We are happy to announce that Kalon Surf will be carrying the Slater Designs eco traction pads — in line with our ongoing commitment to sustainable business practices.
Why We Like What Kelly Slater Does
We’ve been partners with Firewire Surfboards and Slater Designs for years, and the reason goes beyond having great boards in our quiver. Kelly consistently asks two questions that align with how we think at Kalon: how can we create the best possible product, and how can we do it with the least environmental impact?
That matters to us — but with an important caveat. Sustainability doesn’t mean much if the product isn’t good. We don’t use eco-friendly materials just to say we’re green. First and foremost, our responsibility is the guest experience. Our job is to provide equipment, food, and an overall experience that is as good as — if not better than — what you’d find anywhere else. The fact that we can do that while also being mindful of the environment is what makes partnerships like this one worth celebrating.
Since we’re in the water every day with our guests, taking care of the ocean isn’t abstract for us. It’s about how we handle waste, how we manage water on the property, and what products we put in our guests’ hands. The Slater Designs eco traction pad is a good example of that philosophy in practice.
BLOOM Foam: What Makes These Pads Different
In keeping with Kelly’s commitment to sustainability, Slater Designs collaborated with BLOOM Foam to develop one of the most eco-friendly traction pads on the market. BLOOM is a high-performance flexible foam made from algae biomass harvested from freshwater sources around the world.
The BLOOM Foam process does several things worth knowing about. It helps improve the quality of waterways by removing excess algae that harm plants, animals, and the people who rely on those ecosystems. It recirculates fresh water back into the habitat. And it aids CO2 capture and sequestration — they’re literally harvesting pond scum, solar drying it, and pulverizing it before foaming the material to create a pad that helps rebalance natural ecology while reducing dependence on non-renewable oil.
The performance side matters too. Through this patented algae technology, the pads offer increased durability, improved shock absorption, and reduced weight compared to conventional foams. In other words: it’s a better product that also happens to be better for the environment. That’s the kind of innovation we want to support.
What This Means at Kalon
Every board in our resort quiver — over 60 Firewire and Slater Designs boards — now uses these eco traction pads. It’s a small detail that most guests won’t notice, but it’s part of a larger pattern. We built our resort with renewable materials. Our chefs cook with organic, locally sourced ingredients and grow fruits and vegetables on the property. We support the local community in Dominical. And we choose equipment partners who share those values without compromising on quality.
If you’re curious about the boards themselves — what’s in our quiver, how we match boards to guests, and why volume matters more than you think — we wrote a detailed guide: What Surfboard Should I Buy? And if you want to learn more about the specific Slater Designs models we carry, check out our posts on the Sci-Fi, the Banana, the Omni, and the Helium Gamma.
By choosing these products — and by choosing to spend a week with us — you’re supporting a way of doing things that puts quality and the ocean first.
