Artist Sam Shoemaker takes mushroom kayak on twelve-hour journey

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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.