EuroSIMAg - number 18 by EuroSIMA

QUARTERLY • AUTUMN 2020

N°18 05

Soöruz reimagines neoprene wetsuits

Francisco Spinola: the “Mister Surf ” of Portugal

Wyve, the algorithm that prints your surfboard

TechnopĂ´le Izarbel Bidart

KEY FIGURES

27%

he percentage of consumers worldwide who started purchasing products online for the first time. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, only 9% of worldwide consumers say they regularly purchased products online. Source: Nielsen _

Research conducted by Nielsen on the evolution of global omnichannel shopping (in store and online) - October 2020.

EUROSIMA IN ACTION

T O W A R D S A S U S TA I N A B L E F U T U R E

BEHIND THE SCENES

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# E U R O S I M A F A M I LY

Soöruz reimagines neoprene wetsuits

Francisco Spinola: the “Mister Surf” of Portugal

Wyve, the algorithm that prints your surfboard

EUROSIMA’s Copil: fostering projects

EUROSIMA IN ACTION

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©EUROSIMA/Salty Com’

©EUROSIMA/we_creative/Antoine Justes

QUIKSILVER DOMINATES THE BEACH PARTY

LEADING YOUR CREW THROUGH A STORM

SAVE ON SHIPPING EXPENSES

A NEW CONTRACT WITH EUROPCAR

Once again, Quiksilver won the 2020 EUROSIMA Beach Party event, which took place in early September. The friendly corporate surf meet was open to all companies in the surfing business and this year, welcomed 12 teams of 4 riders. As always the event attracted variety of participants, including some big names from the surfing world who paddled out to enjoy some great waves at the VVF Estagnots spot, in Seignosse. For more details: www.eurosima.com

EUROSIMA invites you to a group workshop on the morning of December 17 at the Technopole Izarbel in Bidart. Join us to learn about the various tools you can use to boost your crews’ morale and energy. Learn how to come out stronger from the current storm of the health crisis in which uncertainty and instability have unfortunately become the norm. For more information: www.eurosima.com

Each year, EUROSIMA and Outdoor Sports Valley negotiate offers of shared services and preferential rates for their members. Get in touch with us for the latest deals with DPD and GLS on package shipments or to reach one of our commercial representatives.

Since September, EUROSIMA and OSV have added a new partner for our shared services to our members. Europcar has joined us, replacing Hertz for offers on short-term vehicle rentals, with specially negotiated rates and conditions for businesses in our industry. Contact EUROSIMA so we can help you get in touch with our dedicated Europcar commercial representative.

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

SOÖRUZ REIMAGINES NEOPRENE WETSUITS

©Soöruz

Soöruz, the La Rochelle-based company has recently won the 2020 Call for Innovative Projects launched by EUROSIMA and Outdoor Sports Valley. The reward comes as a genuine recognition of the company’s innovative and eco-responsible approach to neoprene wetsuits.

Since its creation in 1999, “the company has always viewed innovation as part of its DNA” says Soöruz founder Yann Dalibot. But it was only in 2013 that the company, which specialises in creating and selling neoprene wetsuits and technical gear, that they began to focus on eco-responsibility. “At the time, we had developed Yulex with Patagonia and we used everything that was available on the market to make our wetsuits greener.”

“We worked on improving the entire organisation within the company as well as the full life-cycle of our products; that includes looking closely at how we select our factories and which materials we use by opting for organic or recycled materials. It also involves recycling and providing new life for production scraps and the wetsuits at the end of their life.”

While the brand has put significant effort into research to be able to produce without mineral or oil-based materials, it has also recently created the Soöruz Ocean Protect to reduce its environmental footprint.

A SURPRISING DISCOVERY “The idea came to us one day while we were eating oysters on the coast. We thought, hey why not use oyster shells in wetsuits? After all, they are a source of renewable limestone. We tried replacing limestone from mines, which is far from energy-efficient during the extraction and transformation phases, by a renewable equivalent we source from waste.” It took two years of

©Soöruz

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

©Soöruz

research to create two new wetsuit models: the Green Line using Bioprene foam (a combination of oyster limestone, rubber tree, waste from organic sugar cane and non-edible grains), the most environmental-friendly option on the market; and the Guru Pro, with a base of Oysterprene foam. It is a high range and very flexible wetsuit, which includes oyster shells, Limestone, recycled tires… In order to do their part towards reducing the global environmental footprint of wetsuits, Soöruz provides these two innovative materials as an open source to key players in the global market.

©Soöruz

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The company has always viewed innovation as part of its DNA.

