Artist Sam Shoemaker has created a mushroom kayak plastic alternative made from mycelium and plant fibers, highlighting the potential of fungi-based materials as eco-friendly substitutes for plastics and fiberglass in watercraft.
A Los Angeles artist and mycologist has shown that fungi may hold the key to a future free of plastic. Sam Shoemaker recently paddled 26 miles across the Pacific Ocean, from Catalina Island to San Pedro, in a kayak grown entirely from mushrooms. The journey lasted 12 hours and included a remarkable encounter with a massive fin whale that shadowed his experimental vessel.
For Shoemaker, the voyage was as much an artistic statement as a scientific demonstration of what fungi-based materials might achieve as a plastic alternative.
His kayak was not built from plastic, fiberglass, or wood. Instead, Shoemaker cultivated it from mycelium, the dense root-like network that forms the foundation of fungi, combined with a hemp substrate. He grew the material inside the mold of a 14-foot sit-on-top kayak he had found on Craigslist.
The growing process itself took only about four weeks, but months of drying, baking, and sealing followed before the vessel was seaworthy. Shoemaker baked the mycelium structure to make it water-resistant and coated it in beeswax to prevent water absorption. The result was a cork-like, buoyant mushroom kayak plastic alternative weighing 135 pounds — heavier than most commercial models but stable enough to handle open water.
At sea, the mushroom kayak plastic alternative proved functional if unconventional. It was slower and less maneuverable than traditional kayaks, but it handled the 26-mile crossing without capsizing or breaking apart. The whale encounter underscored both the vulnerability and resilience of the experiment: a biodegradable vessel holding its own in one of the planet’s toughest environments.
Shoemaker had harvested the mycelium from a polypore fungus he collected near his Los Angeles home, highlighting the experimental and local nature of the project. His decision to use wild fungi emphasized his central message — that living, sustainable materials may one day replace plastics that choke the world’s oceans.
Mycelium-based composites, sometimes referred to as “AquaFung,” are already being explored as plastic alternatives. Unlike plastics, which linger for centuries, mycelium naturally decomposes, offering biodegradable solutions for both marine and terrestrial applications.
The mushroom kayak plastic alternative joins a growing movement of fungal innovation. Companies such as Ecovative and MycoWorks are developing mushroom-based leather, textiles, and insulation, and architects are experimenting with mycelium in construction. Shoemaker’s vessel, though rooted in art, points to the broader potential of fungi to reshape industries.
The hurdles, however, remain significant. Shoemaker’s kayak was heavier and far more labour-intensive to build than conventional boats. Drying and treatment took more than a year, and questions linger about long-term durability under saltwater and sun.
Yet Shoemaker sees it not as a finished product but as a prototype — proof that fungi can take us across an ocean and that further research could refine the process. In a deliberate move to encourage that progress, he made his methods open-source rather than trademarking or patenting them.
By sharing the process freely, he hopes scientists, makers, and innovators will build on his work. He argues that collaboration is necessary to accelerate adoption: if these materials are to scale, as many people as possible need to be testing, iterating, and sharing results.
See also: Sustainable Mushroom Coffins – Human Compost
The experiment also speaks to the urgency of the plastic crisis. Each year, millions of tons of petroleum-based plastics enter marine environments, breaking down into harmful microplastics that accumulate in food chains and damage ecosystems. Biodegradable fungal materials like the mushroom kayak plastic alternative provide a hopeful counterpoint: renewable, functional, and capable of returning safely to natural cycles once their purpose is fulfilled. Shoemaker’s kayak voyage, the longest known ocean crossing in a mushroom-grown vessel, is both symbolic and practical in this sense.
For Shoemaker, the accomplishment is not about personal achievement but about sparking imagination. If a boat can be grown from fungi as a mushroom kayak plastic alternative, what else can be replaced? This question reframes the experiment as an invitation — to scientists, designers, and everyday people — to see fungi not just as organisms that break things down but as building blocks for a new kind of sustainable economy.
The mushroom kayak plastic alternative is at once an artwork, a prototype, and a message in a bottle: with creativity, persistence, and shared knowledge, even the most unlikely material can take us across an ocean.
