A good article about eco-friendly, paulownia surfboards and Tom Wegener at:
www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-08/sustainable-surfboards-from-paulownia-wood-biodegradable/12024522
Link to video clip on Landline at the end of the article - paulownia footage is from about 36 minutes.
Made me look at a few I built (10 years ago!) before I turned to the dark side and did some plastic ones. As Tom says, they take time and a fair bit more effort to make but they surf just fine.