The future of surfing and surfboards?
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Have you seen the Spirit of Akasha Indo?
If so, which surfer gave you the greatest joy watching Fanning or Sam Yoon?
Have you watched this yet? That Taro Tamai is pretty cool.
hehe.. hmm yes it seems we lack the "revolution consciousness" maybe.. things all round have become kind of safe and a bit ho hum..people just wanna be pretty and hip but there is no edge.. even music has changed alot. It seems to be more about money and prestige than anything else. I love watching old surf vids.. so much style and I guess in a time when the world wasn't like it is today. Maybe the next thing on boards could be acrobatics?;) i saw someone do that on a skateboard video recently was pretty incredible. wind chop would make it tricky though! those snappy air crew would probably love the challenge, although I could imagine the mayhem with boards and bodies flying everywhere
floyd wrote:Have you seen the Spirit of Akasha Indo?
If so, which surfer gave you the greatest joy watching Fanning or Sam Yoon?Have you watched this yet? That Taro Tamai is pretty cool.
No haven't seen it, just read about it.
I don't know if i totally got the point of the vid, but thats different to what I'm talking about.
Its all a bit hippy, but i can still relate to the vid, i guess surfing is different for everyone, but surfing to me isn't just about the act of ridding a wave, i appreciate the simple stuff like, just getting wet, paddling and watching the fish and coral beneath, watching the tide move, the wind waiting for that moment where it all clicks.
Yeah but thats not what my OP was about.
saltyone wrote:hehe.. hmm yes it seems we lack the "revolution consciousness" maybe.. things all round have become kind of safe and a bit ho hum..people just wanna be pretty and hip but there is no edge.. even music has changed alot. It seems to be more about money and prestige than anything else. I love watching old surf vids.. so much style and I guess in a time when the world wasn't like it is today. Maybe the next thing on boards could be acrobatics?;) i saw someone do that on a skateboard video recently was pretty incredible. wind chop would make it tricky though! those snappy air crew would probably love the challenge, although I could imagine the mayhem with boards and bodies flying everywhere
Thats the thing is it possible to be another revolution in surfing, another major jump in performance or surfboard design?….I don't think out is, but maybe thats a bit narrow minded of me, like saying there won't be another major break through in technology that will change the world, like the motor car, plane, TV,s, Computers, Internet etc.
Isn't the highest level of surfing now about acrobatics already?…Medinas flip, Rodeo clowns, how many spins in the air to me that is acrobatics.
I'm still trying to find the video that I saw. it was of someone flipping in the air with the board still traversing on the ground and then landing back on the board( skateboard). I agree with what you are saying though and I think the bottom line is we have tried to be as swift and graceful as the dolphins , and have come close but ultimately we will never be! maybe the new progression will be a focus towards designs that do away with foam and epoxies. bigger board companies could invest their money into balsa plantations maybe?
As you say Indo changes arise from design. If you go back to previous periods the same thing happened, design led performance. Personally, and I am not claiming any specialist knowledge here, I think the next revolution will come from the materials rather than the actual design. New materials or the new use of existing materials will open up the possibility of new designs. Flex may be the key here and not necessarily through the whole board a flex deck could enable a surfer to put more power into a turn at the same angle to the water and generate more speed out of it. I think the theoretical side of that is pretty clear but making it work? Maybe!
Like BB, IMO it will be all about new materials and substrates as talked about with Brutus in BB''s Tow thread awhile back, lateral and torsional flexing in various parts of the boards at certain times.
These flexing patterns could maybe come from the most minimal movement of your feet, knees, hands, fingers maybe eyes or even your own vibrations from the voice box....?
none of us drive a F1 around the streets & 99.99% of us can't surf like those at the pointy end of the marketing circus poo stick. sure there will be advances at the but i don't see joe blow wanting to fork out mega cash for a carbon fibre Aviso or high end super stick. its been a throw away mentality for awhile now and most want cheapie boards that can be trashed & replaced. its a wonder they aren't sold at Kmart yet.
My most memorable waves have been when riding hand shaped heavily glassed guns from good shapers. When it matters you can't beat extra foam and glass with tried and proven rockers, outlines etc.
long live the hand shaping gurus!
Actually i read a good quote/post from Nick Carroll over at the real surf forum only yesterday, it was actually part of reason for my thoughts and original post, this is what he said and i tend to agree with him.
