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How to Choose Surfboard Fins: Setup and Fin Types | evo

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How to Choose Surfboard Fins: Setup and Fin Types | evo

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how to choose surfboard fins: setup and fin types | evo

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How to Choose Surfboard Fins: Setup and Fin Types | evo

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Fins are a crucial part of your surfboard setup. Discover which fins will work best for you based on your style and board setup.

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How Inflatable Vests Work in Big-Wave Surfing - YouTube

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How Inflatable Vests Work in Big-Wave Surfing - YouTube

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How Inflatable Vests Work in Big-Wave Surfing

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How the latest tech in big-wave surfing works in real life.

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6 Times Jet Ski Drivers Totally Blew It | The Inertia

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6 Times Jet Ski Drivers Totally Blew It | The Inertia

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When you're playing in the ocean, things are bound to go wrong. It's unpredictable, and no matter how much time one spends in an unpredictable environment, it will never become predictable. The best of the best still get blindsided by the ocean, but more often than not, it's the ones that are in, very literally, over their heads. Here's a list that incorporates both seasoned vets, total newcomers, waves, and one of man's most annoyingly fun creations, the jet ski.
1. Raimana Van Bastolaer at Teahupo'o, May 2005
In May of 2005, a solid swell rolled through Teahupoo. Among the surfers that were there for it was Raimana Van Bastolaer and his accidental tow partner, Reef McIntosh. Just after the sun rose on that day, Raimana asked Reef to drive the jet ski out to the lineup. "I was like, 'Sure, no problem!' Anyone can drive a jet ski in a lagoon," Reef told Grind TV. "So I drive it out to the lineup and there's Brock Little towing Shane Dorian into a wave. Seeing those guys, Raimana got all excited, but his usual driver, Arsene, wasn't there; he was late or something. So Raimana says to me, 'Hey, put the tow rope on the back of the ski.' I knew how to put the rope onto it, so I was like, 'Sure!' Then he jumps into the water and says, 'Let's go!'"

After a pretty good back and forth that consisted of Reef telling Raimana that he couldn't do it and Raimana telling him that he could, Reef finally agreed. Soon after, he was feeling a little more comfortable-he'd put Raimana into a few good ones, and his confidence as a driver was climbing. Then, of course, everything went wrong.

"So there was, like, a chop on top of the wave; it was kind of stormy and crossed up, making these little waves on top of the waves," Reef recounted to Grind. "So as I'm looking down at him I felt the wave pick the ski up, and I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm gliding on this thing with no control!' People were saying that I should have turned and gassed it out the back, but I'd never been in that position before; I'd never really driven a jet ski in surf at all! So once I felt that the wave had me and the ski, I just ejected out the back to save myself, all the while praying that the ski would go over Raimana and not tumble down the face onto him."

Luckily, that's what happened, and the only real injury was to Reef's pride. "After that I just had to deal with a bruised ego and a lot of embarrassment," he remembered. Andy Irons was in the channel, and he was like, 'You shouldn't have been out there,' and I was like, 'I know!' It was in Sports Illustrated, the "Letterman" show, "Good Morning America"; that shit was everywhere! I can look back on it now and laugh, and once I saw Raimana, I was like, 'I told you I couldn't f-kin' drive!'"
2. Unknown couple at the Wedge, June 2016
A few days ago, the internet exploded when footage of a couple on a jetski found themselves in a the wrong place at a very, very wrong time: right in front of a warping Wedge monster. Although the driver tried to outrun it, the wave caught up to them and pushed them into dangerous territory, smashing the ski on the rocks. Lifeguards and surfers rushed to get the pair to safety. "Apparently, they were just kind of lost or something," said Captain Skeeter Leeper to the OC Register. "He just drove straight in."

Luckily, neither person on the ski was harmed at all-but you can bet they were shaken up by the experience. "It was the craziest thing I've ever seen," said Newport lifeguard Rob Marienthal. "Everyone who saw it couldn't believe their eyes. It was unbelievable."
3. Joel Parkinson at Rio, May 2014
The Rio event is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting on the Tour schedule. Not because of the waves, though. It's because of the incredible amount of strange things that go down there each year. This year, it was gunfights on the street. Last year, it was actual shit in the water (well, that's kind of every year). The year before that, it was rumors of rampant favoritism from jet ski drivers hired to get surfers back to the lineup.

While none of the rumors have ever been substantiated, Surfing reported that "one surfer stated that his driver refused to find a way out the back, giving him no choice but to jump off and paddle out under his own volition. On top of that, there have been accusations that non-Brazilian surfers are often dropped off in vicious rips." Then, of course, there's current number one, Matt Wilkinson. If the rumors are true, his jet ski driver took it a step further, and actually said, "I'm going to kill you."

None of this is to say that Parko was launched off the ski in Rio on purpose. It's just to say that there are a lot of rumors that floated around that it was. Either way, it makes for damn good watching.
4. Jaws, March 2011
Every now and then, we find ourselves in a position that, by no fault of our own, is not one we want to be in. Such is the case with this ski driver, whose machine decided to stop working in the worst possible place.

