Hexa Surfboard has received a check for €5,000, having beaten out 22 other respondents to the 2019 Call for Innovation Projects put out by Eurosima, the European boardsports industry association, and Outdoor Sports Valley, the French industry association for outdoor sports. Founded in September 2018 by three surf-loving engineers – Léo Bouffier, Sylvain Fleury and Mylène Wang – Hexa has developed an eco-friendly production chain. Hexa surfboards are made of 95 percent recycled or recyclable PET and a bio-sourced epoxy resin. They have a lattice-like structure of intersecting hexagons, whose interiors are filled with air rather than the usual foam. The boards are translucent, showing their inner structure. 3D-printing of the parts both minimizes waste and enables Hexa to tailor each board to the customer. The manufacturing is done at micro-factories near surf spots, reducing shipping from the usual 10,000 km per board to almost nothing. Hexa will also take old surfboards for recycling. Prices range from €700 to €1,000. The target market is intermediate surfers looking for high-performance boards. Hexa's website has been accepting pre-orders since July. There are about 550 so far.

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