Westkust And The Coming Disruption
Disruption is a modern buzzword that for many people has been more marketing jargon than commercial reality. The internet is the most obvious of all disruptive technologies, yet unless you were a newspaper journalist or worked in print the 'net was nothing but a boom. The 'disruption' was welcomed for its convenience and efficiency.
However, the tentacles of disruption are spreading into different industries. Utilising the internet they subvert typical commercial structures and hence unsettle established businesses. Whether or not you think that's a good thing depends on what side of the counter you stand.
The surf industry is not immune to disruptive technologies. The latest being a co-operative out of Amsterdam called Westkust - Dutch for west coast - who design fins and cardboard blanks using open source technology. If you have access to a 3D printer you can download their designs and make your own fins. Same with cutting your own cardboard surfboard blanks.
Their rationale is simple: "We just like to build truly beautiful stuff and share it. It's as easy as that."
*****
Swellnet: Who are Westkust?
Westkust consists of space engineers, entrepreneurs, and designers from a cold country in Europe. We like to keep away from the stage and we rather spend time outdoors or in our shed, making stuff. We're more than OK with that.
Who we are is less important. We are not in it for the money at all. We are doing this because we feel that surfing needs a more open source-based mentality. Make your own stuff, share it, so others can improve upon it. Everything that we design is shared with the public for free. We strongly believe that sharing your work with the world and making the designs public will spark a lot of good things.
Westkust might be considered a counter culture and can from that point of view also be seen as an anti-response on disposables, globalised mass production, the power of chain stores, multinationals, and consumerism. Somehow surfing seems to have sold out to this.
Sounds more like a movement?
Westkust is a social movement with an artisan spirit in which the methods of digital fabrication—previously the exclusive domain of institutions—have become accessible at a personal scale.
The concept of handmade and experimental shapes and materials in surfing has its roots prior to Westkust and is something we strongly support. Westkust is here to use the power of digital fabrication for everyone to experiment with. We share all our work for free. It means that we always release the source code of our designs so other can improve upon it and give it back to the global community. Then again, if you want to buy a cardboard blank or 3D printed surfboard fins we are there to accommodate you.
What material would usually be used to make fins on a 3D printer?
Carbon fibre filament. We have done extensive testing and this is the right stuff. You can use other materials, but then you will need to glass the fin for added stiffness. It's dirt cheap too. A fin shouldn't cost as much as currently is the case. It’s simply ridiculous what FCS does.
Have you experimented with different materials for fins?
Hell yeah, everything that is out there. Even metal. We are currently using a CNC machine that makes a fin in one go out of a single block of wood. It looks sick if we may say so and will cost five dollars in material.
How does Westkust itself make money?
Probably not, we run other businesses that actually make us money. We own several companies in solar, space technology, engineering, and e-health. All social enterprises by the way. We are not in it for the money. It's funny - and completely understandable - that you ask this question. It's one that would not have been asked by Tom Blake's generation or generations before us. It's something that we as surfers have grown accustomed to; build a brand and make money. If we happen to make money it will go straight back into new stuff and the community.
What do you expect fin companies would think of your open source approach?
Haha! Let's wait and see. We hope they learn from it. So many companies have gone bankrupt by new technologies. Kodak anyone? They can either adapt or complain. We hope they will reach out to us and ask us how we can help them integrate this new technology and approach in their business instead of burning down new ideas and approaches. That would be too easy.
Instead of being mass produced, like most other surf fins, Westkust fins are 3D printed on demand, preventing both unnecessary transport and overproduction. Eco-friendly if you will. No waste material. Even better, the designs are printed locally.
With all things new there can be hiccups. Call it Beta. Call it a trial period. We call it evolution and we are upfront and open about it. We are non-commercial too. If people are scared to know how their product is made and fear experimenting with designs, glassing, learning by doing and want world class customer service then they should move on to the big brands. They will be well taken care of by FCS, Futures and whathaveyounot. They will be sweet as a nut.
We partnered with a network of printers with over 20,000 locations in over 150 countries, providing over one billion people access to a 3D printer within ten miles of their home. Westkust fins are all cutting edge open source designs, developed by and with the surfing community not by sponsored athletes. Westkust designs are for the experimental surf tinkerers, artists, makers, and counterculture loving people. Every detail has been meticulously engineered. Structural analytics have been taken into account. The hydrodynamics have been tested. We we even put them in a hydrodynamics testing tank at the University of Delft.
