Our Story
From Frustration to Flow
How a broken board gave me a mission, purpose, and redefined the last 12 years (and likely the rest of my life).
I'm Jack, the founder of Verdure. I trained as an industrial designer, then went on to start a small company building timber products and signage for local coffee roasters and cafés around Wellington, NZ.
I got back into surfing in my mid-twenties. But the boards I was riding felt wrong. Fragile. Disposable. Every session left them dented, creased and they eventually snapped. Attempts to repair exposed me to harmful fumes that made me realise how toxic they are.
Surfing is meant to be a pure, natural experience. A moment of immersion in something far bigger than ourselves. But the more I learned about how surfboards are made, the more it tainted the experience.
So I decided to build my own.
The first board was made entirely out of wood. It was heavy, but it floated and most importantly, it felt right. So I kept building them, testing, and refining, chasing the perfect balance of strength, flex, and performance, without the environmental cost. Twelve years later, that journey still defines everything we do.
A Better Way to Build Boards
We use a combination of cork, wood, hemp, bio-resin, and recyclable EPS foam to create high-performance boards that produce less than half the CO₂ of a standard PU board. They are built to last, be easy to repair and we can count the number of snapped boards on one hand.
They’re laminated under vacuum, which drastically reduces exposure to resin fumes and dust for the local craftspeople who make them. The resin is sealed beneath natural materials, not layered on top, and the wood is finished with a natural, waterproof coating. The result is a cleaner process, a more honest construction, and a beautiful organic finish.
But it’s not just about performance and sustainability.
Our customers consistently tell us that riding a board made from natural materials changes the way surfing feels. The timber has a natural resonance and the cork dampens chatter which deepens their connection to the wave. It makes the experience more real, more grounded.
In a world that’s become increasingly digital, disposable, and commercialised, it's more important than ever that we find time to reconnect with nature. We’re stoked to help make that connection feel stronger, cleaner, and more meaningful.
The Next Chapter
Today, we build boards in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, so they can be built closer to where our customers live. This helps reduce emissions and lead times.
We build boards for some of the world’s best surfers, including Stephanie Gilmore, Tom Curren, and Dave Rastovich. And now, we’re partnering with shapers and designers globally to bring their shapes to life in our environmentally friendlier construction.
This is our vision for what surfboards can be: thoughtful, durable, and built with purpose without compromising on performance.