"I was dropping down the wave and I saw that the guy was in trouble," wrote Jason Polakow, the man on the windsurfer. "I was already committed on my line, so I just had to bottom turn around the ski and try and get out of the way."

Luckily for everyone involved, he did get out of the way, and no one got hurt except the ski.
5. Peahi Challenge, December 2015
Everyone and their mothers remembers the Peahi Challenge. It was the greatest big wave event ever-and probably still is, if one doesn't count the recent Red Bull Cape Fear Challenge. It was the first time the World Surf League had a real contest at one of the world's greatest waves, and Mother Nature put on her dancing shoes and started drinking early.

By the time the horn blew on the first heat, she was in full on party mode, flashing strangers and dancing on tables. That meant, of course, not only some of the most memorable rides in Jaws history, but some of the most memorable wipeouts. Case in point: jet ski driver above who really didn't want to dance with Mother Nature, but was dragged out to the dance floor, anyway.

6. Kelly Slater at Tahiti, August 2014
The 2014 Billabong Pro Tahiti was one of those events that people talked about for a long time. It held one of surfing's greatest heats, JJF vs. Slater in the semis. Slater had two perfect tens and fourteen nine-point rides, and there were five more perfect tens from other competitors. Medina went on to win it, but the waves were the real players-Tahiti went nuts, and it was a show like none other.

Somewhere in the midst of all that, though, Kelly Slater fell on a wave early. The jet ski driver picked him up, spun around, and totally blew it. It was great for everyone watching, but not so much for either Slater or the driver. Thankfully, everyone came out ok, and it's long-forgotten... until now.

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When you're playing in the ocean, things are bound to go wrong. It's unpredictable, and no matter how much time one spends in an unpredictable environment, it will never become predictable. The best of the best still get blindsided by the ocean, but more often than not, it's the ones that are in, very literally, over their heads.

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Fins have a huge impact on the feel, stability, drive and maneuverability of a surfboard - factors that can completely alter the way you experience surfing. This article provides some basic information on fins, from key terms and measurements to common setups, which will help you make educated fin-buying decisions.

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The Evolution of Surfboard Design | HowStuffWorks

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The Evolution of Surfboard Design | HowStuffWorks

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Surfing requires little more than a board, some good waves and a spirit of adventure. It's a sport built for speed, and most enthusiasts of surfing will tell you that it's a way of commuting with nature, a spiritual undertaking akin to yoga or a hike in the forest.

That's probably why it's endured for centuries. Changes in the board's design have been steady, incorporating each era's materials, ideas and technology as a way to constantly improve the pastime. The sport hasn't changed much, but the surfboard has.

Surfing originated in Polynesia, and experts believe the sport was brought to Hawaii by Polynesian settlers. By the time missionaries from North America settled in Hawaii in the 1800s, surfing was the sport of island royalty and the elite -- in fact, two princes studying in the U.S. first practiced the sport on the mainland in 1865. It's as popular in Australia as it is in the U.S., which can be traced to a demonstration given by Hawaiian diver Duke Kahanamoku on a 1914 visit after his star-making turn as an Olympic swimmer.

But up to the early 20th century, surfboard design was relatively crude. The boards were made out of thick, solid wood and could weigh as much as 150 pounds -- for comparison, imagine surfing on your dining room table. To keep them smooth, and as water-resistant as possible, they were "sanded" with coral, and then stained with bark and charcoal and finished with a coat of glossy nut oil.

Today, they're made of water-resistant, lightweight fiberglass, polymers and other synthetic chemicals. But a lot has happened in between. Read on to see how we got from a heavy plank of wood to a precision instrument.

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Surfing requires little more than a board, some good waves and a spirit of adventure. It's a sport built for speed, and most enthusiasts of surfing will tell you that it's a way of commuting with nature, a spiritual undertaking akin to yoga or a hike in the forest.

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Dedicated to Promoting the Responsible Growth of Big Wave Surfing, Tow-In Surfing, Ocean Education, Training, and Water Safety

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(24) Nazare GIGANTIC WAVES Drone Footage November 8, 2017 - YouTube

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(24) Nazare GIGANTIC WAVES Drone Footage November 8, 2017 - YouTube

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Nazare GIGANTIC WAVES Drone Footage November 8, 2017

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Nazaré is hit by quadruple overhead swells! Filmed with the DJI Mavic Pro. To use this video in a commercial player or in broadcasts, please email licensing@storyful.com If you like the music, you can support them here! herbal tea by Artificial.Music https://soundcloud.com/artificial-music Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

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Pro Surfing Makes Waves With Video Technology

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Pro Surfing Makes Waves With Video Technology

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Images via aspworldtour.com

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour is making waves with its game-changing video technology at the Billabong Pipeline Masters this week.

Pipeline, on the North Shore of Oahu, is hosting the final event of the year with three surfers vying for the 2014 World Title. For young gun Gabriel Medina from Brazil, current World Title-holder Australian Mick Fanning, and 11-time World Champion and legend of the sport Kelly Slater, it all comes down to this.

And fans will get to watch it all unfold, in real-time, from their laptops and mobile phones in HD quality, with one of the best replays systems in pro-sports today.