The cardboard blanks are interesting, what is the motivation for creating them? Environmentally friendly..?
One of us works with space technology at the European Space Agency and we saw this thing called grid stiffened technology which is used in satellites we thought it would be cool to make a surfboard with it. Some googling learned that Mike Sheldrake had actually already done this. We loved the way it looked. It really looks freakin' awesome and decided it needed more attention so we started building them. Just to show people that there are more possibilities and approaches. He also released all of his templates and files for free. We consider eco-friendly as normal, not something we specifically focus on to push sales.
How does the strength compare to typical PU/PE boards?
OK-ish, we are fair and open about this. It’s not some high performance unobtainium that makes you go faster and fly higher - recognise the surf marketing lingo? They just look sick and we love the way they surf. It's not going to be some world changing material or success. We know this.
Expect a lot more from us. We are releasing software with the guys from finfoil.io. It’s open source software that lets you create our own fins very easily online. We will be shipping wooden fins made with the CNC machine. We are also working on a new grid stiffened applications. All in all we want to feel connected to surf culture again.
Comments
Well they certainly nailed the pricing structure of fins correctly. Now where is the nearest 3D printer?
Brookvale - Northern Beaches printing.
Looking forward to printing some 3D fins one day.
Fins are such a rip off id love to know the how much they cost to produce?…I'm betting a set of $130 fins cost $13 to make in China.
$5.00 to $10.00 a set.
Try www.alibaba.com
hehe
$130 for fins?
As a lazy old lidder, I feel indignation towards the surf industry even more now!
I would have expected around 30 bucks for a set of screw in bits of plastic/fibre, including the industry markup!
I'm flabbergasted!
Back in the old christmas days I'd stop at O&E on the way to Conjola family holidays, pick up a spare lid for keeping the drinks cold, free plug and leash, lucky day gets a *pro quality* board with change from a double century.
Can't wait to print a new board at Kelly's wave park! The Footure is like $
How much is a 3D printer? what materials are used to make a 3D printer?
I'll stick to chiseling my fins and whittling them with a tool made from my fallen out teeth into fine forms from discarded wood.
I am geeking out on that blank. Nice work, fellas!
I'm really curious to see how the open source mentality shakes out in surfing. It's totally par for the course in what I do (we all share code freely) but we're researching for public good not an industry generally based on profit. Or at least wages of the shaper.
My expectation is that it will fuel innovation faster than before as everyone can play with designs and learn. There's enough subversive types out there to drive that I think. But whether it will change the industry is something that will be cool to see.
I'd like to see an open source design for a bic style plastic mini-mal from waste sea plastics, you'd need an industrial 3d printer though and Im not sure if it could do the rocker??
Small 3d printers are getting very cheap and plastic melting/filament makers are cheaper too.
Speaking of innovation:
From trans world business site :
Firewire also continues to lead the way with some of the most innovative tech in the board category. Under its new partnership with Kelly Slater, who is now majority owner in the brand, Firewire is rolling out a new traction pad technology developed in conjunction with San Diego-based Bloom, which has created a process of turning pond scum into biodegradable, anti-microbial material that the surfboard company uses to create traction pads. Slater used the traction pads at the Pipe Masters, according to Price. Keep an eye out for leashes made from custom-woven kevlar rope bonded with a PU outer shell, also under Slater’s division. After undergoing rigorous testing, the 4.5 milliliter leashes took 2.5 times more weight to break than the average 6.5 milliliter leash.
http://business.transworld.net/features/surf-expo-january-2016/#XmgOMJqP...
Sounds like someone is onto the drag factor of legrope , I wonder who will discard the rail saver first
want to make your own fins? all you need is fibreglass matting, resin and a grinder...materials that are cheaply and readily available, and have been for decades.
you don't need a computer, internet access, expensive 3d printers and specialised materials. But good on them for adding another way to DIY with free templates.
i don't quite get how the cardboard blanks work, but would love to give them a go. do you need a rocker table? how do you fine tune the rails? it looks pretty tricky.
