Canadian paddler Corran Addison recently launched a daring one-man protest against global warming in his home city of Montreal. Addison is the owner of Imagine Eco, a sustainable surfboard company that insists it is the responsibility of every citizen to take a stand against global warming. So called “ecologically friendly” companies are often guilty of greenwashing though—the practice of branding a company as “green” while not making it so in practice. In a bold public display though, Addison recently put his money where his mouth is.
“As an athlete and business owner, my carbon footprint isn’t exactly tiny. I frequently raise my breathing and heart rate to levels that cause me to produce significantly more carbon dioxide than most other people. Freezing myself solid while doing a standup paddle workout seemed like the perfect way to take a stand against rising global temperatures.”
He awoke to a temperature of –16C, but when the day warmed to –14C, he knew he had to act quickly: “So I said the hell with it. I loaded up, and drove up river towards Dorval before finding a good spot to put in. I figured I’d paddle down to the top of the Lachine Rapids.” Very quickly, his plan started to work.
“The trip down was awesome. Both the board and paddle were laden with ice, as were the legs of my drysuit.” As Addison piloted his 12’ Trainer board across the icy waters of the St. Laurence River, a warm feeling of accomplishment swept over him. “The board rocked – fast, easy and smooth. It glides along really well keeping its speed, and was effortless to accelerate and keep tracking.” Known for promotional stunts that sometimes border on ridiculous, Addison believed that this stand against global warming was on its way to success.
The stunt quickly started to go wrong though. The NRS drysuit that he hoped would freeze solid began to have the opposite effect. “First of all, I never got even remotely cold and by the end I was so warm I took off my hood to cool down.” Undeterred, he quickly set his backup plan into motion. “I knew that there is always a group of gorgeous girls in bikinis waiting for me at the takeout, so I decided that their combined coldness would be enough to offset my excessive, and undesired warmth. So in the end, it all balanced out.”
To learn more about Imagine Eco’s line of boards and their model of sustainability, check out Imagine Surfboards.