Previous to the 1990's, surf fans needed to wait for monthly publications of Surfer and Surfing to arrive in order to see the results of contests, which often take place in remote spots around the world, including South Africa, Tahiti, Fiji, and Brazil.

But in the mid-1990's, viewing professional surf events changed radically with the first real-time webcast of an event.

This technology allowed previously distant fans to tune in and watch their favorite surfers tackle some of the dreamiest waves on the planet. This now includes both the Men's and Women's World Tours, and newly-minted Big Wave World Tour.

And fans have been watching in steadily increasing numbers. Stats from the first three events of the year showed some favorable trends:

Over 1M uniques to the event during window

1M hours watched per event, on average, for first three events

Fans watching for over 30min on average and returning to watch multiple days of the event

300K additional watch hours via ASP video on demand (VoD)

40% of audience watching on mobile and tablets

Additional broadcast reach of over 10M households across the globe

At each event, a crew of nearly 60 videographers, producers, and techies spend countless hours bringing surf fans high quality footage of the best surfers in the world. 12 video streams are integrated in five production trailers, with the final product uploaded to YouTube for distribution.

It's an unbelievably complex field production, even in a relatively wired place, like Pipeline. In places like Tahiti, much of the work happens on platforms out in the middle of the ocean.

More recently, the ASP has added additional cameras in the water, on jet-skis to provide a truly "in-the-lineup" experience. Just as pro surfing put GoPro on the map with views from the tubes, now you can get into the barrel in real-time during the contest.

And if you miss a heat, the ASP has surf fans covered with their trademark Heat Analyzer, a self-curated highlight video reel for every contest.

As professional sports have ridden the wave to rapid highlight consumption, the ASP has gone way overhead and taken highlight watching to a new level. The Heat Analyzer, introduced in 2011, has changed the way fans watch the sport.

In 2011, Billabong introduced the technology at an event in Tahiti. Previously, fans needed to wade through hours of video or look at the score sheet to review the action. But the Heat Analyzer integrated the two into a super-powered highlight reel machine.

Almost immediately, after every heat, the production crew tags and organizes the video into a series of highlights, including all waves with scores, wipeouts, and action from the beach, like interviews and special clips.

This format allows users to quickly get up to speed on the action (sometimes as many as 24 half-hour heats run in one day) in a highly efficient manner. Heats can be reviewed in minutes.

An additional benefit to the heat analyzer is the ability to follow a specific surfer, like Medina, Fanning, or Slater. Each round and heat are tagged with specific surfers, so fans can easily watch their favorite athletes in-and-out of the water.

With the conclusion of the Billabong Pipe Masters right around the corner, now is the time to watch some of the best surfers in the world in amazing conditions (Surfline forecast for event is 10-15ft+). Tune into the webcast to get a feel for the surf up close, with the real-time webcasts.

And if you miss the action in real-time, the ASP has you covered with their Heat Analyzer. Ride the wave, and check out the next generation of video technology for professional sports.

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Pro Surfing Makes Waves With Video Technology

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Images via aspworldtour.com The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour is making waves with its game-changing video technology at the Billabong Pipeline Masters this week. Pipeline, on the North Shore of Oahu, is hosting the final event of the year with three surfers vying for the 2014 World Title.

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CIRCA 500: Surfboards are to sixth-century Polynesians what Ferraris or giant flat-screen TVs are to Americans today-the ultimate status symbol. And size matters: Tribal chiefs and nobles ride boards as long as 25 feet, while commoners catch waves on 7-footers.

1778: During a stop in Hawaii, the crewmen of Capt. James Cook's HMS Discovery become the first recorded Europeans to witness surfing.

"I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three-quarters of a second... and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me. None but natives ever master the art of surf-bathing thoroughly." - MARK TWAIN, ROUGHING IT, 1872

1907: Surfing makes its mainland debut at an event for, weirdly, the railroad. Hawaiian George Freeth-who reinvigorated surfing by cutting his 16-foot redwood board to a more nimble 8 feet-demonstrates his skills in this publicity stunt for the Redondo-Los Angeles Railway.

1926: Tom Blake-who was born in Wisconsin and later moved to Hawaii-drills holes in his 15-foot-long redwood board to reduce its weight, then encases it in two other pieces of wood. His friends scoff at the "Cigar Board," but in 1930 a version of his super-fast board becomes the first ever to be mass-produced. Seven years later, he publishes plans for a DIY board in PM.

1932: The introduction of balsa decreases surfing board weights from 100 to 30 pounds-which makes impressing beach bunnies by hoisting a board overhead much easier.

1934: Hawaiian surfers taper the tail end of their boards; the new, more hydrodynamic design allows them to maneuver into the curl of the wave and ride in the pipe.

1935: Blake creates the fixed-tail fin, which increases maneuverability and stability. (Twin fins hit surfboards in the late '60s, triple fins in the early '80s.)

1940S TO '50S: Fiberglass, invented in the '30s, is used on surfboards after World War II. In the '50s, Hawaii's George Downing creates "gun" longboards: Shaved from polyurethane and finished in fiberglass, the narrow, lightweight boards are ideal for big-wave riding.

