New Zealand Students to Build High-Performance Skis, Skateboards Using Leaves, Plants

SYDNEY - New Zealand students have developed sustainable materials made from cabbage tree leaves and flax that could soon be used to make high-performance skis, kayaks and skateboards. Their plan is to use them to replace traditional fiberglass and carbon fiber. 

Skateboards need to be tough. Two students at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, Ben Scales and William Murrell, believe they can make them even more durable by using fiber from plants.  After experimenting in their garage workshops, they created new, natural composite materials.   Scales, who is 21 and studies product design, says their first version is looking good.