"re machines and cad cutting etc, I mean we are all entitled to our surfboard thinking but dead set anyone who thinks surfboard design hasn't been improved by surfboard designers' increasing mastery of the software and the increasing accuracy of the better cutters is just not paying any attention. CAD works way better in every single other area of aero and hydrodynamic design, how do you think people design aircraft and ships and powerboats and racing yachts? Why would you think otherwise about surfboards? It has taken a while for many boardmakers to get the softwares wired and for the machine designers to improve accuracy, cutting heads etc, and for blankmakers to tune their product to machine cutting, but in the past year or so it feels as if a tipping point has been reached with all that stuff. I just rode a whole bunch of shorter hi per boards and little fatties for a couple of weeks in Indonesia and the boards were unbelievably refined and accurate, they were making use of every bit of rail and planing surface."
http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29963&start=36
Thats off course not to say hand shaped boards aren't good or hand shaping isn't an art, but i have to agree with him, hand shaping has its limits just because us humans aren't perfect and its hard to measure as accurate as computers, we also all have off days, good days, bad days at our jobs that affect how we do things and even the quality of our work and human error, i think for surfboards to reach the highest level possible then computers will play a part.
I agree for us average joes in small shitty waves all the new techs and shapes will help or for elite surfers in most waves but when us average surfers are surfing real barrelling waves I can't see lighter fancier equipment being necessary.
Getting back to the original post for a moment: How uncanny was the timing between the development of concave by Webber and the rise of the Momentum generation led by Slater. No wonder the old fellas were puzzled. If it wasn't enough that they were young and brought a new approach to surfing using slides and airs, but with concaves under their feet they were fricken fast too.
As a sidebar: I read a blog by Simon Anderson recently were he said surfboards are now going too fast, at least for moves done in the air. It's not possible to land them without injury. Wasn't sure if he was trying to make a point, as in, perhaps surfers should sacrifice some speed to increase manouvreabilty. Interesting comment either way.
OK, all this talk of concave & the momentum generation (bugger me was I asleep during that? I had to google it & all) its time to repost the shaper
Do you reckon boards could be "printed" using a 3D printer some time soon?
That's awesome
'I read a blog by Simon Anderson recently were he said surfboards are now going too fast, at least for moves done in the air. It's not possible to land them without injury.'
Poor little things. Especially not with legs like shaved pretzels. Meanwhile:
'The Downhill discipline involves the highest speeds and therefore the greatest risks of all the alpine events. Racers on a typical international-level course exceed speeds of 130 km/h (81 mph) and some courses, such as the notable Lauberhorn course in Wengen, Switzerland, and the Hahnenkamm course in Kitzbühel, Austria, speeds of up to 150 km/h (93 mph) in certain sections are common. The 100 mph barrier was broken by Johan Clarey at the 2013 Lauberhorn World Cup, in kit from Decathlon, beating previous record of 98mph, set by Italian Stefan Thanei in 2005.'
And they want to go faster, carve, turn and jump harder. I'm sure the fans will excitedly pay more to watch little, skinny surfees go slower... much, much, much slower.
Roger isnt your favorite 7"2 machine shaped ?
But its good to hear you say that a strong heavy board is worthy for the average surfer joe .
Christian Fletcher proved decades ago its not what you ride its how you ride, and Buttons too.
You will not stop progression just because design is slowing down, you just have to look at snowboarding and skateboarding to debunk that theory.
Progression in Aerial surfing is a lot slower because it is the hardest out of all the boardsports to be progressing for a variety of reasons,
Holy shit uplift you would have to be the most out of touch old cunt that thinks he knows about boardriding, please watch this clip and explain why these skinny kids can survive these airs,
you seriously are a chump of mega proportions, open your fuckin mind, your getting real boring bleating the same bullshit over and over.
Simon Anderson is tripping when he thinks its not possible to land big fast airs without injury.
He is also tripping if he thinks you can go too fast for airs.
And one more thing uplift, if you think big legs = no air ,then explain HOW my 120 kg mate flies out of a 14 ft vert ramp over my head on his skateboard.
Yeah it is. My other bigger boards from a local shaper are hand made and pretty sure KB does his bigger ones by hand too.
hey indo mate
you quote nick carrol thus:
" I just rode a whole bunch of shorter hi per boards and little fatties for a couple of weeks in Indonesia and the boards were unbelievably refined and accurate, they were making use of every bit of rail and planing surface."
sounds to me like hes doing another board test article for a glossey mag again lol.
