. It maybe could be repaired by professionals or by using specific glassing techniques. But normally fins are comperatively cheap products and the effort to repair them, would not match the money which has been spent. For this product line I “repaired” the fins only for visual reasons by using old wood to make them fit into the prepared fin holders.
Fin holder
fin holder design 01:Â
concrete & blue colored raysinÂ
fin holder design 02:
blue colored raysinÂ
fin holder design 03:
white raysin
Retrieving lost surfboard fins
Diving between collection rubbish and treasure hunting.
Construction
Material research
Illustrations
For my first collection I have designed funny surfer rabbits to make people smile and bring some happy vibes. The situations are inspired by moments every surfer knows and experienced at least once.