"My surfer knots are rising / And my board is losing wax / But that won't stop me, Baby / 'Cause you know I'm coming back... Surfin' is the only life / The only way for me." - BEACH BOYS, "SURFIN'," 1961

1971: Sick of losing his board after wipeouts, Californian Pat O'Neill (son of wetsuit designer Jack) comes up with a DIY solution: suction cup + surgical cord = surf leash.

FEBRUARY 2011: Spanish firms Tecnalia and Pukas equip a board with a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a GPS, and strain gauges to gather data. They find surfers experience up to 5 g's during sharp turns.

NOVEMBER 2011: Hawaiian Garrett McNamara rides a 90-foot wave-shattering the previous record, a mere 77 feet-off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal.

2012: Global Surf Industries layers fiberglass and hand-laid coconut husks over an expanded polystyrene core to create a surfboard that is 25 percent lighter-and 35 percent stronger-than most other boards. Surfboards continue to get more high-tech, thanks to devices like the WaveJet, a water-propulsion system that attaches to the bottom of boards and allows surfers to cut through water at up to 7 mph. Using the device, McNamara paddled into a 45-foot wave; the only way to catch a breaker that big before was to be pulled in by jet ski. Gnarly!

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CIRCA 500: Surfboards are to sixth-century Polynesians what Ferraris or giant flat-screen TVs are to Americans today-the ultimate status symbol. And size matters: Tribal chiefs and nobles ride boards as long as 25 feet, while commoners catch waves on 7-footers. 1778: During a stop in Hawaii, the crewmen of Capt.

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These 3 Aussie startups are bringing surfing and tech together

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These 3 Aussie startups are bringing surfing and tech together

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Think about surfing, and you're likely to conjure up images of waves, wax and blue skies. 3D printing and software, not so much.

A number of Australian startups are uniting the beloved sport with technology in innovative ways, making high-tech surfboards, helping surfers find their perfect board shape and size, and challenging the hold big brands, like Rip Curl and Quicksilver, have on the market.

Australia has 35,877 kilometres of coastline to play with, so it seems only right the country dominates surfing-related startups. Disrupt Surfing, Boardcave and Vader Surfboards are three Australian companies doing their best to bring the sport into the 21st Century.

Disrupt Surfing

With a name like Disrupt Surfing, this Sydney-based startup has to be trying something a little different.

Founded by Gary Elphick and Jason Rogers, with a Bondi Beach HQ, Disrupt Surfing gives customers the ability to design their own surfboard online using 3D printing software.

The idea came to Elphick when he realised how much people like to pour creativity into their surfboards and snowboards. "People draw on their boards, it's a real thing that defines you as an individual," he told Mashable Australia. But this level of customisation just wasn't being served by the major surf brands.

"The surf companies have bought into mass production, and everything is exactly the same," he said. "You don't want to have the same gear as everyone."

Using the Disrupt Surfing site, a customer can design a 3D prototype of their ideal board. While the surfboard is not currently printed using additive 3D technology, the file is used to guide a shaping machine, with a turnaround of about six weeks.

The company is aiming to eventually have each board 100% created by 3D additive printing, so a file can be developed and printed anywhere, anytime. The necessary materials aren't there yet, Elphick said, but within the year, he hopes to have a product ready that is both 3D printable and ecologically friendly.

If successful, the Disrupt Surfing team could create boards that even if they're snapped, could be brought back, crushed and reconstructed.

Launched in late 2014 as part of the Australian accelerator program muru-D - which helps startups with seed capital and mentoring - the company has made over 1,500 products so far, Elphick said.

With a team of six locally, the company is also going to add data sharing options. Disrupt Surfing is considering putting pressure sensors into its boards, for example, so surfers can collect their performance statistics and use them to improve.

This feature isn't quite ready to be taken to the beach, however. "You're still playing around with water and electronics, so you've got to make sure it's really safe before you get in there," Elphick said.

Boardcave

When Ryan Mets and Chris Greben started their surfboard recommendation and customisation website Boardcave in 2011, few surfboard manufacturers had a digital presence and many of the companies they spoke with said no one would buy boards online.

Years later, with a team of 10 across Australia, Brazil and the U.S., they've proven the doubters wrong.

To offer customers the best board for their needs, Mets and Greben, both surfers who worked in the technology industry, have developed a patented "Board Engine" - the brains behind the Boardcave site. The engine helps customers find, compare and buy surfboards and surf hardware from the world's leading surf brands, Mets told Mashable Australia.

Constantly refined as more user data is gathered, the platform profiles a customer's age, weight, height, skill level and fitness to recommend them a selection of surfboard models in the most appropriate size and shape. "Instead of a 17-year-old store hand recommending a board, we can provide the tools and data needed to get customers on the right board to advance their surfing," Mets said.

Boardcave also operates an enterprise software named Cavewire, which the team built in-house. The application connects manufacturers with the site, so Boardcave can keep on top of inventory and sales can be facilitated online.

With plans to roll out the site and Cavewire software in Europe, the Gold Coast-based Boardcave is growing rapidly, Met said. "We see as ourselves as a tech company developing software to help the global surf industry," he added.

