Mushroom Kayaks

“It was just like a psychedelic experience.”

–Sam Shoemaker

A gorgeous, archipelagic octet dots the Pacific Ocean off the shore of the Southern California Bight, a 430-mile bend stretching from Point Conception to Baja California.

Five of the Channel Islands constitute the eponymous National Park, while the US Navy utilizes another two as training grounds. The last – Santa Catalina Island – sits about 30 miles from the Los Angeles region of the mainland. Catalina Island is the only one to feature a substantial human population, with the resort city of Avalon housing nearly 4,000 inhabitants.

Most people who want to visit Catalina Island take a ferry from Newport, Long Beach, or San Pedro; if you really wanted an adventure, though, you could go by paddle power.

Typically, open-ocean kayaks are robust, composed of plastics, fiberglass, or carbon fiber. One can brave seas and waves in these crafts without worrying about dissembling. Still, a 30-mile excursion could take a strong paddler a quarter-day, or, depending on conditions and currents, upward of 10 hours.

So, when an artist and mycologist named Sam Shoemaker dropped a kayak into the waters off Catalina Island, made not of modern, durable materials, but mushrooms, the waves he made weren’t just the literal motion of the ocean.

Yes, you’re not tripping, the photo above shows Shoemaker on a kayak constructed of mushrooms.

He employed a regular kayak to create a mold, before filling it with hemp substrate and the rootlike structures of a species of mushroom, Ganoderma polychromum. A mushroom’s mycelium network can resemble intertwined fiberglass, lending a bit more credence to the way a fungus might congeal into a working watercraft.

For six weeks, the mushroom system grew into the hemp scaffolding. Then, Shoemaker discarded the mold and let the ship dry for another several months.

When dehydration was complete, the boat looked and felt like one made from cork. Using local beeswax, he sealed it, making it ready for the water.

Why use mushrooms to make kayaks?

For all the wonders that plastics have produced, we’re bumping up against the inevitable issue of having too much of it. Historically difficult to recycle, often tossed after one use, sitting in landfills for thousands of years, and degrading into tiny balls that seep into our bodies, looking for plastic alternatives only makes sense. Using sustainable materials in everyday items is a no-brainer, but showing they can serve as stand-ins for less common contraptions is a great way to prove concepts and spur others to be creative in their implementation.

Harvesting fungi as a substitute manufacturing material is not new. Stella McCartney launched a series of clothing made of mushroom “leather,” which was designed by a mentor of Shoemaker’s, Phil Ross. Other uses include furniture, biomedical equipment, packaging, and even automobile and building parts.

All in a biodegradable package.

In 2019, Katy Ayers made a mycelium boat and took it for a spin on a lake in Nebraska, so Shoemaker knew the concept would float.

However, attempting a crossing such as Catalina certainly raised the stakes. Could this humble boat survive the Pacific?

With a potentially knowing nod to the hallucinogenic connotation of mushrooms, Shoemaker described his voyage to the mainland as similar to a “psychedelic experience.” Partway through, he began to see shapes in the water, likely the result of overexertion and not edibles. He snapped back to reality when a curious whale breached nearby and followed him for several miles.

The boat held up. Shoemaker had crossed on mushrooms.

Will fungi ever supplant plastics and fiberglass in the boating industry?

It might shiitake something major to shake up the paradigm, but it would certainly be spore-tacular.