Many people ask us why the name PARAFINA. Where does it come from? Well, Paraffin is a wax that is applied to the boards.
surfboard so that the surfer's feet adhere well to the board and he does not slip
when surfing the waves.
And you might be wondering, what does a surfer's wax have to do with a brand of eco-friendly sunglasses? Here's the explanation.
At Parafina we believe that life is a journey, and that the best way to get to know ourselves is by getting to know and caring for the world around us.
Every time we have visited a new place, we have learned something from it. We have discovered new cultures, new ways of thinking. We have tried exquisite recipes with ingredients that are impossible to find in our home country, Spain. We have been fascinated by paradisiacal landscapes and exotic animals that we had only seen in National Geographic documentaries. But most importantly, we have discovered that we are not alone in the world, and that although sometimes life does not let you see beyond what is in front of you, beyond your day to day life, in reality you only have to put a finger on the map, take the plunge, and let destiny do its thing.
It was on one of these trips, in our search for places that made us feel at home even though we were miles away from it, that we fell in love with this sport that is for everyone, and at the same time for very few: surfing. When we talk about surfing, we imagine blonde girls and boys with waist-length hair getting out of their 80s vans and entering the water to dance on their wooden boards, while the waves take them from one side of the beach to the other. The truth is, as with all stereotypes, there are surfers of all shapes and colors. When you arrive at a beach with a surfing culture and good waves, you realize that the surfers are young and old. They are tall, but also short. They have long hair, but many of them are already bald (just ask the world's top surfing competition champion, Kelly Slater). In short, the surfer is not defined by his appearance, but by what he feels when he is silent in the middle of the sea waiting for his wave to arrive. And that rush of standing up on your board, and managing to tame a wave that struggles to make you fall into the water, turning it into your own private highway in the middle of the ocean.
It is this feeling that makes them go through all the inconveniences that come with entering an environment that is not ours, such as the sea, where from the moment you set foot in it you encounter strong currents, rocks, tumbles, and a ton of reasons why you won't stop thinking that you should be on the beach lying on a towel, and not in the water fighting against the elements. But it is these forces that over the years have made surfers change their way of seeing the sea, life, and even transform their personality. These situations that take them completely out of their comfort zone are the same ones that teach them one of the most important lessons that can be learned to be aware of where we live, and this is that although we sometimes forget, nature is powerful, unpredictable, uncontrollable and valuable. By spending so much time in contact with the ocean, surfers share the silence and the environment, not only with other humans, but also with fish, seagulls and even sometimes with a curious dolphin that comes to gossip. These moments in the water allow them to disconnect from their work, their responsibilities and worries, and connect with the beauty that the beach offers them.
The waves that come from the seabed, breaking without caring what or who is in front of them. The seagulls gently gliding in search of distracted fish, the sun in the background changing the sky's colour, about to go to another place on Earth, the smell of the sea that floods your nostrils and fills your lungs, your wet face and the taste of salt. It is a truly unique sensation, which is more and more often interrupted by a new species that finds itself in a place where it does not belong. A piece of plastic. A piece of plastic that is just one of thousands that are thrown into the sea every day, along with millions of other waste.
A piece of plastic that will take about 450 years to decompose and we hope it doesn't end up in the stomach of a marine animal, a seagull or at the bottom of the sea. A piece of plastic that represents a threat to the environment that surfers love so much, because at the rate at which human consumption habits grow, this piece of plastic will become 2, then 3, until we lose forever this unique, pure and special space that is the sea.
This is something that most people, not having such close and direct contact with the ocean, do not see in their daily lives. But the surfer sees it and is aware of it, and cannot do nothing. He will approach that piece of plastic, put it in his wetsuit or swimsuit, and when he gets out of the water he will throw it into the yellow container.
That's why we at PARAFINA identify so much with surfers. Because after surfing so many beaches we've been able to see that the only thing we would change about them is this plastic floating in the middle of such a special space. And the fact that this is only our fault, that of humans, and we are the only beings on Earth who can do something about it. For that reason we wanted to give our brand a relationship with this world of surfing with which we identify so much.
Our idea was to sell sunglasses, to wear on the beach and protect our eyes from the sun, but also to change the way we see the world. We were thinking about how we could make these special glasses so that when you put them on you would really be contributing to making the world you see through them better.
After some time we thought about it and it dawned on us. If we wanted to see cleaner and healthier beaches through our glasses, we had to collect this plastic and other waste floating in the sea and use it to create our glasses.
That way, if someone on the beach was wearing our glasses, they would have directly contributed to making the place they were looking through a better place. To this end, we decided that all our glasses would be made from recycled and environmentally friendly materials. But we didn't want to stop there. It's not very helpful to remove waste from the sea if it continues to pollute it. So we thought that these glasses we were selling should not only remove waste from the sea, but also help reduce the amount of waste that is dumped every day.
We finally concluded that the best way to achieve this is through education. We would donate a percentage of our profits to a social project that would educate the new generations on the importance of caring for the planet, and we would do so by acting in less favoured areas, where the highest levels of pollution occur, due to the scarce resources and the low importance given to recycling in these areas, where the priority is to get food every day, rather than where to throw away the packaging. In this way we would also be helping these new generations to have more possibilities of escaping poverty through a quality education.
When we had this clear and thought about how we could relate our brand to surfing, that sport to which we owed the focus we had given to the product, and whose practitioners were going to be the first to demand a philosophy that kept their beaches clean, we realized that the brand should be called PARAFINA. Because when a surfer arrives at the beach, and there are good waves, what their body asks for is to run into the water to be able to stand on their board as soon as possible. But they don't do it. Because they know that if they don't put the paraffin on the board, they will reach the break and when they get up to catch the wave, their feet won't hold on to the board, they will slip, and they will fall. That's why they know it's important to stop and spend 1 minute putting the paraffin on, while they take the opportunity to look at the state of the sea, which is the best wave on the beach or where it will be easier for them to get in.
This minute is insignificant compared to the 2 hours they will be surfing, but it serves to prepare them and enjoy much more of what they like to do most in the world. It is a minimal investment of time to improve their future. We associate this moment with everything we do at PARAFINA, since “putting wax on ideas” has been present in the entire creation process. Not rushing into doing what others do, but stopping, evaluating, and thinking not only about the present, but also about the future.
And that's why we're called PARAFINA, and we continue to travel as much as this pandemic allows us, to continue getting to know the fascinating world we live in, learning, and doing our bit to make it a better place. That's why we'd like to encourage you to stay conscious in everything you do and to try adding paraffin to your life. The world will thank you.