Good thread.
I think it's a bit like the old 'which came first, the chicken or the egg' ... looking back, it seems to me guys pushed the limits and wanted to surf 'different', different angles of attack, harder, faster, and more vertical, etc. and so the boards evolved to suit them, and that progressed design as the idea's were shared around ...
Now, it seems to me like the young crew coming through are all surfing the same.Same 'hands in air' off the top, same 'swing the body around' into cutback, etc etc ... sheesh, I watched some of the O'Neil Prime QS event and it was never so obvious to my old eyes ... so, while, the young crew are all taught the same basics, the same end performance results. I see it here locally too, with the HPC just up the road; all the surfers under their guidance all seem to surf the same.
Throw in the fierce competition and all the young crew wanting, thinking, they will one day make it to the CT, and maybe a world title ... so, they fear, or at least shy away from, any experimentation with board designs, or even riding different boards in different conditions.
Then there is the cost. Not many can afford to try a wide selection of boards, design ideas, etc while paying the current retail prices for boards. Even less want to try and make boards for themselves.
Now, as for evolution in design. I think one key will be getting instant acceleration and speed, so there is not as much pump pump down the line to get speed to do the big air, and in most cases wasting a lot of turning and surfing sections. If the speed was instant, acceleration instant, then the air can be 'popped' sooner on the wave, landed, and the rest of the wave ridden rail to rail to its natural end ...
Eggs. Eggs came first.
with the recent skimboard towing into the right, i'd say there's still plenty of experimentation available out there with surfing and board design.
Dayne Reynolds, clay marzo on the open face and under the lip are doing things that haven't been done before.
Chippa Wilson pushing the limits in the air...
progression is only limited by the imagination. The older we get the more we get stuck in our ways and stick to what we know (ay uplift) . The trick is to keep the inner grommet alive and keep striving to try new things. Life begins when you leave your comfort zone.
Yeh inzider, one day surfing will have a go at being bigger, stronger, more athletic. NNNOOOOOOOO... we never will... never!!! You should try it. Nothing new though, all the other sports resisted it for years too, I witnessed it first hand, and for all the same reasons too. No imagination. Like Roger Bannister showed though, fuck, the experts, the status quo, hate change with a vengence till the end. They said he was crazy, causing British athletics to be ridiculed. The top coaches and scientists even 'proved' a four minute mile was impossible for humans to attain. Surfing just keeps doing the same old thing, over and over. Respraying, rebadging, re kitting a Kia Rio, and trying to palm it off as the elite be all and end all. No one is buying it. Always a few suckers though... the 'one born every minute principle'. Fuck, I ate a coupla dozen eggs a day for years, and years, probably 15. Zero fruit, no sugar. I still eat at least 8 -10, sometimes more than a dozen. Daily. Im 60. Supposed to dead, real dead too. Or incredibly ill and disabled. Most trainers only last 2 -3 years. Its driving the industry crazy. Come and do a workout with me. A lot of my mates are tradies, heaps younger though, fuck'n all time primo time, 35 to 50, jeez, 55 is pretty deluxe too, so's 60, gotta love the gym though!! I can do their shit when we stir each other up. Love watchin' them in the gym though! They don't last long. Imagine that, unreal, deluxe hey. Or don't if you can't, or won't. The bottom line is, honestly, who gives a fuck. 4 minute miles are humanly possible.
Does anyone follow Skateboarding or Bodyboarding?
Looking in from an outside view of what I've seen of those sports, i think there also similar in that around the late 80,s early to mid 90,s there was huge jumps in advancement of the pro standard and even at a more local standard, but to me it also seems like there reaching there limits.
Thinking about it further, i think the biggest advancements in surfing apart from the ariel side of things in the last ten to fifteen years has been the more extreme side of surfing, the surfing of slabs and reefs that often were considered unridable , i guess this advancement has been fuelled by the use of towing in with Jet Skis which obviously helps getting in early and allowing better or deeper positioning and allowed more high performance boards, then in turn its probably had the affect of also pushing paddle in surfing to higher levels in those kind of waves from the added experience, confidence of better positioning and pushing the limits of what is possible.
Indo , Skateboarding is no where near its limits, the kids these days are blowing shit up to a whole new level on the regular in street skating, and bowl is making a huge comeback, Christian Fletchers son is at the forefront of the new era. Guys like Bob Burnquist on the mega ramp is further proof of the progression, that dude is doing switch stance 360's over 70 ft gaps at 7Okph. Watch these clips they are off the fuckin richter.
