We’ve talked before about China recycling wind turbines into road pavement. Well, now Australia has put a different spin on it. Josh Kerr, the Australian professional surfer, built a career on aerial maneuvers and creative board design, so when he was approached with an unusual proposal—to make surfboards from decommissioned wind turbine blades—he didn’t hesitate.
“When ACCIONA approached us about being part of the solution and working together to create these surfboards, we jumped at the opportunity,” Kerr said.
Riding Wind Turbine Blades
The collaboration between Kerr’s surfboard company, Draft Surf, and ACCIONA, a global leader in renewable energy and infrastructure, has resulted in the world’s first surfboards made from retired wind turbine blades.
Each board in the ten-piece prototype range was crafted using strips of turbine blade material integrated into the deck for strength and flexibility. Even the fins are made from recycled fiberglass and the outer shell incorporates particulate from turbine blades.
The project is part of ACCIONA’s Turbine Made initiative, an Australian-first program exploring creative ways to repurpose decommissioned wind turbine blades. With thousands of turbines set to retire in the coming years, ACCIONA is looking for ways to keep this composite material out of landfills.
“We know that in the next five to ten years, countries like Australia will have a large volume of decommissioned wind turbine blades, so we’re acting now to explore new ways to recycle and reuse the material they are built from,” said Mariola Domenech, ACCIONA Energia’s global sustainability director.
While the surfboard prototypes are eye-catching, they represent just a fraction of the larger effort needed to tackle wind turbine waste. Turbine blades are largely recyclable, but between “5 and 15% of the turbines, including the blades, are made of composite materials that are more difficult to recycle,” according to Renew Economy, a climate and energy news outlet.
That challenge is why ACCIONA is expanding its work beyond surfboards. In Spain, the company has partnered with the fashion brand El Ganso to incorporate turbine blade material into sneaker soles. It has also found ways to integrate repurposed turbine material into solar tracker torsion beams. By 2026, ACCIONA plans to open a dedicated blade recycling plant in Navarra, Spain, capable of processing 6,000 tons of material annually.
“Sustainability isn’t just about reducing waste—it’s about product stewardship, ensuring that what we build today doesn’t become tomorrow’s environmental challenge,” Domenech said.
The Future of Surfing on Recycled Blades
ACCIONA’s initiative is ambitious, but questions remain about whether turbine-blade surfboards will ever become a mainstream option for surfers. Right now, only ten exist. But if proven to perform as well as traditional boards, they could mark the beginning of a broader movement in surfboard manufacturing—one that replaces virgin materials with high-performance recycled alternatives.
These boards are yet another proof of how sustainability is becoming more of an engineering principle rather than an afterthought.
