Circular Wetsuits, Green Wilderness, and Authenticity: In Conversation with Augustus Schraven

The Interview

Why is conserving and protecting the ocean so fundamental to SRFACE?

Augustus: We owe – quite literally – everything to planet Earth. If life has any meaning or purpose, it must be to take care of her, every being on it, and enjoy ourselves while doing so!

At SRFACE, sustainability isn’t just a marketing gimmick. It’s simply how we do business. That means consciously weighing every decision: the materials we use (and reject), our shipping packaging, our freight carriers, and our fulfillment partners. Honesty requires admitting that these are sometimes very hard decisions to make.

How do you make tough sustainability choices when there isn’t a perfect solution?

Augustus: To guide us through what we call the “green wilderness,” we created a simple framework when we’re faced with tough trade-offs.

When choosing between materials, packaging, or suppliers, we weigh three components: Planet, Quality, and Price. We score each with minuses or plusses. Sometimes we sacrifice on Price or Planet if a high-quality alternative doesn’t exist yet, because creating the ultimate wetsuit is the only way to build the scale needed to drive real industry change.

Our long-term goal is to evolve to a 100% fully circular business model. Even though the technology isn’t completely there yet, we will pursue it relentlessly.

What does the surfing industry specifically need to do better?

Augustus: It comes down to awareness, courage, and honesty on both the industry and consumer sides:

• Awareness: It’s easy to choose profit or a cheap wetsuit over the well-being of the planet. Awareness gives you the conscious power to make a better choice.
• Courage: Taking a holistic approach to business and life instead of taking the path of least resistance.
• Honesty: Cutting out the greenwashing. A lot of brands claim to be sustainable when it’s simply bullshit. Consumers need to do their research before buying. Things are moving in the right direction, but we need to move faster.