“Boys and Mens Board Shorts”

Australians love their (and our) board shorts and these days they are made from environmentally-friendly nylon fabric. If the shorts are stylish enough (and ours are) they can be worn anywhere, from your hotel bar to the beach and to the local beach-side restaurant. The shorts, complete with a waterproof wallet, come in a swim shorts bag. There’s no problem with where to keep your money when you wear our shorts. Australian board shorts have been around since the 1950s, although they have come a long way since then. The materials used, for example, are very different to the old nylon or cotton that used to be standard materials for board shorts. Now we use recycled fishing nets and plastic bottles to make materials. However, you wouldn’t know that, as our mens board shorts feel good to the touch and they are certainly stylish.

Mens Board Shorts from Old Fishing Nets.

This title may sound like something out of the fairy tale, Aladdin, where the wicked vizier, well- disguised called ‘New lamps for old.’ This was a ploy, you will remember to get the old magic lamp and its resident genie from Aladdin. If you think of the sea-faring nations around the globe, you will realize that fishing nets are common. Sometimes they don’t last for long because of general wear and tear. If you are on a Greek island, for example, you can often sit in a harbour and watch the fishermen repairing their nets, ready for the next day’s, or night’s, fishing trip. If you visit the Cyclades islands this is a common sight. The material that is discarded so often ends up in the sea.

Sometimes the fishermen throw their old nets away and they are washed into the sea by large waves but of course, nets also get swept overboard and end up in the sea when boats are out at sea. They can caught on rocks and coral reefs (a particular problem in Asia). There comes a time when they have been repaired so often that they are no longer useful. The fishermen could not imagine them being put to good use and being made into material which can be used for mens short board shorts, for example, or even mens long board shorts!

The fishing nets are made into polyester in a mill in Italy and you really have to feel the quality of the material for yourself. You would never guess that once upon a time it was a plastic bottle, or several of these bottles that now so heavily pollute our oceans and seas. If you care about the environment, especially our seas and oceans, then you really should checkout our range of board shorts for young and old alike.

Our Board Shorts are Popular in the Middle East Too.

You may not think of the Middle East as trend-setting, but we at The Rocks Push have managed to get a slice of this lucrative market. Our clients are from the United Arab Emirates, as well as Oman.

If you were thinking that middle eastern men are not as fashion-conscious as westerners, think again. They might keep their women well covered, but men are free to surf, cavort in the waves and wear black board shorts mens fashion garments, or indeed, board shorts of any colour. They are not restricted to wearing traditional Arabic robes.

Our distant ancestors had no need for mens pink board shorts, or any other type of garment to swim in. They simply stripped off and swam in whatever water they came across. We all know that the Victorians were a prudish lot, and up until the mid-19 th century there was no absolute ban on nude bathing. In the UK, Bath Corporation banned nude bathing for males who were aged 10 or older. This ban came into force in 1737, and after that, things went downhill for male (and female) bathers.

The first ‘bathing costumes’ were invented, although they weren’t called that. They were called caleçons and were worn by men and women. These were long johns or leggings, which covered the lower body. By 1860, caleçons were de rigueur.  In the mid to late 19 th century, men’s swimwear was very similar to their unimaginative undergarments. As the century drew to a close, improvements were made, and more thought went into the design of men’s swimwear.To begin with men’s swimwear garments were knitted, which meant that the wool used to stretch and of course, when the suits were wet and water-logged, they could easily slip off. Such accidents would have scandalised Victorian matrons.

In the 1920s, (the age of the ‘flapper’), Britain began to make a one-piece men’s swimming costume called the Speed Suit. Basically, the top was a kind of early tank top, or at least the armholes were of a generous, rather than a tight, cut. Men could choose a plain, solid colour, or something flashier, for example, stripes.

In the 1930s things began to change, with the introduction of Lastex, a synthetic elastic and nylon material. This hugged the male body and emphasised its contours. Johnny Weissmuller, the Olympic swimmer, who played Tarzan in Hollywood films later in his career, helped to design what became the first actual pair of trunks for men. Male swimwear became more tailored, until, finally, in 1937, men could, if they wanted to, swim bare-chested. However, bare-chested men were often shunned on beaches where there were women and children. By the end of the 1930s, men wore boxer short-style swimwear or shorts on beaches. During the Second World War (1939 – 45) fabric was scarce, so men’s swimwear became shorter and not so full.

After the war, there was a surge of interest in body building and the male physique. Men’s swimwear became bolder. Perhaps in response to the more vibrant and daring women’s fashions of the 1950s. Hawaiian prints became popular and the austere garments of the war years gave way to a more flamboyant style.

