Here she is: The magic veggie oil-powered mobile! Ian Wood photo.
It’s not every day you hear about a group of snowboarders off on adventures in a van or truck. Or wait… maybe it is every day. Well not this truck! Oh no, this truck is special and its creator is a very special breed of traveling mountain man. Ian Wood, an avid snowboarder from Stevens Pass, Washington, has just spent a buttload of time, money and energy converting his average mountain mobile into a symbol of hope for an environmentally friendly and sustainable future for mankind.
Ian has converted his engine to run from on vegetable oil instead of diesel. The plan is to drive a group of his snowboard buddies from Seattle to Alaska, all the while filming and documenting their adventures. With this brave stance against oil and marriage between care for the environment and snowboarding, the boys hope to educate and inspire others to pursue a more symbiotic relationship with the planet.
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“Just went and did the conversion this weekend!” Ian remarked when asked how the truck was coming along. “It took two days. I met this cool mechanic guy [in Vancouver, Canada] who was really hyped on everything we were doing.” And no wonder; vegetable oil-powered cars are exceedingly better for the environment.
When compared to conventional diesel, biofuel significantly reduces air pollution emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (soot), and carbon dioxide. According to the EPA, veggie cars produce 100% less sulfate (which causes acid rain), and half the carbon dioxide pollution of regular diesel.
In addition, going vegetable means you avoid all the negative environmental effects of drilling for oil, like air, water pollution, land destruction, and used cooking vegetable oil is a waste product. In the US alone we produce about 11 billion liters of waste veggie oil every year – we can use this stuff!
Mr. Ian Wood himself, stoked to be out in the snow! Photo from The Middle Path Project, Episode 1.
Ian’s desire to take on a project that improved the environment and educated individuals on sustainability issues has been growing inside him for over 10 years. Inspired by his buddy Tamo’s work in Peru building gardens that endured floods, the melting snow in the PNW and productions like Northern Grease, Ian decided to take on his own eco project. To him, converting a truck from gas to a free, recycled, fuel like used restaurant vegetable oil was a no brainer.
Ian Wood's buddy Tamo, driving his veggie oil powered vehicle up to the drive through to collect some liquid gold! Photo from Beyond Boarding's documentary Northern Grease.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I just had so many people telling me: 'You can’t do it. You can’t avoid oil. It’s not worth your time doing it.' I’ve listened to that for so many years. At this point I was like, I don’t care what people say, I’m just going to do it.” That’s the spirit, brother! Even after deciding to send it like he sends cliffs snowboarding, people still tried to tell him his dream would be too hard to accomplish.
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“Now, diving into it I realize how easy it is.” Ian has discovered there is an absurd amount of veggie oil out there, and a whole market of mechanics. Using our waste products as a fuel source is just brilliant – why waste time, money and energy drilling for oil, the great pollutant, when we could be more resourceful when it comes to fuel? “If you can be more symbiotic with everything around you, why wouldn’t you? And not effect your day to day life, why wouldn’t you be that way?” Ian reasoned.
Well if it's so easy, so how come everyone isn’t going veggie? “I would say a lack of awareness.” said Ian. “If nobody is discussing these [environmental] issues or these solutions, then nobody is going to pay attention to it. I never thought about this kind of stuff early in my life; what I did every day and how it effected the world and everyone around me.” And, of course, not every vehicle can get away with running veggie oil – the electronics in some newer diesel models freak out when different fuels enter the engine.
If nobody is discussing these [environmental] issues or these solutions, then nobody is going to pay attention to it. I never thought about this kind of stuff early in my life; what I did every day and how it effected the world and everyone around me.
Steven's Pass during the sad winter of 2015. Few people understand the effect their car emissions have when driving to the mountain, or what byproducts were released to generate the energy powering a ski lift. Photo from The Middle Path Project, Episode 1.
With the Middle Path Project, Ian hopes to involve tons of followers in his journey, from initially dreaming up the idea, to making the actual journey to Alaska. Sure there are tough parts, like being tight for money and having to do most of the planning and all of the truck conversion work himself, but he knows it’s worth it. It already has been. For Ian, the best part yet occurred in the beginning. “I met a guy in Japan who was just so stoked on our project. He was like, 'I’ve been trying to translate it to Japanese! People need to hear about this!' It was a really good feeling to have that effect and be halfway around the world.”
Here's the route! All the way from Seattle to Valdez. Photo from Google Maps.
I met a guy in Japan who was just so stoked on our project. He was like, "I’ve been trying to translate it to Japanese! People need to hear about this!" It was a really good feeling to have that effect and be halfway around the world.
That experience right there captures the whole point of this project for Ian: to educate people on the effects their daily lives have on the world and inspire people to take charge for a positive change. “We’re not trying to be high and mighty like we know everything or something, and we’re not trying to just take peoples money to help fund our trip. We want to mix snowboarding with this awareness and make a story that has meaning or depth to it. Snowboard porn is awesome, but I want to add on to the stoke with something bigger than just the rider.”
In the fall we will be releasing the chronicles of Ian and his veggie mobile snowboarding crew in 3 dope webisodes. Right now, you can follow their story, donate some funds and receive prizes (like a seasons pass to Steven’s, or Zeal Optics sunglasses!) on their website! It's pretty amazing. Head over to peruse the many prizes and previous episodes to learn more about the journey!
Awareness is the door. When we start to talk about these things is when it starts to happen. It opens your eyes.
WhistlerBlake
March 26th, 2016
A for effort but this is not an achievable dream. After 2 WVO vehicles and a trip from Vancouver to Alaska and back my advice is to give up now. WVO is not as sustainable as people like to think it is and its really freaking hard to source.
This article green washes all of the negative effects of driving a huge truck. Please do some research on two tank WVO systems, as this one surely is.