Yeah those vids are pretty crazy, i guess skateboarding have the advantage of changing there environment though.
Maybe you touched on what could be an important aspect of the future? "Switch foot/Switch stance" Kelly and others even Buttons way back have kinda of dabbled in it at a novelty level, but maybe one day we will see a surfer or surfers that are almost as good both ways that helps them gain and advantage to things they can do "control" etc
AFL players have a similar thing these days, once they were only left or right kicks now most or all? do both some almost as good kick on both feet although most generally still have a preferred foot.
stunet wrote:Getting back to the original post for a moment: How uncanny was the timing between the development of concave by Webber and the rise of the Momentum generation led by Slater. No wonder the old fellas were puzzled. If it wasn't enough that they were young and brought a new approach to surfing using slides and airs, but with concaves under their feet they were fricken fast too.
As a sidebar: I read a blog by Simon Anderson recently were he said surfboards are now going too fast, at least for moves done in the air. It's not possible to land them without injury. Wasn't sure if he was trying to make a point, as in, perhaps surfers should sacrifice some speed to increase manouvreabilty. Interesting comment either way.
Ok enough already...heres a little story about banana bds and concaves..the bds that shane surfed in his Coke comp win..was a lot less rockered than the ones shaped after the Coke. GW went too far and the bds were just way too rockered and did not work.....GW great artist sculptor...but Light on in the Tech Formulas in being able to reproduce or scientifically progress a design bit by bit....the bds were too slow and would not settle on a rail for a carve......
To think that bds are too fast for airs....watching John John for the last 2 years I have watched a remarkable evolution in his surfing and boards. He does not spill speed to do turns ,he relishes his board being a top speed and has developed that unique off the top/cut back /roundhouse...where he contorts and twists his body to make the turn and accelerate into his next turn.
what we can we learn from Pyzel/Florence......last year JJF rode one board all year,till he creased it at Pipe...this year he just surfed the same bd at trestles/Hossegor/Supa Tubos.....the interview on ASP with JP talks about how JJF has ...wait for it....." a magic board"...........yes JJF working with JP has created an amazing partnership in creating magic bd sfor JJF.....and for the first time I have seen someone else other than Kelly have slightly quicker bds that handle speed thru turns........and that's one of the reasons Kelly is firing up on design again.....
To think that design is stagnant now, is true in one sense that some brands/shapers have not produced anything new but regurgitated old rockers and designs....the future must be faster with higher speed turns incorporating functional airs......
the golden age finished about 15 years ago when equipment became homogonised......a new design formula needs to be created .......by the designers who think we have only scratched the surface.....hehehehe
inzider wrote:Indo , Skateboarding is no where near its limits, the kids these days are blowing shit up to a whole new level on the regular in street skating, and bowl is making a huge comeback, Christian Fletchers son is at the forefront of the new era. Guys like Bob Burnquist on the mega ramp is further proof of the progression, that dude is doing switch stance 360's over 70 ft gaps at 7Okph. Watch these clips they are off the fuckin richter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSnfO15cAHE
F yeah ... have seen a bit of " Jaws's " work .... But that Bob Burnquist stuff .
The speed of which he completed that Lean to tail - shovet ( full rotation ) was out there .
And they bloke that came second in teh Bowl comp . " Tershy " ?? was full speed , flow awesome .
Kinda made me forget for a second that i busted my leg last time i rode proper ramps 10-15 years ago .... would kill to go back in time , and ride that 'Dreamland' in my prime . Flat out so much speed . Did you see , the cover he had on . And full " damage " to all his clothes from massive slide stacks ......
Thanks Cuz .
Another bit of surfing from over twenty years ago that still up there, especially that snap.
Southey , if you liked Raven Tershey check this clip from Huntington beach comp, my two favourites for casual style full bore shredding, Curren Caples and Christian Fletchers son Greyson Fletcher.
Next level shredding, if you skated back in the day check the second clip , old pros still shredding into their 40's and 50's
&spfreload=10
There are a couple of groms shredding the St Kilda bowl in Melbs that will be future stars if they stay on track. That St klida bowl is epic fun, even for old washed up farts like me.
Brutus , i agree with your post above, I bet JJF knows hot to Sk8 also. He has the best air game in the business, he dosnt force shit to happen, he has epic wave/pocket knowledge and knows what airs are going to unfold best in certain situations. its pretty exiting to think what will be done in the future above the wave, defintely things are going to progress, to think otherwise like some is closed minded.