The Australian Speedo brand was created in the 1960s. These swimming trunks were shorter than ever before, and space-age, psychedelic colours became popular after the moon landing of 1969. Denim, corduroy and terry cloth were also popular materials for men’s swimwear.

In the 1970s cut-off shorts became fashionable. Boxer-style trunks became fashionable along with short, tight trunks. In the 1980s neoprene began to be used, and this made trunks more popular. Lycra was also used to show off the male physique, while the body-building craze continued.

In the 1990s Calvin Klein’s range of boxer shorts took the male fashion world by storm and board shorts hit the beach scene. Now, virtually anything goes, as long as it is comfortable to wear and colourful. Now it doesn’t matter what size a man is, there are ranges of big mens board shorts as well as shorts for kids and thinner individuals.

Cheap Mens Board Shorts.

If you have a look at our online catalogue, you might think that our board shorts are expensive, but compare them to other stores, and we don’t think you will find that they are. We don’t actually have a mens boardshorts sale, but we do offer a discount on your first order with us. With one of our offers, if you send us a photo of you in your Rocks Push board shorts we’ll also send you a direct message with a code that will qualify you to get a discount off your next purchase. Keep visiting our website to find out if there is a mens board shorts sale, you never know your luck. Alternatively, you can always contact us and ask us any questions you might have about our stock availability and so on.

Is There Such a Thing as ‘Sustainable’ Plastic?

The beauty of our mens long board shorts is that they are made from ‘sustainable’ plastic. That might seem like a contradiction in terms, but because the plastic bottles (and nets) we recycle have not been removed from the sea, there is no shortage of them, unfortunately. People routinely leave plastic bottles and other trash on the world’s beaches, so there is no shortage of plastic bottles, or the plastic from fishing nets, to convert into nylon material. So in the sense that plastic is not in short supply, and will never be, unless we change our habits, then plastic is ‘sustainable’ in a strange way.

Think, for a moment about the garbage floating in our seas and oceans: there is ‘the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ for example, and it is far from unique, although it is the biggest. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch actually extends from the West Coast of North America to Japan. This is split up into the Eastern Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is between the US states of Hawaii and California. The Western Great Pacific Garbage Patch extends from Japan to America’s west coast.

The world’s other garbage patches are located in other oceans. the North Atlantic one, the South Atlantic one, and the ones in the North and South Pacific. Unfortunately, there is also Mediterranean garbage patch, which is estimated to contain around 250 billion pieces of plastic, which is almost equal to 500 tonnes of trash. We collectively produce about 7 billion pounds of non-recyclable plastic annually. Unfortunately, we are also victims of our own pollution as the chemicals in plastic have been found in humans living in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

The sad thing is that although we now know the damage caused to the environment by our addiction to all things plastic, we are still producing billions of kilos of it annually. There is no escape for the plastic as it is trapped in a gyre, which is a slow-moving, circular ocean current. The current is formed by the rotation of the planet and wind patterns. The Western and Eastern garbage patches are connected by a 6,000-mile current, the Subtropical Convergence Zone.

The circular movement of the two gyres means that the garbage moves to the centre of the gyres, where it amasses and stays. There’s no escape for the plastic bottles, bottle caps, fishing paraphernalia and other plastic detritus.

Captain Charles J. Moore is credited with having found the garbage patch located in the North Pacific gyre. He and his crew had just finished a Transpac sailing race and were headed home to California. This yacht race begins off the coast of California and ends at the Diamond Head lighthouse, which is off Honolulu, Hawaii.

Interestingly, Captain Moore is listed as a surfer, captain and marine conservation scientific researcher, as well as an oceanographer. Now he is also a World Ocean Ambassador who travels around the world highlighting the plight of the world’s oceans.Because the plastic in the Garbage Patch consists mainly of very small pieces of plastic, it had not shown up on any satellite images.

It really is sad that for the last fifty years that we have produced so much waste plastic, but just imagine what the planet would be like if we had been producing it and disposing of it in the same irresponsible ways for 150 years, for example.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, however, as more companies like ours are coming up with innovative ideas for using recycled and reconstituted plastic. You would never guess (we don’t think) that the nylon material we use in our mens white boardshorts (and all our others) was made from discarded fishing nets.

If you are looking for trendy, board shorts that are made from environmentally-friendly material, take a look at ours, here (just click the link). They are different, trendy and come in a variety of styles, so you are sure to find a pair (at least) to suit your taste. You may be lucky and receive a promotional discount voucher too! Why not visit our site or a store near you as soon as you can? Help us preserve our planet! It needs all the help it can get.