Mets predicted that along with broad technology adoption across the surf industry, big strides would be made towards using innovative, eco-friendly material in the coming years. "Companies like Entropy Resins and Marko Foam are leading this shift with environmentally friendly resins and foam for manufacturing surfboards," he said.

"Once these new materials get scale I think the industry will shift," Mets suggested. "We are excited to work with these companies that are working to change industries."

Vader Surfboards

Bondi Beach-based Mike Sanders of Vader Surfboards is making high-tech boards affordable.

Offering his customers a level of customisation, Sanders uses surfboard design software Shape3d to design his surfboards. This lets him perfect the board's outline, rails and concave, Sanders told Mashable Australia. The foam core of the board - what he called a polyurethane surfboard blank - is fed into a CNC shaping machine that reads the 3D file and cuts the foam with a rotating blade.

"This allows for perfect boards every time cut down to super fine detail," he said.

With a background in graphic design and web design, Sanders has created so many surfboards using this technique he says he's lost count. There are currently eight board models in the Vader lineup, which he plans to expand shortly.

Still a one-man show and self-funded, Sanders created Vader Surfboards because he thought there was a lack of good boards at reasonable prices. "The average customer is super diverse, everyone from intermediate to advanced surfers," he said. "I actually get a lot of bodyboarders who want to get into surfing buying my boards because I do a lot of alternative shapes that are short and fun."

"There are no middle men involved and I love it that way," he added.

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These 3 Aussie startups are bringing surfing and tech together

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Think about surfing, and you're likely to conjure up images of waves, wax and blue skies. 3D printing and software, not so much. A number of Australian startups are uniting the beloved sport with technology in innovative ways, making high-tech surfboards, helping surfers find their perfect board shape and size, and challenging the hold big brands, like Rip Curl and Quicksilver, have on the market.

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How Technology is Making Waves Throughout the Surfing World

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How Technology is Making Waves Throughout the Surfing World

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In the sporting world, there is a divide between fans and professional athletes that gets bridged a little more with every passing year. Fans can follow their favorite athletes and interact with them on social media, use team websites to track statistics, and keep track of the score from multiple devices, while simultaneously watching the game. The use of all this technology has brought the game to the fans' level. Spectators gear up for their favorite sports with each new season, be it the NBA, NHL, MLS, NFL, or some other league.

One sport, however, differs quite a bit, in that the season is year-round and the action takes place in the water, far from spectator eyes, making it difficult for fans to capture the genuine athlete experience.

In the world of professional surfing, the athletes are not dictated by a set season, but, rather, by the waves that, like an animal coming out of hibernation, emerge at various times of the year all around the globe. These famous waves are produced in places that include the Gold Coast of Australia, Teahupo'o off the coast of Tahiti, and Pipeline in Hawaii. Portugal, Bali, France, and more are also included in the round up of prized surfing locations.

The waves that rear their heads in these spots around the world display unmatchable beauty; a white feathering at the top of the waves that crests down to merge into a full spectrum of blues, from the palest turquoise to the darkest indigo. That beauty, however, is deceptive. These waves are some of the largest and heaviest in the world, and it is the goal of professional surfers to ride them.

For the fans of professional surfing, watching the competition would have at one point meant standing on the shore, far away from the action. The introduction of new technology into the world of surfing has upended the previous ways of watching the sport. There are a variety of new technologies being welcomed in the surfing world, and these range from the use of carbon fiber and epoxy in the production of lighter and more flexible surfboards, to the use of drones and GoPro cameras to catch the action from a previously unimagined close-up perspective.

Previously, helicopters were used to capture surfing footage, resulting in distractions for surfers during the time when they need the deepest concentration, not to mention the choppy water that got kicked up by the helicopter's propeller blades.

In order to remedy this situation and get the fans a closer look at surfing from the professional's perspective, wearable devices, drones, and Go Pros were brought to the mix.

Wearable devices provide up-to-the minute data on the weather, specifically wind and changes in the ocean's currents, which, in turn, affect the quality, shape, and size of the waves; and help surfers determine which waves are likely to earn the highest score in competition. These devices also update both the surfers and their fans with wave scores and analysis as the action unfolds. One such example of these devices includes the Glassy Pro One waterproof smartwatch, which tracks surf data, like the number of waves caught, duration of the rides, the wave speeds, and fluctuating weather conditions.

In addition to wearable devices, drones are being utilized in professional surfing to give viewers a birds-eye view of the waves, without the previously mentioned difficulties that helicopters presented. Drone cinematography provides stunning vantage points of the waves, as they slowly roll towards shore before curling up into the massive waves that are so appealing for those brave enough to ride them. The drones are able to fly low over the waves, without becoming intrusive enough to ruin a surfer's concentration.

GoPro cameras are yet another step in this surfing plus technology mix. While wearable devices provide up-to-the minute data, and drones provide a close up overhead view, Go Pros take the fans even closer by placing them directly into the action. Go Pros can be attached to a surfer's board or body, to provide incredible, frightening, and awe-inspiring vantage points, as these athletes propel themselves down the massive cliff faces of these waves. This gives the athletes and their fans the opportunity to share in the surfing experience together.