GIVING WETSUITS A SECOND LIFE! But that’s not all. Wetsuit production scraps on production sites are turned into goodies (key chains, wax pouches, isothermal bottle holders…) and the smaller scraps are used for filling and padding for local businesses. The brand also ensures collecting used wetsuits to give them

a second life. The company invested in a shredding machine to produce neoprene grain, which can then be used as padding materials. The target is to reach 20 000 recycled wetsuits in 2021 and to double that figure by 2022. With the repair workshop, which will be operational by the end of this year, the brand encourages

customers to come have their damaged wetsuits fixed or to donate them to associations that offer surfing courses for the underprivileged. Soöruz invites other brands and market players to join them in their approach in order to offer a responsible alternative to an industry that boasts its “naturefriendly”.

BEHIND THE SCENES

FRANCISCO SPINOLA: THE “MISTER SURF” OF PORTUGAL With his business partner Frederico Teixeira, Francisco Spinola was the initiator of the Portuguese competitive surfing tour. What was once a small niche has, thanks to them, become a driving force for tourism and economic development with the birth of surf schools, surf camps, hotels and restaurants that all contribute to attracting the international surfing scene to Portuguese shores. At the head of the World Surf League in Europe, Francisco works similarly to EUROSIMA and hand in hand with our association’s President Jean-Louis Rodrigues, towards developing surfing, promoting surfers and the surfing industry on a global scale by organizing events at the best spots and greatest waves throughout Europe.

BEHIND THE SCENES

work directly with the World Surf League for a few years, managing events in Portugal. We showed a lot of people and a lot of different stakeholders that surfing could be a very promising option for big brands outside surfing. Obviously we relied on our core anchor brand Rip Curl but then we managed to bring in two of the largest national Portuguese companies, Electricity of Portugal and Meo Altice. Pretty soon, Tourism of Portugal and the Government realised that this sport could really bring economic value to the regions.

FRANCISCO, WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR PASSION FOR SURFING? I grew up surfing and I competed a bit, namely with some Pro Juniors in Europe when I was younger. Eventually though, I realised that I was not going to be the best surfer so I had to go to college. To be honest, when I started my courses and my MBA, I never imagined that I’d be working in the surfing industry, because in Portugal the surf industry was not big enough if you wanted to make a career out of it 20 years ago. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO TURN YOUR PASSION INTO A CAREER? I studied in Sydney, Australia for two years and graduated with an MBA. Then I came back to Europe, where I started working in Germany, and after that I joined Rip Curl in 2007, working with them in Marketing. From there, I started to get involved with the ASP because my team and I suggested that Rip Curl International hold the Rip Curl Pro Search event in Peniche. That was a great success that year, the ASP gave us a permanent license and we wound up managing that event for 10 years in a row, initially with Rip Curl and later with Ocean Events. YOU CREATED OCEAN EVENTS IN 2012. WHAT IS THE STORY OF YOUR COMPANY? My associate and I ran events for a couple of years with Rip Curl as a main sponsor. After that, we started to

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST SATISFACTION? When I started, we pretty much built the competitive surfing circuit and the surfing world in Portugal with events like the Rip Curl Pro Search in Peniche and others like it. For example, the president of Tourism of Portugal and other people like the mayor of Peniche agreed that there had been a Peniche before the Rip Curl Pro Search and there was now a Peniche after the Rip Curl Pro Search. A lot of hotels were renovated, new hotels were built, including some 5-star hotels but also new surf camps and a lot of surf schools all around. It really has had a significant economic impact in the area, which is not a very rich region. Tourism there was very seasonal and now, thanks to surfing, it is active pretty much all year long. FROM LAST YEAR, YOU ALSO WORK FOR THE WSL. WHAT DO YOU DO THERE? I am the General Manager of the WSL for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. It’s quite a complex task because all the countries are different with different languages and different cultures, so in my opinion, it is really important for us to work with local people. That is the key to successful events because locals are the ones who have the links to the decision makers and territorial institutions. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE MAJOR CHANGES PLANNED FOR THE WSL TOUR FOR NEXT SEASON? Basically, we decided to keep the WSL as a league but with a big final. And why did we decide to do that? Because last year’s final event was the number one surfer, Italo (Ferreira), against the number two surfer Gabriel (Medina), and it was the very last heat of the year and the audience was very big. So, it’s quite obvious that people want to see that happening more often. By applying these changes we hope that this will create bigger excitement around the league all year long.

