Karyn Buky ran her hand over the top of the surfboard on display, not realizing what was she was touching.

She pulled her palm back in disgust when she took a closer look and read a sign nearby explaining the board was made out of 10,000 used cigarette butts.

“Who would have thought cigarette butts would have been beautiful,” said Buky, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident who showed up at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on a recent night. “It gives you an awkward feeling, that something so pretty is so icky at the same time. It’s amazing.”

Taylor Lane from the Central Coast uses 10,000 discarded cigarette butts in just about every inch of this entry in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

People look at boards created from artists all over the world during in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

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Surfers and shapers across the world create boards made of recycled materials in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

People look at boards created from artists all over the world during in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Kenta Ishikawa of Japan made this board out of discarded styrofoam, corks and wood in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)



Kenta Ishikawa of Japan made this board out of discarded styrofoam, corks and wood in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Francois Jaubert from Hossegor created this board from recycled wood in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Bryce Marshall of Australia made this board using a recylced bathroom door in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Bryce Marshall of Australia made this board using a recylced bathroom door in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Julian Luparia used an old wooden fence for their entry in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)



Grant Monast of Florida uses styrofoam from a flatscreen television box in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Ryan Devincenzi Melander of San Jose uses discarded wood and discarded wine corks in his creation in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Dan Whiteside of Australia’s board in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Taylor Lane from the Central Coast uses 10,000 discarded cigarette butts in just about every inch of this entry in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Matta Shapes of Portugal used discarded EPS foam, biobased epoxy resin and burlap bags for this creation in the Vissla and Surfrider Foundation recycled surfboard contest at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, October 20, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)



Taylor Lane, of Santa Cruz, made a surfboard out of 10,000 discarded cigarette butts. (Photo: Laylan Connell;y/SCNG)

Taylor Lane, a 24-year-old from Venice who moved to Santa Cruz a few years ago, spent the summer with friend Ben Judkin plucking discarded butts from the sand and beach parking lots and pathways in Northern California, and then used the trash to create a surfboard that can actually be used in the water. The surfboard impressed this year’s judges who named it the winner of the third annual “Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest,” hosted by surfbrand Vissla and the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

About a dozen finalists were on display Friday, Oct. 20, at the Ecology Center.

One board was made out of potato sacks; another, from Florida, was created out of a foam core from packaging that once held a flat-screen TV, with fins made out of a plywood dresser found in a dumpster. Another, from Australia, was made from an old bathroom door.

Vissla founder Paul Naude is no stranger to promoting upcycling, with products such as boardshorts made from coconut husks. He said he started the contest as a way to get people to think creatively about sustainability.

“I started playing around with broken boards and turning them into something you can ride waves with,” he said. “Why don’t we do something that encourages people to find trash or something unusable, and use their imagination and creativity and upcycle it … take something and make it better.”

The applicants had three months to make the project and were required to send in a video. Between 60 and 80 entries were submitted.

“This new culture is asking questions today, what are we doing to the environment?” Naude said.

Francois Jaubert, of France, was last year’s winner with a surfboard made out of cardboard. He returned this year with a board made out of pallets of wood from a box that once held carrots.

Since last year’s contest, he’s made about 10 cardboard surfboards in an effort to perfect the process, getting the weight down from 20 pounds to five, making the boards easier to ride.

This year, because of France’s wet winter, he couldn’t find much cardboard that wasn’t soaked, so he used the wood pallets he found while dumpster diving. The fins were made out of a Nike shoe box. His creation won second place.

“I did this with garbage. We can have a little bit of thinking, a little bit of creativity,” he said. “And it’s way more fun to give a new life to a dead material. This used to hold carrots. Now, it’s surfing.”

Surfers, in particular, should be aware of what their boards do to the planet, with resin coming from the petrol industry and traditional foam blanks known for their negative impacts on the environment, Jaubert said.

“We should be smart enough to use what society gives us for free,” he said.

Taking third place was a board made by Venice surfer Shane Swindler, who took an old, beat-up stand-up paddleboard someone gave him for free and turned its foam core into a small surfboard.

“It surfs really good, too,” Swindler said.

Of all the entries, Lane’s cigarette butt board was the most poignant, Naude said. “If that’s not a message, I don’t know what is,” he said.

“This is the most polluted item picked up on the beach,” Lane said, who said the goal of the project was to emphasis the pollution problem butts on the beach pose. “And no one thinks twice that you can do anything with it.”

Judkins, who helped Lane film the creation of the board, said the project was a way to connect surfing with a statement.

“People see this board and they are visually drawn to it, it’s visually disgusting — but awesome in how gross it is,” he said. “It just ties together surfing and something we care about — the environment, the ocean, and the health of the ocean.”

The duo started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to make a documentary on making the board, aimed also at highlighting the ongoing problem of pollution on the beach.

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The board was also made from Styrofoam from fish markets, and the resin was made from soybeans.

When accepting the first-place award, Lane said people would be surprised how many buckets of butts they came away with while gathering the trash for the project.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “But don’t be afraid to be weird.”