Paul Speaker, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Surfing Professionals, stated in an interview for CNBC: "Our goal is to get as close to the experience the surfer is having."

As the technology continues to advance, surfing fans will keep gaining a more accurate perspective on what their favorite pro athletes experience each time they take their boards into the ocean.

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How Technology is Making Waves Throughout the Surfing World

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In the sporting world, there is a divide between fans and professional athletes that gets bridged a little more with every passing year. Fans can follow their favorite athletes and interact with them on social media, use team websites to track statistics, and keep track of the score from multiple devices, while simultaneously watching the game.

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New Surfboard Design the Future of Surfing? | The Inertia

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New Surfboard Design the Future of Surfing? | The Inertia

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A small company called Trinity Board Sport is making surfboards unlike any other, and enough people are convinced that how they're doing it will change the industry. So convinced, in fact, that a crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $32,000 in under a month, mostly from surfers and shapers. The reason? A surfboard that is radically different from anything else on the market.

Early in 2015, Firewire released one of their strangest boards. It's called the Cornice, and it took just over two years to develop. It was the brainchild of two men, Eduardo Cenzana, who is the lead engineer at a company called Trinity Technologies, and Dan Mann, Firewire's surfboard designer. it involved a parabolic rail system and a totally different volume distribution. Here it is in action:

Trinity, though, didn't start out as a surfboard company. They design the blades for wind turbines, but Cenzana realized that if they applied some of the same design characteristics to a surfboard, they might create something incredible. He brought his idea to Firewire, and they agreed with him. "Trinity has significant computer resources due to our work designing products such as wind turbine blades and modeling how they perform in different conditions," Cenzana said in a press release announcing the release of the Cornice. "I believe this is the first time anyone has applied that much computing power and engineering expertise to determine the functionality of a surfboard design. After countless months of computer modeling, we're convinced that the side-cut design offers significant performance advantages."

Much like what happened to skis in the late '80s and early '90s, Cenzana believes parabolic technology is the future of surfboard design. "Parabolic Rail System Technology (PRS) was applied, many years ago, in the skiing industry," wrote his engineering team in the technological explanation. "It changed the ski market completely, making skiing easier, especially for beginners and intermediates but also for advanced. In the ski market, it took 2-3 years to adjust mentalities, but from the beginning, it was a technology that was destined to change skiing forever. PRS is not merely a theory or an opinion: it is applied physics that has already been proven to work."

According to Trinity, a PRS board has 20%-30% more volume than a regular surfboard of the same length-which is good and bad, depending on what you're looking for in a surfboard. They've simply pushed most of the volume from the mid-point forward to the nose-the wave-catching abilities of this board are pretty incredible, as proven in the video above.

The rails, though, are the most interesting part of the whole thing, aside from their distribution (which we'll get into later). According to the company, "the parabolic rail makes turning easier by the cutting through the water in the same direction as that in which the fins are turning. This combined turning action reduces the effort needed to make turns and so enables more maneuverable boards without sacrificing stability."

With companies like Firewire and a grassroots following backing their design ideas, the future looks bright for Trinity. They've got an interesting way of getting their ideas under the feet of surfers around the world, too: they sell licenses to use their designs.

"The customer buys a license and Trinity Board Sport contacts him for necessary data (height, weight, surf level, type of waves...)," wrote Trinity. "With this brief, Trinity prepares a fully customized shape which is sent to the local shaper chosen by the customer. If the surfer does not know a shaper, Trinity will recommend the closest shaper geolocated shaper zone."

But surfers are notoriously stubborn-design innovation usually takes years to catch on. Trinity might have created something the next generation of surfers will be using, but only time will tell.

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Is This Strange New Surfboard Design the Future of Surfing?

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A small company called Trinity Board Sport is making surfboards unlike any other, and enough people are convinced that how they're doing it will change the industry. So convinced, in fact, that a crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $32,000 in under a month, mostly from surfers and shapers. The reason?

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SURFBOARD TECHNOLOGY - GLOBAL SURF INDUSTRIES

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SURFBOARD TECHNOLOGY - GLOBAL SURF INDUSTRIES

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Soft Skin Soft Skin was developed for surf schools and beginner surfers who required a safe, durable, easy to ride surfboard. Softshell is essentially a thick Polyethylene skin wrapped around the deck and rail of the board, combined with a soft slick bottom surface that keeps novice riders safe in the event of impact.

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The Fascinating Evolution of the Surfboard | WIRED

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The Fascinating Evolution of the Surfboard | WIRED

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Surfers like to rhapsodize about being one with the ocean-but between every surfer and the wave he's catching, you'll find a crucial piece of equipment: the surfboard.

The history of surfing is, in many ways, the history of innovations in surfboard design. Jim Heimann, an executive editor at Taschen Books, pays special attention to the board in *Surfing *($200), a gorgeous-and massive-clothbound book that could easily become the new bible for the sport. The culmination of more than three years of research, the book provides, among other things, a visual guide to the surfboard's evolution, from rudimentary planks of wood to modern-day creations that combine materials like fiberglass with polyurethane foam.

