If you’re a surfer in SoCal, you’re eco-conscious.  Why?  Because like most coastal areas sharing a major metropolitan area, you’re surfing in a drainage system.  So you live the drill – you take your vitamins, you keep your hepatitis and tetanus vaccinations up to date, and you rinse with hydrogen peroxide.  What’s a little bacterium in the water?  Besides, with groups like Heal the Bay working to keep the beaches clean, there’s hope for the water-logged masses.  (And ear plugs until then.) 

But what to do if you want to literally take your green awareness to the boards?  You can check out Ride, a recently-opened green surf shop on Abbot Kinney. 

I know what you’re thinking.  What’s an eco-friendly, low-key surf shop doing on a street with trendy, over-priced ceramics and designer denim?  Ride is a call-back to old school Venice, where Dogtown reigned and valet parking involved guns.  Owner J.T. Codd reveals “The surf, skate and punk lifestyles are great and necessary, but what’s even greater is the added eco-friendly elements the products we carry offer.” 

The shop itself is constructed from 95% recycled wood.  The merchandise includes bikinis made of bamboo and surfboards constructed of bio-foam.  The shop also features the E-Glide electric skateboard, which can reach up to 20 miles per hour.  (Just in case you want to go faster than your car on the 405 at rush hour.)  Featured labels in the store include Land Loc’d, Arbor, Defiled, Symbalaswimm, and Pnatural, as well as Re-Fused recycled furniture designed by Brock Mayeux.  Ride even has its own house brand of clothes and apparently, a penchant for advertising through music videos.

So if you’re in to riding the waves and limiting your carbon footprint, strap into your E-Glide and head on down to Abbott Kinney.