Think about the groms today who see a 360 air as being standard, the question is what will their kids think is standard in another 20 years. SHit aint slowin down people, its lookin for another gear and the people with imagination will find it. My guess is Airs to flat will be passe and seen as amatuer hour , JJF is the benchmark right now for airs,
Board design I know nothing about it, I just ask my local shaper to shape me a board and I know I am not a good tradesman so if I cant surf it good I cant blame my tools.
indo-dreaming wrote:Another bit of surfing from over twenty years ago that still up there, especially that snap.
As an aside to Carroll's famous snap: Here's one he attempted back in '84. Goes close but bogs the rail. Nick Carroll has written about this failed attempt in both 'TC' and also on Surfline. How he was shocked by the audacity of it, but subsequently wasn't surprised when he pulled it off seven years later.
Far as I know this is the only digital copy of it:
Most athletes playing a sport at a professional level are either at or near their peak physical condition. Don't think the same can be said about pro surfing though things are starting to change.
Kids are training specifically for surfing from a young age, Need to wait and see what they do, expensive R&D is required for surfboards to progress. Who's going to fund it?
Indo, you're right mate. Switchfoot is the future. I surf Goofy and Natural with pretty much the same ability .... ie not much at all. But still equally.
More than a few people surf both ways competently these days , just not the tour guys so it's still referred to as a novelty. The media are experiencing a bit of lag on this I reckon.
In 15years time if you aren't ripping switch, you'll be no one. It won't even be referred to as switch I don't imagine. Only surfing one way will be regarded as quaint and old fashioned as board bumps on your knees.
Switchfoot master Simon Law.......Michael Ho was o.k. at it to and Buttons.
....and Andrew McKinnon.
And Lochie Caldwell, Bentley, even Karl Beadham on the odd occasion. Plenty more have and will , but till someone wins a heat doing it it's going to be considered a dark art.
I have been dabbling in Switch surfing and I love it because you get all the original buzzes you got when you first learnt to surf, first face ride, first barrell etc. Who cares if you look like a crab or a kook, the sensations are new again. Back hand is fuckin hard again, Born again surfing, get into it, its a blast.
The law of diminishing returns Inzider . Everything old is new again.
Buttons, at about the one minute mark talk about his swithfoot, that guy had so much style, so far ahead of his time.
What a legend. I understand he was not opposed to a bit of ice , to converge a couple of threads. Don't think it helped his surfing a great deal though.
China on the goldy ripped switch.
Nice in theory, but reality?….I guess you got to dream and think outside the box to make things happen.
http://www.surfinglife.com.au/tv/channels/oakley/12512-jack-robinson-and...
WOW, good luck to them.
if you remember or look back at the nineties footage of solo sports like motor bikes, mountain bike downhill, snow, surf etc there is a huge jump in going extreme, look at 96 winter olympics with what now seems like a tiny half pipe for snowboarding. Was probably 8 or ten feet?
But it has to slow down soon i reckon, well i hope not but well how far can it go?
sitting on the a typical metro beach the other day reasonable waves, a few things are noticeable,
the top 5-10% are vastly superior in general surfing as it has always been , the next lot down are the older guys that were the top 5-10% a few years ago then we have the average joe blow which makes up 60% of the surfing population and obviously there better and worse in this lot then we have the bottom 20% learners etc.
What was most noticeable is that the average surfer performance and qty waves caught has gone backwards in the last 15 years either they are riding the fat eggs to catch waves and then their performance suffers or they are on modern equipment which they surf better but do not catch many waves due to volume etc.
This is where a lot of development has occurred over the years (the potatoes etc) but in my maybe jaded eyes the equipment this middle 60% is offered through the CAD designs etc is failing. This is if you only judge by the current surfing performance trends. I leave the hipster movement out of this for the moment.
So after my surf and sitting on the beach I look at two things the fun the bottom 10-20% are having and how good the top guys are the rest of it (me included) are just trout swimming against the current thinking we will get there some day.
inzider wrote:Southey , if you liked Raven Tershey check this clip from Huntington beach comp, my two favourites for casual style full bore shredding, Curren Caples and Christian Fletchers son Greyson Fletcher.