The book traces the beginnings of surf culture to Tahiti. There's some guesswork involved here, but in a passage borrowed from the 2010 book The History of Surfing, Matt Warshaw writes that while surfing in some crude form likely took off around 2,000 B.C., surfing as we know it started in Hawaii around 1200 A.D, when Tahitian settlers brought "not only their animals, fruit, and animism to the islands, but also surfing." The earliest wave-riders used boards that were "likely banged together...with no more godly thoughts than a woodcrafter making a door." Polynesian royalty, however, rode boards that were carefully crafted and blessed with prayers. There were three main styles of board: The small paipo, used by children; the 200-pound, 20-feet-long olo, used by the ruling class; and the alaia. The alaia, Warshaw writes, is the one to remember:

Surfing as the world knows it-stand-up riding on a wave that curls and breaks-was for all practical purposes invented on the alaia, a thin, midsize board about half the size of an olo. The alaia was the Hawaiian standard, used by monarchs and villagers alike; it paddled well enough to catch unbroken swells on the intermediary offshore reefs, but was responsive and maneuverable enough to let the surfer ride in the steep, fast, curling section of the wave. Unlike the hulking olo, an alaia board could be paddled directly through the wave zone to the lineup-the surfer's ready area, located just beyond the breaking waves.

The next major advancement in board design didn't come until the 1920s. That's when a surf-obsessed Santa Monica lifeguard named Tom Blake took a steamer ship to Hawaii, decided that boards should and could be lighter, and started drilling holes in his 15-foot-long redwood model. Warshaw elaborates:

[Blake] developed "riding" boards in line with his longer paddleboards, reducing the weight of a 10-footer to an airy 40 pounds. For the first time, surfers had a choice between two board construction styles. Blake's hollow style board was the main reason that California surfing's first real population spike came during the Depression, when the number of surfers doubled, then doubled again. Yet Blake's real gift to the surfboard was the introduction of a stabilizing fin in 1935-the design advance upon which virtually all future advances were built. "Never before had I experienced such control and stability," Blake said, recalling his first wave using a finned board. With this breakthrough, all the traction and bite a surfer needed was now available.

The next major advancement in modern surfboard design was made on a summer morning in 1937. A member of a Waikiki-based group of surfers known as The Empty Lot Boys had just bought a new Pacific System Homes Swastika model board (this was before World War II, says Warshaw, when "the hooked-cross design was recognized, if at all, as an obscure good luck symbol"), and was testing it out on the water,

On wave after wave both surfers kept "sliding ass"-spinning out-as they tried to hold an angle across the steep faces. Kelly stared down at his plank during a backyard lunch break that afternoon and came to what now seems like an obvious design appraisal: too much planing surface in the tail section. On the spot, [Empty Lot Boy John] Kelly convinced [Empty Lot Boy Francis] Heath to hand over his still-new Swastika. After setting the board on a pair of sawhorses, he stood for a moment looking down at the board's stern, and with a determined overhead swing, buried the ax blade three inches into the rail. Both surfers then got to work, transforming the squared-off tail section into something that resembled the tail section of a jet fighter.

Prior to World War II, surfboard design was a scrappy, impromptu enterprise. Innovators-Blake, Kelly, and Heath, among many others-hacked at their boards to try out new ideas about form. Things became more technical after the war, when advances in plastics-developed by American aircraft and boat building companies-trickled down to the consumer market. Bob Simmons, who is often called the "father of the modern surfboard," helped make this happen. Simmons was a former Douglas Aircraft mathematician, who, after the war, became "obsessed with creating the fastest surfboard in the world," says Steve Barilotti, another contributing writer. Simmons was constantly tinkering with balsa, plywood, and Styrofoam composites in search of a lighter, but still bouyant, design.

Around 1949, Simmons settled on a polystyrene core with a mahogany veneer. He sealed his creation with fiberglass and resin. "The result,"Barilotti writes, "was an instant halving of the weight and a quantum leap in performance." In the late 1950s, polyurethane models based on Simmons' design became the industry standard. It stayed that way until the mid-2000s, when Clark Foam, the world's biggest distributor of the polyurethane blanks used to produce surfboards, abruptly shuttered. Today, polyurethane boards are still common, but Clark's closing spurred board designers to experiment with other materials like polystyrene foam.

The 1960s are regarded as "golden era" for surfing. Towards the tail-end of the decade, boards began to rapidly shrink in size. The so-called "shortboard revolution" saw boards go from 10 feet long to about eight feet. "By 1970," writes Chris Dixon, yet another contributor, "the top Australian competitors were surfing on boards in the five- to six-foot range." Smaller boards forced surfers to adopt a lower, more aggressive stance-but it also allowed them to connect with the wave more closely than ever.

The evolution of the board is but one yarn in the tapestry that Heimann and the book's writers weave in Surfing. This tome chronicles everything from the birth of surfwear brands like Billabong and Quiksilver, to the influx of women surfers following passage of Title IX. One of the more interesting lines of inquiry examines the tension between surfing's meditative, of-the-Earth roots, and the commercial attention the sport has attracted as it's grown in popularity. The urge to monetize surfing has led to a series of strange, somewhat artificial, developments. In the 1980s, landlocked towns started opening wave pools, designed to produced even, predictable waves for competitions. During the 1990s, some surfers embraced "tow-in" surfing, instead of paddling by hand, to take on bigger waves. Unsurprisingly, purists have rejected these inventions.

