Professional freeride snowboarder Cody Bramwell carves through the deep white powder.
He goes left, then right, then left again, down the mountainside.
Hes snow surfing a unique, bind-less style of snowboarding invented in Japan in the 1980s.
The sport is best practised in fresh, uncompressed powder, as opposed to crowded ski slopes.
Instead of plastic or fibreglass, these snowsurfs are made from old paper.
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PaperShells wood metal can replace high-impact materials like aluminium, fibreglass, and plastics.
It can be smooth, matte, or textured.
It can be flat, curved, or spherical.
It is heat resistant (evenself-extinguishing), water proof, strong, and lighter than fibreglass.
The design possibilities are, in effect, endless, says Breitholtz.
To make the material, PaperShell sources craft paper made from waste lignin and cellulose from the timber industry.
In essence, it builds back wood.
This is simply unsustainable, as the EU said in a recentreport.
The solution?To break our linear take-make-waste consumption habits and make them circular.
In a circular economy, products are designed to be reused.
Its time to start working with the Earth, not against it.
However, for PaperShell, thats not nearly good enough.
Were teaching the mycelium to break down our material.
Thats how we should work.
If we can tap into that intelligence were crazy not to do it, says Breitholz.
His job was to track down the next best, sustainable materials for professionals ranging from carmakers to architects.
PaperShell has raised 20mn to date, and is currently in the midst of another funding round.
The companys pilot plant, in Tibro, Sweden, has become a testbed for the material.
The factory will act as abuild-to-print component manufacturing facility.
It will use a series of automated press tables to mould different shapes and designs based upon specific orders.
The company is planning to build an even bigger factory in the near future.
This material is actually so simple, so low-tech, saysBreitholz.
For snowboarder Cody Bramwell, fun is perhaps top of mind.
Shout out to Papersurf, this board is sick!
he said after a session of shredding powder in the Scandinavian backcountry.