Yep, chook, agree. The setup to make fins is not difficult. Granted 3D printers maybe able to throw up a neat fin but would still need finishing but importantly it is the material used. I would suggest not as good as what is used for fins today. The article mentions designs but it seems more about manufacture and distribution ? Fin design ? - cheez thats been to a lot of places and back again.
Roy from NZ been making 3D printed fins for a while now, id like to give them a go but his prices are a bit out there…but i guess he did somehow sell a dog of a surfboard for 1.5 million.
http://shop-roystuart.biz/collections/futures
Roy has an interesting vid on his site: surfboard fin scaling.
This is all complete gobblydegook to me.
Could someone translate it into plain english and explain how someone in the real world might use it.
Thanks.
I mean at the moment there are people making fins in sheds here, hand foiling to my spec.
Why would I need some dutch computer guy to take that over for me?
For you? Well, if you've already got guys making fins and you're happy with quality, performance, and price then I guess it's not for you. However, the rationale is that the fins would be cheaper and easy to produce, hence people who don't have "guys in sheds hand foiling their fins" can experiment with different fin designs.
I don't know about others but beyond rake=drive and upright=pivot I don't know that much about fin design (remember when you used to walk into a store and simply ask for a single, twinny, or thruster? That was the limit of fin specs!), so the advantage would be trying different fins for minimum price. If I got to the point where I wanted to design my own fins then I could do that - again, for a nominal price.
As the fella says, it won't be for everyone, lots of people will bank on the proven designs of FCS and Futures, and others like yourself will continue with traditional fin making. But this form of manufacture is inexorably growing. I imagine there's a certain type of person that really enjoys the autonomy it provides.
In tech terms this type of disruption is called low-end disruption. A product already exists - in this case fins - but the low-end disrupter offers a simpler, cheaper, or more convenient alternative.
From Wiki: "In low-end disruption, the disruptor is focused initially on serving the least profitable customer, who is happy with a good enough product. This type of customer is not willing to pay premium for enhancements in product functionality. Once the disruptor has gained a foothold in this customer segment, it seeks to improve its profit margin."
The other type of disruption is new-market disruption: "New market disruption" occurs when a product fits a new or emerging market segment that is not being served by existing incumbents in the industry."
What do i do when the cardboard blank turns up and i put it together? Probs a stupid question.Ands that camel up there and hippo gazing up to the stars.
You glass the bastard, Penmister.
Pop it up on your shaping stand, lay out a roll of cloth and spread the sticky stuff around.
Lol i thought so.
Id 3d fins with heaps of flexibility do turns that make you look like you know what your doing...in penmister world...
Can you glass 'em in polyester, or do you need to do it in epoxy to avoid sag Stunet?
You just need to rotate some virtual fins and you instantly want to print them!
Check one out here: http://finfoil.io/s/r/xbxeyi
Hi tinfoil... I really like what you are doing and the opportunity to be involved with fin design. A well known friend of mine that has a set of fins available through FCS and Futures told me these fin companies are happy if that get the fin design 'close enough' and spend more time on what colour the fin set is going to be! I downloaded your program and like the simplicity. Going forward I would like to offer some suggestions...
- There needs to be measurements associated with your grid or even better would be the ability to get the measurements of the points
- There needs to the ability to click on a point and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to make specific changes rather than erratic mouse movements.
This program really has the ability to change surfing as we know it...
Thanks for the suggestions.
I wanted to keep the user interface as simple as possible leaving out things that weren't specifically asked for.
I might consider some of your suggestions, I specially like the arrow key suggestion.
v1.1 is about to release in a few days, already bringing some needed improvements.
Thanks
Hey finfoils, another suggestion ... any chance, to make it possible to add another "point" on the profile? I'd like to be able to design something like this:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=749743268504564&set=pb.100004066...
Can't seem to do it in the current version - I think it needs another 'point', but can't seem to be able to add one.
Hi Wignut,
This kind of shape is impossible to generate with finFoil.
finFoil uses horizontal slices and would get a very discontinuous surface if trying to create a shape like that. I'm thinking of implementing a sort of smoothing factor that would make this possible, but it's not a priority tough.