"The more mainstream surfing got," write Peter Westwick and Peter Neushul, "the more surfers hearkened to its countercultural roots." Even as board shapers began experimenting with different forms and materials, in the wake of Clark Foam shutting down, the surf industry might be poised to go back to basics. A few boutique board markers are embracing that ethos; even Ammunition, the Silicon Valley designers behind Beats by Dre, have a line of low-tech, wooden boards.

This is where Heimann, via Westwick and Neushul, leaves us: looking ahead, and looking back, all at once. "Surfing's romantic roots-derived, ultimately, from Hawaii-seemed to provide a built-in governor on how fast surfing could grow," he says. "What other sport so self-consciously revives centuries-old equipment?"

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The Fascinating Evolution of the Surfboard

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Surfers like to rhapsodize about being one with the ocean-but between every surfer and the wave he's catching, you'll find a crucial piece of equipment: the surfboard. The history of surfing is, in many ways, the history of innovations in surfboard design.

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CIRCA 500: Surfboards are to sixth-century Polynesians what Ferraris or giant flat-screen TVs are to Americans today-the ultimate status symbol. And size matters: Tribal chiefs and nobles ride boards as long as 25 feet, while commoners catch waves on 7-footers.

1778: During a stop in Hawaii, the crewmen of Capt. James Cook's HMS Discovery become the first recorded Europeans to witness surfing.

"I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three-quarters of a second... and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me. None but natives ever master the art of surf-bathing thoroughly." - MARK TWAIN, ROUGHING IT, 1872

1907: Surfing makes its mainland debut at an event for, weirdly, the railroad. Hawaiian George Freeth-who reinvigorated surfing by cutting his 16-foot redwood board to a more nimble 8 feet-demonstrates his skills in this publicity stunt for the Redondo-Los Angeles Railway.

1926: Tom Blake-who was born in Wisconsin and later moved to Hawaii-drills holes in his 15-foot-long redwood board to reduce its weight, then encases it in two other pieces of wood. His friends scoff at the "Cigar Board," but in 1930 a version of his super-fast board becomes the first ever to be mass-produced. Seven years later, he publishes plans for a DIY board in PM.

1932: The introduction of balsa decreases surfing board weights from 100 to 30 pounds-which makes impressing beach bunnies by hoisting a board overhead much easier.

1934: Hawaiian surfers taper the tail end of their boards; the new, more hydrodynamic design allows them to maneuver into the curl of the wave and ride in the pipe.

1935: Blake creates the fixed-tail fin, which increases maneuverability and stability. (Twin fins hit surfboards in the late '60s, triple fins in the early '80s.)

1940S TO '50S: Fiberglass, invented in the '30s, is used on surfboards after World War II. In the '50s, Hawaii's George Downing creates "gun" longboards: Shaved from polyurethane and finished in fiberglass, the narrow, lightweight boards are ideal for big-wave riding.

"My surfer knots are rising / And my board is losing wax / But that won't stop me, Baby / 'Cause you know I'm coming back... Surfin' is the only life / The only way for me." - BEACH BOYS, "SURFIN'," 1961

1971: Sick of losing his board after wipeouts, Californian Pat O'Neill (son of wetsuit designer Jack) comes up with a DIY solution: suction cup + surgical cord = surf leash.

FEBRUARY 2011: Spanish firms Tecnalia and Pukas equip a board with a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a GPS, and strain gauges to gather data. They find surfers experience up to 5 g's during sharp turns.

NOVEMBER 2011: Hawaiian Garrett McNamara rides a 90-foot wave-shattering the previous record, a mere 77 feet-off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal.

2012: Global Surf Industries layers fiberglass and hand-laid coconut husks over an expanded polystyrene core to create a surfboard that is 25 percent lighter-and 35 percent stronger-than most other boards. Surfboards continue to get more high-tech, thanks to devices like the WaveJet, a water-propulsion system that attaches to the bottom of boards and allows surfers to cut through water at up to 7 mph. Using the device, McNamara paddled into a 45-foot wave; the only way to catch a breaker that big before was to be pulled in by jet ski. Gnarly!

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CIRCA 500: Surfboards are to sixth-century Polynesians what Ferraris or giant flat-screen TVs are to Americans today-the ultimate status symbol. And size matters: Tribal chiefs and nobles ride boards as long as 25 feet, while commoners catch waves on 7-footers. 1778: During a stop in Hawaii, the crewmen of Capt.

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Technological Advances in Surfing by Aimee Bertram on Prezi

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Technological Advances in Surfing by Aimee Bertram on Prezi

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Technological Advances in Surfing Aimee Bertram The Surfboard The surfboard has changed dramatically over the past 300 years. Advancements have been through the whole board, from size, weight and shape, to the addition of fins,leg ropes and other additions, as well as boards designed for specific waves.