In the past 20 years, skateboarding has reached a new phenomenon with over 12 million kids skating. This is reportedly more kids than the number that are involved with Little League. Since the skateboard industry estimates that a child will break one board a year, a lot of trees need to be sacrificed to meet the ongoing skateboard demand. However, manufacturers such as Comet, Habitat, Loaded Boards and Sector 9 are now pioneering the boards to be eco-friendly by incorporating bamboo or hemp fiberglass. Loaded Boards use bamboo and Comet is using FSC certified maple and water-based coatings. The FSC certification means that the material is from a responsibly managed forest as outlined by international standards.

What do average consumers think of the new skate boards?

A user's view: Justin Metcalf owns a Pintail bamboo board designed by Loaded Boards and states, “Because of the bamboo construction, the board is quite springy and flexible, yet at the same time is surprisingly strong".

Brendan Redler a freshman at Christopher Newport University is also a fan of the boards, “They're lightweight, resilient and have some life to them," he says. "I'd say that I prefer the ride of bamboo to wood almost hands down as a general longboard".

Expert opinion: No negatives were voiced with the use of the new materials and Ken Segal, a composite materials engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center states that the bond strengthening technique that Comet uses is the same as that of NASA when it builds its carbon fiber-reinforced structures. This technique also allows companies to use less resilient woods, such as maple as the technique itself makes the boards strong. 

Average Price: Bamboo boards appear to be a little more expensive than the average board. A Pintail bamboo board from Loaded Boards costs $250. This may be significant since the demographic of users is kids/teens with a limited allowance.

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