Addind control points is only possible by opening the .foil file in a text editor, figuring out the file format and adding it manually. Not easy but possible.
Thanks for using finFoil.
Have I missed something? I've downloaded the program too, but can only get 50/50 foil ... how do you change it to get 80/20 etc. for side fins? Can you do flat and inverse foil for the inside of the side fins too?
EDIT - I've noticed you can do it on the web, online version, but the downloaded design version is where I can only seem to have 50/50 (i.e. program won't let me change it)
Hey wingnut... I was thinking the same thing but then I seen a drop down box about half way down on the right hand side and you can choose symmetrical, flat sided or asymmetrical.
Cheers cory ... I was blind for looking. That must be ANOTHER beer I owe ya ;)
OK....thanks Stu.
But I still have no idea how the process works.
Could someone walk me through it?
Once you've got your digital file of the fin, you either need your own 3D printer ($3-5K for a "home desktop" version), or you can get it done commercially.
A quick Google brought up this company - I am sure there are many others - who explain things really well:
http://3dprint-au.com/3d-printing/how-does-3d-printing-work/
And here's their pricing structure:
http://3dprint-au.com/3d-printing/pricing/
Not sure about using other materials though as suggested in the article.
But Free ride you have to remember as time goes on these printers will drop huge amounts in price.
Maybe I'm being optimistic but I'm betting in five years time they will be around $500.
And off course its not just fin you can print on them, you can print almost anything you can imagine.
Ownership is a thing of the past. You can get your file printed on the two blocks from your home, trust me.
You can even get them printed in silver if you sent them to i.materialise !
You've gone way too far forwards in the process.
A digital file of the fin? How? Clap my hands and say abracadabra?
Assuming I need some software and some kinds of skills to operate it. Otherwise, garbage in = garbage out no matter how cheap the 3D printer is.
So how does one design a fin.
I mean, could anyone walk me through the entire process from start to finish?
At the moment it seems like a giant ball-ache to satisfy another consumer capitalist demand which is already well catered for with methods that have worked very well for 50 years.
It's no accident that Stephen Hawking has identified mans obsession with technology as probably our key threatening process. I know I'm drawing a long bow but this just seems one more piece of evidence of infatuation with the latest shiny bauble so nerds can get a hard on on the internet.
Apparently FR you can just plug your laptop up to the Glowforge, with a picture of want you want, feed the material in one end and out the other end wa lah! magic, witchcraft or sorcery, your pick....
I want to 3d Scarlett Johansson.like weird science.
Apparently these are the go!
https://glowforge.com/
In the 4th dimension, which is time. We will probably be making huge 3D printers big enough to build our own car, space ship or house even!
Freeride, I don't know if you're deliberately baiting this topic, or if there is a hint of genuine technophobe within your mind. Either way, let me put it this way - why go fishing when you can just as easily buy a fish at the local seafood market (or, to make the analogy more artisan centric - buy off the local professional fisherman)?
Using a 3D design program, is really no different to say learning to publish your own web log - takes time, commitment to learn something new and some motivation.
Wingy, not trying to be obtuse.
Just trying to get someone to walk me through the process.
You seem to know about it.
Could you walk me through it from start to finish. Try not to take any of the steps (like designing a fin) for granted.
I'm not the most technophobic or computer illiterate person out there so If I'm struggling to understand how it works in practice I know there are lots of others.
Philosophically and materially I'm trying to simplify my life: thats why it's easier for me to go catch my own fish from the local headlands than go buy it from Woolies.
This sounds to me like more complication but if I could see how the process works and what the end result was I might be able to have a more accurate basis on which to base my thinking.
OK, Freeride, I'll try to guide you in ...
Have you downloaded finfoil's program? If not, start there ..
Here's the link aain: http://finfoil.io/s/r/xbxeyi
Just click on the "get STL" on the top left hand side, extract it (it downloads as zip file) and run it ...
Now, just have a play with moving some of the "points" around, see what it does to the profile (i.e. side view) of the fin design, and also the foil shading ...
Let me know when you get that far.
OK, thanks mate. Appreciate the guidance.
Everything is easy when you know how.
How'd ya go freeride? Have a play with that software?
What did you learn?
Now, while you're doing that Freeride, I'll run through the "simplicity" of my DIY custom surfboards process.
