The Anthem Awards is the largest and most comprehensive social impact award that recognizes the greatest change-makers and global leaders.
FlamaCircular competed among 2,300 proposals from 44 countries around the world, with recognized brands and organizations such as UNICEF USA, Amazon Music, World Economic Forum, National Geographic, World Bank, The Obama Foundation, Google, United Nations, WWF, among many other projects.
We won in three categories: • Partnership or collaboration: Gold Anthem Winner • Special projects: Bronze Anthem Winner • Education or literacy platform: Bronze Anthem Winner
UNSUSTAINABLE is a short documentary that gives an insight into the (un)sustainability of the surf industry, starting by the basic element needed, the surfboard.
Shapers around Europe give us their point of view about the fact that surfing, an activity originally based on respect and contact with nature, has become an industry of oil-based products. Alternatives do already exist, it’s only a matter of embracing them and detach ourselves from the image and lack of attention towards the envirtonment that the surf industry has hold over the past years.
Featuring: Job Verpoorte (Jabali Surfb.), Ze Antunes (Yoni Surfb.) and Sergi Galanó (Flamasurf)
After five years since the last edition, the 4th European Wooden Surfboard Meet 2024 was a success! On Friday 27 September and Saturday 28 September the fourth EWSM was held at Playa de Berria, Cantabria, Spain.
While many attendees know each other and communicate online, the event is always an excellent opportunity to meet people in person and appreciate eachother’s work in real life. The non-commercial, non-competitive gathering is a way to bring together artists, craftsmen and engineers whom work towards a more eco-conscious and sustainable surfboard making industry.
The event started on Friday evening, where we welcomed master shaper and legendary longboarder @tomwegenersurfboards . Tom Wegener was responible for the renaisance of the ancient alaia and helped popularize paulownia wood, one the most valuable timbers among wooden surfboard builders.
For Sergi, Flamacircular founder, was a very special moment, as he was first introoduced to the magic of paulownia wood when he met Tom Wegener in 2009 when he was touring Europe promoting his alaias. The flame that gave birth to Flama was inginited that day, and they kept their relationship ever since, but only virtually, and it took 15 years to meet again.
On Saturday all the attendees met at the beach park with all their crafts to put on display. It was a long day of a lot of talking, sharing and laughing. A day of pure fun and happiness.
Despite the event’s name and because the industry advanced over the last few of years, we could prove how eco-friendlier-surfboard makers are embracing new technologies and materials in their perpetual pursue of a more sustainable surf industry. Although wood remains as the most used material, flax, hemp, bioresins and 3D print are getting popular.
No wonder everyone was asking if there will be a new meet on 2025. For sure there should be one, and perhaps we could even give it a new push, 15 years after the first Wooden Meet was organized by Grant Newby in the Gold Coast, Australia. It’s time to demonstrate to the surfing world that there are many ways to have a more sustainable industry, and that if it’s not happening it is not because a lack of alternatives.
On saturday 21st of September the Flama-MadDonkeys team made its first appearance at the Kostafest 2024, in the vecinity of Sopelana, Basque Country, Spain. There we showed some of the boards we’ve been making with the FlamaVolta technology.
There we coud hear the first “wooh” and “what??” of people at realizing how light we can make our boards. Wooden surfboards are not heavy anymore!
March 1 marked the beginning of our journey with FlamaCircular. At the Laboral Kutxa Bilbao Surf Film Festival 2024, we had the privilege of presenting our name, cause, vision and mission to a distinguished audience in the discipline of surfing.
This event, recognized as one of the most relevant in the world of surfing and sustainability, brought together the most prominent players in the industry in one of the most emblematic cities for this sport. In this unique setting, we extended the invitation to all attendees to take the first step towards the transformation of the surf industry, which has remained static for decades.
