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RAV4 x Organic Dynamic Roadie
Jack Candlish is a Wellington-based entrepreneur and surfer, who started a business Organic Dynamic – specialising in custom-made sustainable twin and single surfboards, made from materials that don’t contribute to our natural environments natural decline.
Jack loves nothing more than a road trip over the weekend to a beach with good surfing conditions.
Jack took a road trip from Wellington to the Wairarapa Coast in the Next-Gen RAV4 hybrid, in the hunt for the perfect wave.
We want to share Jack’s Blog.
“Our friends at Toyota NZ gave us a bell to see if we’d be keen to test out the new self-charging Hybrid RAV4. Heck yeh - ain’t no seat warmers and sunroof in the old work van! So we decided to set off for a few days road trip to test out the car and a couple new boards.
At Organic Dynamic we make surfboards in the most sustainable way possible. We use 100% recycled polystyrene for the centre core, then laminate the outside in NZ grown Paulownia wood, and apply a waterproof bio resin made from tree sap to keep them water tight. To add a little spice to our latest range of boards, we have been experimenting with plant-based colour dyes and by total coincidence the RAV4 that arrived on the Monday morning was the same colour as the board that we had been making over the weekend! The first thing my mate said when I picked him up at 6am as we tied the boards to the roof was “great minds think alike”.
A solid south swell was pulsing through so we decided to hit the Wairarapa region to explore the coastline. Anyone who has every driven out that way will know the diversity of the landscape and roads. Everything from the tar-sealed hairpins of the Remutaka’s, the gravel back beach roads and the open sand beaches. The RAV4 didn’t flinch once, tackling everything with speed and comfort on our journey to find waves. One of the spots we checked out is pretty isolated and would usually require at least half a tank of gas to get there and back, but I kept checking the gas gauge and it hardly budged! The fuel economy of the RAV4 is a game changer, the amount of km’s we racked up was amazing using only one tank of petrol.
We scored some amazing waves over the next few days, everything from rocky point breaks to beach breaks, the RAV4 took us wherever we needed to go, whatever the road or trail looked like. On our last day the wind picked up to gail force and the onshore had set in, we made the call to pop the boards in the boot, as it was impossible to tie them onto the roof racks with the wind! They don’t call this the windiest place in the world for nothing! So, we moved a few things around, folded one rear seat down and managed to pack a full quiver of boards into the back area which surprised use both and totally changed our perception of the RAV4. Overall this vehicle is super smooth and was a great choice for a kiwi roadie, lots of space and really comfortable. Can we keep it for longer please Toyota?