1. Design in AKU Shaper (it's still free, just get the old version)
2. Send file to be cut.
3. Pick up cut blank, finish it off (smoothing out the cuter ridges, tidy up tail and nose)
4. Mark in fin dots.
5. Take finished blank to glasser
6. Pick finished board up in a week or two - wait for it to cure.
Now, ride the board and decide where / how it can be improved, go back to the file, make some edits, and send the revised file to be machine cut.
Rinse and repeat.
Apply that to the fins process, would be essentially the same. Design in a program like finfoils, send file to a 3D printing service and go collect your new fins a a few days / weeks. Ride those fins, consider how / what to change - edit your file, and send it off to be printed.
Rinse and repeat.
Might cost $5 in materials to make a wooden fin ?
Well not for quality wood.
You should mention the time to cnc route a fin accurately,
the cost of your router, labour
the design expertise to create the design.
Hi Wingnut,
go 15 feet to my shed,
kick off the router,
put fin in board go surfing,
rinse and repeat
Want a 3d printer large enough to build a surfboard?
http://www.openbuilds.com/
or a cnc router? but most of these would only fit a fin, are lightweight and would take hours to make one.
Yeah, I can make any properly foiled fin based on any NACA profile
and your outline out of wood, but it isn't quick or cheap.
Some of my stuff is open sourced, some is to my advantage,
write your own code, it's what defines your product.
And, how many WCT surfers ride pure wooden fins? There's a reason for that. hey?
Congrats Westkruft on going the eco path. Surfing is so natural, but the industry uses such polluting materials.
I fully agree with the open source ethics, I have used open software since '85, it's great having open hardware and knowledge.
Wingnut, They haven't tried?
In 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish.
We simply have to stop making plastic ! Natures alternative to plastic is wood.
Using proper NACA profiles you can accurately define your amount and centre of lift and get some idea of laminar flow. The right wood is strong, especially when wrapped it glass or carbon fiber.
Standard moulded technology is mass production. To evolve profiles requires the 3D printing or cnc. I love the 3D print concept but hate the plastic.
quote Westkrust " We are currently using a CNC machine that makes a fin in one go out of a single block of wood. It looks sick......"
Where I have to do mine in two goes, turn it over for the other side. Westkrust must have a pretty sick mill, nice technology.
Hello all,
Stu, another great article.
Few questions
Are they infringing on patent rights within fin design(did they just 3d scan a future /fcs fin?) kind of looks that way, then just creating 18 points of difference, to beat the patent?
As far as the blanks are concerned are they also 3d printed? where can they be sourced? (fantastic freight fees)what is the actual weight vs pu/pe?design seems flawed compromising structural integrity of outer layer of material increased resin distribution
Surfing is already pretty open source, it's not like surfers or shapers/designers hide the design/ materials used.
I have travelled through coastal europe surfing and boards are not cheap. Seems they are more than anything against the distributors/ manufacturers of surf products, pricing structure?
Hey LankyD, I may be wrong and someone on here will no doubt correct me, but, both the patents for the old style dual tab FCS fins (and associated plugs) plus the futures fins and boxes have all expired - AFAIK, it's the main reason way FCS have the new plugs and fins to match (i.e. so they can protect them under the patents)
Hey Lanky D, as Wingnut says, there's no patent on original FCS tabs nor Futures. FCS II is a different story but the orginal tabs fit new plugs anyway.
As for the fin design, unless it's an 'out there' design - think Lexcen star fin, tunnel fins or the like - there's no way to profit via patent or protect them via copyright.
This extract was from an article I wrote on board design and patents:
"Andy Munro is a Senior Associate at the law firm Slater & Gordon. When asked about the potential for shapers to legally protect their ideas he immediately makes a distinction between copyright and patent. Copyright protects the “artistic work” from being copied by others, while a patent gives “the patentee the exclusive rights, during a fixed period of time, to exploit the invention.”
The criteria of each are similar: 'originality' is the key for copyright, 'novelty' for a patent. “The difficulty for a surfboard designer,” says Munro, “is that most modern surfboards are remarkably similar in terms of their basic elements.” Originality and novelty don't really exist.
