For years, you’ve heard us talk about real innovation led by a goal of simply doing better. Sometimes that means actually doing less.
Meet Bio•Logic! This next step for us has been slowly taking shape for the last few years as we’ve asked ourselves a pretty simple question: how do we get away from the most challenging, most harmful, and costliest parts of the surfboard building process? Bio•Logic stems from the same two concepts we’ve focused on since day one; the use of natural and renewable materials, and our desire to be as intentional as we can be about the products we produce.
Bio•Logic is our way of describing a construction method built around the innate properties of natural materials. Instead of forcing performance through synthetic chemistry, we’re leaning into natural materials that have evolved to be strong, flexible, dampening and water-resistant, long before modern surfboards were even a thing.
The cleanest way we’ve ever built a board
Grain’s mission has always been about building surfboards that have more impact on your surfing and less impact on the environment. That mindset shows up everywhere—from the boards we design to how we move through a day in the shop.
With Bio•Logic, we took things even further by stripping the process back to its essentials. Zero foam, zero fiberglass and zero epoxy. This represents the most natural version of a Grain Surfboard we’ve ever built.
Bio•Logic boards are made entirely from natural materials:
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Northern White Cedar Planks
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FSC-certified plywood
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100% natural Flax cloth
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Natural cork rails
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A natural hard-wax oil finish
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And the glue to hold it together.
Inside the board is the same fresh air we breathe. That’s it. No hidden foam core, no toxic ingredients. Just natural materials, assembled in Maine to create a modern performance surfboard that we believe is the best and most sustainable surfboard available today.
Modern Tech Meets Natural Materials
Available in just about every shape we offer, each board begins as a complex 3D model, which gets broken down into the parts we create on our CNC machine and in our millshop. The cedar planks and cork rails are assembled around an internal precision frame, sealed on the inside with flax bonded with our secret sauce, and on the outside with a natural hard-wax oil. They feel solid and alive underfoot, and have a stunning, warm, natural finish sitting in the rack.
For us, low impact doesn’t mean low performance.
The Origins of the Concept
Our very first boards were built without epoxy and fiberglass. We loved the idea of embracing traditional methods learned through years of boatbuilding. We were also terrified by the glassing process and knew it would take a long time to learn how to do it right. While we’ve gotten a bit better at glassing after 20 years, it’s always been a goal to do better and continually evolve. And our evolution through our CedarRail, GreenRail, PlyBeam, CorkRail and now Bio•Logic shows that.
We’ve spent the last couple of years quietly building Bio•Logic boards for ourselves and getting them out there under some feet through our demo fleet and with a handful of longtime Grain customers. No fanfare. Just honest testing. And the feedback has been great.