BEHIND THE SCENES

To do so, we broke up the year so the Championship Tour (CT) would start in January and finish around August. Then there will be that big final to determine who will be the champion. The second part of the year, we built the Challenger Series (former QS 10000) from September to December to qualify the surfers for the next season of the CT. The Qualifying Series (QS) will be kept more regional, specifically next year, namely due to the instability caused by this virus and restrictions of traveling, etc.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE HOSSEGOR EVENT DISAPPEARING? We knew that by making that change and not having September, October or November available for CT events, it would take Europe out of the CT equation because that’s the biggest time for Europe. In this case, I had to remove my European hat and think in terms of what was best for the league. In Portugal, we managed to keep the Portuguese event as a CT because the February waves are decent even though it’s cold and will be a winter event. That said, it’s not as cold as France and the waves can be really good. For France, it would have been impossible to have an event in

February. We all know it would be very risky and very cold with big storms at that time of the year. With that choice in mind, we built the Challenger Series specifically to overcome this type of situation. You don’t have a CT event but the Challenger option would be a perfect event there.

WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE TOUR IN EUROPE? We created the Challenger Series to be strong events and we are going to have the event in France for sure. We know that the way that we are building it, we will probably have 80% of CT surfers also surfing on the Challengers. In addition, if we offer surfers really good event conditions and good hospitality, especially for the top surfers who don’t want to stop competing for 6 months. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WAVE POOLS? I think it’s great! The more artificial waves we can possibly have, the better. It will open surfing to places where there are no waves. But you can’t beat the feeling of being in the Ocean. That’s what it is, it will bring even more people to the Ocean because they will want to try the real deal. There are really good artificial waves so it’ll be a good mix.

BEHIND THE SCENES HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SURFING BECOMING AN OLYMPIC SPORT? I’ve always thought it’s really great from the very beginning. Becoming an Olympic sport is a recognition for surfing. It puts surfing at the top with other sports, we’re going to the next level. I’m sure all athletes will be incredibly stoked to be at the Olympics and join in the Olympic spirit. I think it’s a bottom line for our sport. I think it’ll give us more visibility and attract more people to the World Surf League, to follow the heroes that they will have met during the Olympics. In a very personal point of view, I’m very curious. First because our sport is very sensitive to weather, tides and swells: it’s so hard to plan in advance. I’m not sure the Olympics are prepared to adapt to the flexibility of tides, winds… In our sport, we cannot forecast things precisely, it changes every day and that’s the beauty of it. Secondly, looking at other Olympic sports and namely big sports with major leagues, you can see that the Olympic Games are not as strong in my opinion. I don’t know who the Olympic champion of tennis is, because the ATP is such a strong league. I don’t know who the Olympic Basketball Champions are, because the NBA is so strong. People are tempted to follow golf because the PGA and European Tours

We pretty much built the competitive surfing circuit and the surfing world in Portugal.

are strong too. So, when you have, all year long, very strong league events, Olympic sports take on different perspectives (I’m not saying not relevant).

WHAT CAN WE WISH YOU FOR THE FUTURE? I feel very positive about the future of surfing. I see more and more kids in the water and more and more girls and that is exactly what we need! Then about the economy, it’s always going up and down, but as long as you see young surfers in water, with smiles on their faces and stocked to be surfing, you know that surfing’s gonna be around forever.

Read the full interview of Francisco Spinola on our blog www.insideurosima.com

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WYVE, THE ALGORITHM THAT PRINTS YOUR SURFBOARD No smell, no dust. A soft purring sound and the hypnotic back and forth motion of the 3D printer. Though it may seem I’m in the wrong place, I really am in a surfboard workshop. Welcome to Wyve surfboards!

The young start-up based at Olatu in Anglet for the past few months, has just started the printing process of the first locally manufactured boards, using their own machine. It’s a challenge both from a technological and cultural point of view, given how surfboards are still made using the same process used since their inception. They generally involve toxic materials that are difficult to recycle and generate a lot of waste. That’s why three young entrepreneurs launched Hexa Surfboard in November of 2019, renaming it Wyve this spring. Today the start-up has 5 employees, including two interns and in the not too distant future, they plan on taking their technology to an industrial level by opening several production sites in Europe and eventually some in the USA.

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Founders Sylvain Fleury and Léo Bouffier came up with the project when they were students in Montpellier. “We shared a passion for boardsports and we dreamt of setting up a business together. Then, a friend came back from a trip to the States and told us about 3D printing. We wanted to work in a field with the smallest environmental footprint possible, but most of all, we wanted to work in something that we’d always have a passion for.” The Wyve concept was born from two observations. First, it was spurred from the difficulty to find a board for their level and the obstacles when trying to communicate with a shaper. But it also came from the fact that they wanted a board that would meet their environmental concerns. That’s when Wyve was born. Boards designed for a population of intermediate level surfers, who generally live in urban areas and who don’t easily have access to a good local shaper. Beyond 3D printing itself, their idea is revolutionary because it offers the option to replace interaction with a shaper by an algorithm, which leads

to an automated manufacturing process. The customer can set his or her own parameters and characteristics for the board by using an online interface. Technically, the board structure is printed in several parts, depending on board length. Generally, there are 2 parts for a shortboard, which are then assembled to create the board core. The results are quite simply breathtaking as the finished board lets light through thanks to its honeycomb cells structure. It is an impressive feat both visually and technologically, which adds to the popularity of the invention. “People get the impression that the board is fragile. They ask us all kinds of questions about deformation, but the plastic we use is extremely dense and we’ve observed less sinking or dents than on traditional boards.” Sylvain Fleury, Wyve cofounder In its sexy version, Wyve Surfboards encourages its community to share strong values by experimenting with an innovative design and a selection

