Kauai Just Banned Disposable Foam Bodyboards

We’ve all seen the remnants of cheap foam wave “craft” along the shorelines, the result of the proliferation of expendable answers to the folly, the sport, and the art form that we all know and love in our own special ways.

It goes hand in hand with the disposable society we’ve faced for the better part of a century now—thanks and no thanks to plastics in all their delightful and not-so-delightful shapes, forms, colors, and sizes. In some sense, the existence of such ephemerally functional equipment is defensible when a quality, hand-made surf vessel can cost four figures—and take months to deliver.

How are the young up-and-comers with parents strapped for cash supposed to catch a wave, after all? If egalitarianism isn’t exactly inherent in surfing—or capitalism—there is, as ever, a will and a way, even if it involves a can of worms.

And a can of worms is precisely what we have in the “disposable” surf apparatus industry. So environmentalists, ocean advocates, and surf luminaries alike can rejoice and take solace in knowing that, at least on one 562-square mile mound of volcanic rock out in the Pacific Ocean, provisions have been made within the law to prohibit “the sale, rental, or distribution of disposable polystyrene foam bodyboards in the County of Kaua‘i.”

“This ordinance reflects our responsibility to care for Kaua‘i’s environment,” proclaimed Kaua‘i County Councilmember Fern Holland, who proposed the bill, according to KHON2 News. “By encouraging durable alternatives, we are reducing waste, protecting marine life, and ensuring our islands remain beautiful for generations to come.”

Yes, a good riddance, and gold rings on Kaua‘i Councilmember Holland and Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami who signed the proposed Bill No. 2976 into law in late 2025.

But what of non-prostrate-oriented wave-gliding implements? While there may be more cheap foam bodyboards in circulation, there’s no dearth of disposable-foam surfboards built for upright engagement with the sea. It’s a difficult distinction to fathom, targeting the not-so-well-healed or -versed bodyboarder and leaving their likeness in the market for larger vessels free and clear to purchase, mangle, discard, and repeat, as freely as the like, and at whatever cost to the environment.

Would lineups be better without cheap foam surfboards? That’s a tough war to wage, wrought with socioeconomic discrimination and outright elitism. But ask the reef, the critters, the sands, and the wave itself? It might just be high time for the fugacious fleet to get gone. Of course, only time—and politicians—will tell.