Next level shredding, if you skated back in the day check the second clip , old pros still shredding into their 40's and 50'shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TAitZsTAy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIb4f2TDEbc&spfreload=10There are a couple of groms shredding the St Kilda bowl in Melbs that will be future stars if they stay on track. That St klida bowl is epic fun, even for old washed up farts like me.
Brutus , i agree with your post above, I bet JJF knows hot to Sk8 also. He has the best air game in the business, he dosnt force shit to happen, he has epic wave/pocket knowledge and knows what airs are going to unfold best in certain situations. its pretty exiting to think what will be done in the future above the wave, defintely things are going to progress, to think otherwise like some is closed minded.
Think about the groms today who see a 360 air as being standard, the question is what will their kids think is standard in another 20 years. SHit aint slowin down people, its lookin for another gear and the people with imagination will find it. My guess is Airs to flat will be passe and seen as amatuer hour , JJF is the benchmark right now for airs,Board design I know nothing about it, I just ask my local shaper to shape me a board and I know I am not a good tradesman so if I cant surf it good I cant blame my tools.
Yep JJF is a great skater. He's good mates with Greyson Fletcher and there's a bit of footage of jon2 getting around of him skating. Just saw the backhand air he did in the new attractive distractions movie.. Fucken amazing!!
I think Tomo is on the money with his boards for the future of surfing.
The future of surfing at a pro level at least is in the air, I'm not a fan but spins, twist & flips a shorter board is an advantage in these areas, kind of like how a ballerina spins faster when she bring in her body.
But there is limits of how short you can go or how narrow, because you always need surface area to plane and you need a certain amount of volume.
Possibly a key to opening up the progression of surfing is like suggested switchfoot, but not only that a surfboard that can be ridden both ways nose first or tail first.
Kind of like Skateboarding there was always the narrower skateboards but they were only used by freestyle skaters, then from memory Vision brought out the double ender and the whole narrower board double kick thing came in which opened up the possibility's in skating.
Some how surfing needs the same, Tomo with his Vanguard and Vader boards are getting close.
Perhaps the key is a fin system on both the tail and nose of board that retracts, so when going forward the nose fins are hidden but once you get backwards the nose fins engage and the rear fins pull up into the board.
Ive always wondered if since firewires and flex tails whether reverse rocker could be used for extra air.
On a bodyboard or snowboard which both have flex in the good boards, if there's a touch of reverse in the rocker you get so much more pop.
But it might be different as belly weight and hands up front help flex out the reverse and on a snowboard feet are in fixed positions.
Still i reckon flex and reverse rocker should be experimented with a bit more for Aeriel surfing.
Also you seem to get a lot of drive with a little reverse rocker in bodyboards.
Reverse rocker?….Never heard of that but a quick google search comes up with a few hits including this one.
After reading that great article http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14075&start=18
It got me thinking back at how much both surfing and surfboards changed and improved from say the late 80,s to the early 90,s, over that period the jump in the quality of surfing all round was huge, i never thought about why until i read that article, but it makes sense, yes it was mostly about bottom shapes, going from V bottoms to concave bottoms, that probably along with the thruster and short board revolution are the biggest turning point or bar lifting period in surfing.
Over the last 15-20 years yes sure surfing has still improved but nowhere to the extent it did in that period, guys are doing more tricky kind of things now but the real base of surfing, bottom turn, top turn, cutback carves, are just as goods anything these days in say that Herring vid, but its not just herring vid take the surfing from Kellys black and white (1990), 99% of the surfing still holds up, even if the boards kinda look long.
Then take surfboards, yes sure they have also improved since the 90,s but its been mostly about refinement, now you can pick up a board from say 5 even 10 years ago and the board can still be totally relevant and a great board.
So the question is are we close to the limit?, the ceiling in both surfing and boards, people can say there is no ceiling, no limit, but i think like many sports there is.
In surfing there is physical limits on how fast you can go, how high you can get air, how many rotations are possible, even how deep you can get in a barrel, i honestly think we are close to those limits, i guess it will just be that more people will be at that level and more consistent at that level, which say for watching pro surfing almost makes it more boring to watch.
For example when the first rodeo clown or true 360 airs were pulled, we were blown away, now its lost that wow factor you see the top guys pull proper 360 airs almost every comp where the waves allow.
Then surf boards, we have gone longer/shorter, narrow/wide, three fins to four, but surfboards also have there physical limitations especially when using the materials we are using now, even refinement wise i think we are reaching the limits.
Maybe we are near the end of a golden age?