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of custom-made boards with a strong sense of sustainability through 3D-printing of course, thread rods of recycled fabric, bio-sourced resin and an end of life cycle study. Wyve technology hopes to provide a reasonable solution to the environmental challenge we all have on our minds.

50% bio-sourced) to print the board frame. For stratification, they use the best bio-sourced resin available on the market and produced in France by Sicomin.

Betting on the strong environmental conscience of the younger generations, the company’s strategy consists in monitoring closely the entire manufacturing process from sourcing to production but also by removing the middle-man and shifting directly to online sales.

THE CHALLENGES OF 3D PRINTING After investing 20.000 euros in their first machine, namely thanks to funds they got from winning the innovation call for projects, the Wyve engineers are now counting on feedback from their first wave of customers to improve their manufacturing process. In terms of materials, they use PLA fiber (50% recycled and

The objective in the long-term is to source plastic waste from the ocean locally, in order to keep an even closer eye on the origins of raw materials as well as contribute to the effort of recycling waste collected at sea. In addition, it’s also about lowering their carbon footprint since the company has come launched the first prototypes made from recycled plastic bottles (PET) and connected with local suppliers for these materials. Making this type of board also means constant efforts in R&D to go from a prototype to mass production and it’s a big challenge. First and foremost, it will require a machine capable of producing according to demand in terms of size and speed of printing, not to mention issues related to calibration. Currently, the manufacturing process is somewhat limited by the need to use a “traditional”

shaper for finishing touches and glassing for stratification of the honeycomb structure that comes out of the printer. The ultimate objective would be to fully print a board, which is an enormous technical challenge and will require significant investments. But what we have seen are only the first few steps in the young company’s development plan. In the immediate future, the team will be opening a micro-factory in Anglet and plans on opening a twin factory in California. And they certainly don’t plan on stopping there. Once they have the surfboard process down, they aim to apply the technology to other boardsports!

did you know? Wyve Surfboards (previously Hexa Surfboard) won the 2019 Call for innovative projects launched by EUROSIMA and Outdoor Sports Valley.

# E U R O S I M A F A M I LY

EUROSIMA COPIL: FOSTERING PROJECTS Overseen by the EUROSIMA Board, consisting in business leaders who develop the association’s strategic vision, the EUROSIMA “Copil” Piloting Committee validates top priority projects for the “Aquatic and Boardsports industry”, ensures they are implemented smoothly and that resources are adequately used. The Copil brings together representatives from businesses, territorial and public institutions as well as training centres, laboratories as well as technology & transfer centres in order to ensure that objectives set by the association are indeed reached.

• Jean-Louis Rodrigues, EUROSIMA President and representative for companies in the European “Action sports and Boardsports” industry • Marjory Gorge, “Blue growth / Economic development” Project Manager at the Conseil Régional of Nouvelle-Aquitaine • Maider Lassus-Olasagasti, “Blue growth / Economic development” Project Manager at the Conseil Régional of Nouvelle-Aquitaine • Eric Sargiacomo, Economic Development Manager at the Conseil Départemental of the Landes • Michel Ducassé, General Director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Landes • Christophe Robin, Director of the Industry Department at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Landes • Jon Arizmendi, Director of Economic development at the Bayonne Pays Basque Chamber of Commerce and Industry

• François Applagnat-Tartet, Director of Pays Basque business establishments (Invest Basque Country) • Aline Frésier, Innovation and Economic development Project Manager at the Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays Basque • Delphine Mathou, Innovation and Economic development Project Manager at the Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays Basque • Bruno Lasserre, Economic development Manager at the Maremne Adour Côte Sud Communauté de Communes (MACS) • Hélène Marty, Business incubator, company and startup support Manager at ESTIA Entreprendre • Sophie Herrera, Pedagogical Director for the Boardsports Masters in Management at the University of Bordeaux • Pierre-Gilles Point, South Aquitaine Project Manager at ADI NA (Innovation Development Agency in Nouvelle-Aquitaine region)

EUROSIMA Piloting Committee 14 Representatives:

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