Hanging out with Waterhaul

Sustainable solutions for surfers

Waterhaul’s mission is to recycle ocean plastic and ghost fishing gear into innovative, high-performance products and materials. Based in Newquay, the company has launched a new groundbreaking product that combines sustainability with exceptional functionality.

Tell us about your latest collaboration

As advocates for enjoying the water at all times of year, the Waterhaul Team know that taking care of our wetsuits and other kit is essential.

We teamed up with C-Monsta, makers of the best wetsuit hangers out there, to create a range of wetsuit hangers made from our 100% recycled Traceable Marine Plastic. These wetsuit hangers are designed to improve drying times between uses, prolong the life of your wetsuit and other accessories, and keep it all together, ready for your next adventure.

Where did the idea come from?

C-Monsta founder and Scotland-based surfer Mark created the design of the hangers whilst looking for a solution to making sure his wetsuit, boots and gloves would be dry and ready to go as he takes to the cold Scottish waters. There’s nothing worse than putting a wet wetsuit on!

How does the hanger work?

The hangers have purpose-made spots to hang your wetsuit, gloves and boots, with a vented design to improve airflow, thus improving drying times and preventing the buildup of mildew forming on your gear. There’s even hooks on either end for hanging boardshorts, bikinis, dive masks and other accessories; keeping all your gear in one place, and not festering in a damp pile in your shower!

The design also reduces strain on your wetsuits shoulder seams by hanging it by the waist, preventing stretching, and prolonging the life of your suit.

Once everything is dry, your gear is all in one place and ready for your next adventure!

Does it work for all wetsuits?

The wetsuit hangers are suitable for use with most sizes of wetsuit, and have been tested to hold up to 25kg (around 55 lbs) of kit.

Tell us more about the traceability system

Like all Waterhaul products, these wetsuit hangers are built with 100% recycled polypropylene fishing gear, recovered and recycled in the U.K. Polypropylene is a lightweight, durable polymer, commonly used in fishing gear in forms such as ropes, bait bags and mooring lines, and in its recycled form, it's a versatile plastic suited to use in a broad range of uses, and helps to make the Wetsuit Hangers extra strong and durable; perfect for hanging heavy wetsuit gear.

With our industry-leading traceability system, you can track exactly where the fishing gear that went into your product was recovered from by the Waterhaul team and our recycling partners, down to the exact beaches and harbours.

Printed on the packaging for every hanger is a unique batch number and QR code that, when scanned, will show you the exact locations the fishing gear used to make your wetsuit hanger came from.

What is ghost gear and how does it affect our beaches?

Lost or discarded fishing gear AKA 'ghost gear' is the most abundant form of plastic in the ocean, and the problem increases by 640,000 tonnes every year.

These nets are also the most lethal form of plastic to marine life. Lost in the ocean, their function to entangle marine life continues. In a phenomenon known as ‘ghost fishing’, the entangled and trapped marine life will attract more species, resulting in an ongoing loop of catches. Constructed from high-quality plastics, these nets can keep on catching for over 500 years, unless removed.

On your next trip to the beach you’ll be able to see the brightly coloured strands of fishing gear across the high tide line (usually mixed with plenty of other microplastics!), and larger pieces of gear often get snagged in rocky sections beneath cliffs and in caves.

What can we do to help the cause?

If you encounter a significant fishing net, rope or other form of ghost gear at sea or on the coastline, you can report it to us via our website and we'll endeavour to recover it ourselves, or collaborate with other volunteers and organisations to do so, and then collect it for recycling.

Try to include as much information as possible about the location (what3words is great for this!), and ideally photos of the gear to give us an accurate idea on what to expect.

You can also take action yourself; a five minute beach clean is a great way to play your part in the plastic pollution crisis locally.

The company is going from strength to strength. What’s next for Waterhaul?

Alongside plenty of new releases to go alongside our existing adventure gear ranges, we’ve been spending a lot of time over the past year scaling up our fishing gear collection and processing capacity.

Now, we’re proud to be selling our 100% recycled plastic pellets to other brands and partners, so they too can become part of the solution, and help us to increase our impact.

Find out more about Waterhaul, buy your C-Monsta X Waterhaul Wetsuit Hanger and shop their range of sunglasses, litter picking tools and more at:

www.waterhaul.co | @waterhaul_co