MERCEDES-BENZ CORK SURFBOARD FOR GARRETT MCNAMARA

Mercedes-Benz gives the American surf star a custom cork surfboard

Hawaiian big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara, who holds the current world record for the biggest wave ever surfed, has just received a surfboard made entirely of Portuguese cork from the Mercedes-Benz design studio. A result of the Mboard Project, the board is made of corticeira amorim cork composites and will carry the surfer as he rides the world’s biggest waves in Nazaré, Portugal. Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork, which is used traditionally in the manufacture of bottle stoppers, and McNamara says that it makes sense to use this local material to make flexible boards that are still resistant enough not to break. He also used surfboards designed by Mercedes-Benz to ride monster waves at 62.4 km/h in Nazaré during the big storm in 2013.

Mercedes-Benz surfboard entirely made of portuguese cork