Surfboard

There’s no doubt that paddling a surfboard out to the breakers is a good source of upper body exercise. What a lot of non-surfers might not realize, however, is that balancing on a constantly-shifting board is also a great workout for the core muscle groups. Surfer and entrepreneur Mike Hartwick certainly realized it, which is why he created the RipSurfer X stationary surfboard trainer – while it’s far from being the world’s only balance trainer, it’s claimed to be unique in offering all the fitness benefits of real surfing.  Read More

In order to surf those massive walls of salt water known as big waves, brave surfers usually need to get towed in by a personal watercraft (PWC). This presents some logistical problems (i.e. having to bring a buddy along to tow you around all day). The WaveJet gives you the power you need without requiring a large tow-in vehicle or separate person.  Read More

California-based Signal Snowboards recently fulfilled the dreams of board sports enthusiasts everywhere in its "Every Third Thursday" Web series by building a hybrid board capable of surfing both waves and powder stashes. If you think that the board can't possibly shred on both water and snow proficiently, Signal took it to the beach and mountains to prove it.  Read More

In an activity that for many of its participants is akin to a religion, the merging of surfing and technology might seem a bit like blasphemy. But while surfing is still about lifestyle for many of us, these days it's also a competitive sport offering huge amounts of prize money, so it's no surprise to see the emergence of boards packing more than just polyurethane within their fiberglass shells. With the aim of "turning feelings into facts and figures", research company Tecnalia and Spanish surfboard manufacturer Pukas have teamed up to create a surfboard that packs a gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS compass, pressure sensors and strain gauges to measure the flex of the board – but no headlights.  Read More

Four mechanical engineering undergraduates from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have installed a computer and eight velocity sensors on a surfboard, in effort to create the ultimate surfing experience. While the students ride the board across the waves, the sensors register the speed at which the board skims along the water, then send that data to the computer, which proceeds to transmit it wirelessly to a laptop on the beach. The computer also saves the data on an internal memory card. The students built the board for their senior design project, but also as a part of Ph.D. student Benjamin Thompson’s science-of-surfboards project, in which he hopes to design the "perfect" board.  Read More

Bill Stewart has been shaping and selling surfboards since the late 70’s and, like most surfers, it seems that Bill thinks there just aren’t enough daylight hours to enjoy his wave riding past time. To rectify this he’s created a one-of-a-kind board complete with headlights designed specifically for surfing at night. Dubbed the Night Stalker, Stewart’s creation is the first ever shortboard to pack LEDs embedded in the side fins and two 700 lumen headlights contained with the board’s transparent plexiglass nose to form a pair of surfboard headlights.  Read More

According to Gerhard Tevini from Krunk Surfing in Austria, surfers know the scenario all too well – the fins of your surfboard have to be screwed off when traveling or on the way to the waves. You hear the surf conditions are ideal so you race to the beach only to discover that you can’t find your screwdriver to attach your fins. Everyone else is in the water enjoying the best surf in a long time while you sit on the beach. So Tevini – with his engineering background – set about creating the Krunk Fin System (KFS), a tool-less system for attaching fins to a board.  Read More

June 2, 2008 Things that travel well on water are usually equally as cumbersome on dry land. We've seen collapsible solutions for larger craft like catamarans but what about the humble surfboard? Although modern designs are much less of a hassle to transport than the long boards of old, wrestling six feett of fiberglass into the back of the wagon, tying it to the roof, or even negotiating airports can still present quite a challenge. An inflatable surfboard is one solution, another is this collapsible concept design from Nick Notara - it's a surfboard that breaks down into two pieces for transportation purposes whilst retaining its structural integrity via the use of a carbon fiber backbone and two self centering, constant loading pin joints.  Read More

March 10, 2007 A hydrofoil is a boat with wing-like foils mounted on struts below the hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils develop enough lift for the boat to become foilborne - i.e. to raise the hull up and out of the water. This results in a great reduction in drag and a corresponding increase in speed and has resulted in some of man’s more interesting water conveyances. The advent of the world’s first human powered hydrofoil catalysed a lot of activity in the area and one of several new manufacturers of human-powered hydrofoils, inventist, took the knowledge it had gained in developing the Aquaskipper and developed the Hydroglide, a surfboard with quick-charge, high-torque electric motor and a hydrofoil underneath. It’s still in the development stages but showing remarkable prowess with a top speed of 25 mph. That’s faster than the human-powered hydrofoil record, so it’s no slouch. The Ni-MH rechargeable battery has an average run time of two hours and takes just an hour to charge. Steering of the Hydroglide is accomplished with a steering bar and as the videos show, you can lie down or stand up.  Read More