oNa Clear, still in the early August morning, Sam Shoemaker pushed the kayaking into the waters near Catalina Island and began boating. His goal is to pass the open ocean right in San Pedro Los Angelesabout 26.4 miles.
But after careful observation, the shoemaker’s kayak is not an ordinary kayak. Brown yellow and bumpy in texture, it is made from mushrooms (or rather it is). If successful, his journey will mark the longest open water-based journey in the world, a kayak built from this unique material.
Shoemaker left before 6 a.m. with his phone, Gopro camera, Walkie Talkie and a compass paired with a lifeguard vest he was given, to avoid the worst swelling in the forecast. But three hours were in his ninth mile power, the coastline was still out of sight, and the shoemaker began to feel seasick.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a large animal breaking the waters. To his left, a fin whale flashed with a gleaming tail, then slowly dragged behind him. When the 50-foot creature followed him for another three miles, the shoemaker found the power to end his maiden voyage.
“It’s like a psychedelic experience,” he said of the crossing point. It took 12 hours.
When he stumbled upon the mushroom kayaking was still intact, the artist and mycologist hugged his friends and family. All of them hoped that the voyage would raise new curiosity about unconventional fungal materials, while shoemakers and others believed that the plastic was more environmentally friendly than the ones widely used in boats and other water recreation.
From gallery wall to open sea
The shoemaker began his career as an artist who created sculptures that spread mushrooms. After returning to Los Angeles after graduating from Yale from Yale in 2020, he began exhibiting artworks that capture the unique behavior of mushrooms. Handmade ceramic containers and glass blown.
Eventually, his interest grew outside the walls of the gallery. Shoemakers now belong to a small community of scientists and artists, exploring the potential of fungal innovation as an alternative material that can be used for everything from kayaking and buoys to surfboards.
Their focus is on mycelium – a network of threads that support fungal and mushroom growth. Although it tends to work underground or in substrates first, it is the key connective tissue in the animal kingdom. In aquatic environments, mycelium-based materials are called Aquafung, a term coined by Phil Ross, the shoemaker’s mentor, an artist and co-founder of a biotech company called MyCoworks, which engineers mycelium-based materials, including Mushroom “Leather” Can be used in furniture, handbags and biomedical equipment. After co-founding ammycoworks, Ross also opened an open source fungal research laboratory at Stanford University called Open Fung.
Ross believes that Aquafung has many attractive properties, such as plastic (such as lightweight and buoyant), but has no harmful footprint. “People hate washing foamed styrofoam plastics on the shore,” Ross said.[AquaFung] It is biodegradable. It works a lot like the material that everyone seems to hate. ”
Cobbler begins working on his first mycelium ship in 2024 Ganoderma polyethylene mycelium mycelium Outside his Los Angeles studio. He modified the used kayak to be used as a fiberglass mold and then planted a mycelium mesh network in the mold, which holds over 300 pounds of inoculated cannabis substrate to support culture. Nearly four weeks after spreading the mycelium, shoemakers carefully dried the resulting kayaking composite material Use the structure of fans over a few months.
After incubation, the dried mycelium exhibits a strong hydrophobic material. For touch, like cork, it feels rough and durable. And, it remains the same color and texture throughout the process – a testament to the wildness of mushrooms.
The shoemaker is confident in his prototype and begins to find the right support.
Shoemaker meets Patrick Reed, chief curator of Pasadena-based arts organization Pivot Artpassed by mutual friends in December 2023. After the studio visit, Reed was shocked by everything the artist had to show him and remembered that their conversation was “incredibly exciting and exciting”. It aligns with Fulcrum Arts’ mission, which supports artists pursuing social change at the intersection of art and science, and the two formally collaborated in early 2024.
The shoemaker completed the second mushroom ship in June. Growing from the same field Ganoderma multicolor Mycelium, kayaks reproduce over 520 pounds on a hemp-hard matrix stacked in new fiberglass molds. The shoemaker allows the boat to grow for six weeks before taking another three months to dry. The new kayak is 107 pounds, three feet shorter, but 50% larger by volume for increased buoyancy and stability. It also has keels that improve tracking and rigidity.
The Aquafung enthusiast community spans mycologists, artists, fishermen, farmers and amateurs is all dynamic but fresh. The finish of the shoemaker’s boat marks Katy Ayers’ second mushroom boat for water test Guinness World Records For planting, then testing what was the world’s longest fungal mycelium ship on Nebraska Lake in 2019.
“A lot of people really think it’s impossible,” said Ayers, who grew up inspired by a documentary called Super Fungi. “I’ve come into contact with companies that actually make biomaterials, and their spokespersons aren’t confident about how it works, but I’m confident and naive enough to get it to shoot and figure out what these shortcomings are.”
The future is… mushrooms?
Ayers and Shoemaker attribute Mycology Pioneers like Ross to making technology more accessible. Mushroom-based materials start to pop up slowly in the mainstream: In 2021, Stella McCartney made headlines by launching the world’s first outfit made from lab-grown mushroom leather.
Ross called Sam’s voyage “extraordinary” and hoped it would inspire other scientific institutions to take the work more seriously. “[Sam] It did it before Stanford and Caltech, which happened in his backyard. The entire field is led by designers and artists, not because they are the best scientists, but because they are aware of the future before everyone else. ”
But, shoemakers will temporarily revolutionize the industry’s cautious attitude towards mushrooms. He noted that it takes a year to produce a kayak and that it is still slower and heavier than shop-buyed beach kayaks.
“People talk about mushrooms being this utopian future, the plastic problem is gone, [but] “This is not a silver bullet that the ship is easier to make. How far I have gone with this project, but there is still a long way to go,” he said.
Currently, he plans to continue to talk with other artists, mycologists and amateurs and to bring its open source outline to the public with over 70 pages of research, methodology and diagrams available to the public. A full exhibition of his materials and kayaking will be held in October at the Fulcrum Art Space in Pasadena.
“There might be a 19-year-old out there who thinks ‘I can do it’ and they can,” the shoemaker said. “The biggest compliment they can give is to make a better boat and try to be more ambitious than my ambitions.”
After the success of the shoemaker, Ayles also sees hope for a more real future.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to do it for years. I thought the first thing I did when my boat went out was, ‘Please someone try to beat the record because that gave me a reason to try again.’ “If we can continue to inspire each other and do something better, who knows, maybe we’ll see the floating colony of the Mushroom House.” ”
Health & Wellness Contributor
A wellness enthusiast and certified nutrition advisor, Meera covers everything from healthy living tips to medical breakthroughs. Her articles aim to inform and inspire readers to live better every day.
