Photo: Capitulo Perfeito
Surf contests are an energy intensive endeavor. From the fans driving to a contest site to the surfers flying there from around the world and dozen of other factors. A single day of competitive surfing creates a heavy carbon footprint. The broadcasts require energy, food vendors require single-use items, and even sponsors make banners, signs, and even schwag that won’t be very useful once everybody has packed up and gone home. Recognizing this, contest organizers with Capitulo Perfeito (Perfect Chapter), the one-day tube riding contest which will be held in Carcavelos, Portugal sometime this winter, have announced efforts to go carbon neutral in 2025.
According to an announcement from contest organizers, Perfect Chapter is teaming up with Reflora Initiative, an environmental initiative that calculates the carbon footprint of its partners and then directs resources to forestation and conservation projects. To offset emissions for this event, Perfect Chapter is co-funding a conservation project in Brazil’s Amazon Forest called Envira Project. The end goal, of course, is to reduce the event’s footprint to zero by protecting 39,000 hectares of forest and preserving as many as 80 species of plants and animals that are threatened in the area.
“As an event held in the ocean, sustainability is at the core of Perfect Chapter’s identity,” said contest director Rui Costa. “It’s crucial that we counteract our carbon emissions and implement measures to protect the planet and the oceans. In 2025, we remain committed to environmental responsibility, reinforcing our efforts to reduce carbon emissions and minimize our impact both locally and globally.”
Perfect Chapter, like many contests, is especially travel intensive. Portuguese surfers make up less than half of this year’s roster, with eight international surfers on call through the March 11 contest window. In 2022, for example, I booked a flight from California less than 36 hours before the start of Heat 1. My flight out of LAX happened to be a connecting flight for Clay Marzo and his girlfriend Leilani, who had left Maui the day before. From there, we flew into Frankfurt, Germany and hopped on another flight into Lisbon where more surfers had just arrived. Then, we all piled into two vans for the 25 kilometer drive into Carcavelos. A single passenger making that trip from Hawaii to Lisbon accounts for at least 1.5 to 2.5 tons of CO2. And that was just day one of what became an extended tour up and down Portugal.
“By bringing the best tube riders from all over the world to Portugal, we were aware that our carbon footprint was becoming significant,” Costa said in 2024.
