A Surfboard Made Of Ice

With the recent controversy surrounding the Copenhagen Climate Summit top of mind, Capetonian surfer, activist and creative director Conn Bertish has come up with an innovative idea to highlight the plight of our oceans. As part of the Wavescapes Surf Art Exhibition, Bertish has shaped a life-size surfboard sculpted entirely from ice which will be displayed at Depasco Café in Kloof Street, Cape Town, on Wednesday 9 December. Here it will melt as a visual poem that underlines the global warming crisis in a powerful way.

“As surfers we are literally on the frontline of global warming and the effect it is having on the ocean environment. I believe every surfer has a role to play in this most pressing issue,” says Bertish. “The board of ice is a simple metaphor for what is a happening right now to all the world’s glaciers and ice caps. As this board melts so do our glaciers and million year old ice caps. So we each need to take stock of how our actions are affecting the increase in Global Warming. The board is a simple graphic reminder of this.”

The ice-board was sculpted over two days by Bertish with Ice Art in an ice-preparation / sculpting fridge in Cape Town, before being transported in two pieces to Depasco Café where it will be on display to the public today.

The Save Our Seas Foundation presents the Wavescapes Surf Film Festival and Surfboard Art Exhibition as part of it’s communication strategy to create awareness of the devastation of the earth’s oceans. The festival runs in venues across Cape Town until 20 December 2009. More info can be found at the Wavescapes website.

This content originally posted on the Wavescapes site here.