Artist Sam Shoemaker takes mushroom kayak on twelve-hour journey

In California, an artist and “mycologist” has crossed 26 miles of ocean in a kayak made of mycelium, the root system of mushrooms. Sam Shoemaker made the record-setting, twelve-hour journey from Catalina Island to San Pedro in August, persevering amid seasickness and curiosity from a fin whale. “It was just like a psychedelic experience,” Shoemaker told The Guardian.

Shoemaker used a conventional, fiberglass kayak to serve as a mold, growing Ganoderma polychromum mycelium for almost a month. The fungi kayak was then dried over several months. He hopes the voyage will spur interest in mycelium as a plastics alternative.