After spending the past few years living on a 33-foot sailboat and working on yachts in Florida and in the Caribbean, Luke Landi returned to Whitefish and began his own venture making stand up paddleboards.
“I can see that the paddleboard industry is fairly harmful,” Landi said, alluding to the plastics and Styrofoam used in many mass-produced boards. “Especially if the boards don’t last, they end up in the landfill and that stuff doesn’t go away.”
If he was going to make the jump into the industry, Landi wanted to move in a different direction. His boards are made with a recycled foam core and are reinforced with flax fiber, which is a natural alternative to carbon and adds strength and durability to the boards. He continues to research natural alternatives such as Myco Foam, a material produced from mushrooms and fungi, as a substitute for the foam core.
Six of Landi’s boards will be available as part of the Paddlefish Sports rental fleet this summer at Whitefish Lake. For more information about the boards visit www.facebook.com/yatzboards.