As surfers we're familiar with the minutiae of design: a half inch of nose lift, a gently pulled tail, but such subtlety prevents surfboard designs from meeting the requirements of the Copyright Act or the novelty test that decides whether something can be patented.
Even if Simon Anderson had pursued his legal options, Munro doubts he would've been able to protect his invention. After all, Anderson wasn't the first to put three fins on a board, and the magic formula that made the Thruster work – equal size fins, wide tail, pulled nose – wouldn't have been enough to meet the legal threshold."
Full article here if you're curious:
'Shaping machines and the cut and paste of modern design'
Thanks Stu, another great article.
Ever thought about putting a book of your work together?
Lets not forget McCoys legal letters to Roy Stuart over fin design
Roy kicked ass with his replies and matter was dropped .
Wingnut,
How much to get the blank shaped with your design as you described ?
And where can I get this done once I design it ?
I'm asking about the whole board , not just the fin blank if you don't mind ?
And how much to get a board glassed ?
$25-$45 for a machine cut and $250 approx for a 4x4x4 glass job [gold coast glassing prices ]...blanks vary but major shapers get them for around $ 55 approx.
Thanks Udo- you're an ocean of knowledge.
So I could get a blank for maybe $80, get it cut for $50 then glassed for $250, throw in some fin plugs and leggie plug for maybe another $40.
So $400 - $450 for a board of my own design shaped on a machine ?
Where can I get this done ?
Yep, $400 for your very own "custom" DIY surfboard - fully outsourced.
Do the glassing yourself, and it's closer to $200 ;)
Depending where you are, there are a few cutting services around - tip here, get ya blank from the same place ;)
Also, same for glassing services.
Obviously the prime surf industry locations have more options.
Yeah , cheers mate.
Sounds good.
I'd just be getting it glassed so I can just pass through or rock up and it's ready to ride.
I've glassed a few boards.
Enough to know that if I don't have the time or inclination to do it myself then I'm not missing out on too much .
Great tips guys.
That AKU site looks unreal.
Exciting stuff.
Got a name in mind for your exciting new surfboard label?
The FIRST thing that MUST be done - it's important.
That, and call yourself a "shaper" ;)
I'm thinking high performance.
I'm thinking acceleration in and out of the pocket.
I'm thinking .....Squirter Surfboards.
You haven't had a proper ride till you've ridden a Squirter.
'Squirter' Ha ha! Nearly spat my coffee into the screen.
Or maybe you could try 'Wet Spot' surfboards, lovingly handshaped by Blowin.
You could have the Screamer model.
Over to you Gary G.
is that the Gary G spot model?
Yeah, AKU rocks - I looked at 'em all before jumping in - the tutorials made it easy to learn. I managed a surfable board from the outset. I'm a design kook ;)
You can get a free version of their website to trial and learn. :)
Fin plug and leggie plug all included in the glass job price......Wingnut has the best contacts for all ?
Correct, fin plugs themselves and install included in glassing price.
My blank supplier, who does my cuts, is not interested in more DIY business - I think I;ve stressed 'em too much ;)
Glassing - can highly recommend Sam Parsons: http://www.parsonssurfboards.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parsons-Surfboards/120697429431
As I noted above, check ya blank supplier re: a cutting service - they're all linked up ;)
How do you glass one of these, without the whole thing filling with resin and not sagging ?
When I started surfing you could buy fibreglass fin blanks from midget or b Bennett
I would love to get my hands on some tab suitable , hand foil able blanks
Forrget 3 d Printing Let me do it by hand
Give me the un foiled generic curve sandable Material with the required tabs
Am I dreaming ??
For those who have a fetish for making fins which are as perfectly foiled as possible, hand foiling anything with a tab isn't the go. The tab/fin junction is almost impossible to get right. The dreaded flat spot etc.
Strength is the main issue with 3d printing. Adding carbon fibre will only increase strength and stiffness if the print lines run vertically on the fin. This isn't ideal as the micro grooves are then at 90 degrees to the water flow, they can be sanded and faired out but it takes some time. If the print lines run horizontally then the strength is only as good as the binder ( in this case abs) which isn;t strong enough for most fins.
Our plan is to use 3d printed fins as plugs for moulds, which we'll then use to lay up fins by hand. 3D printing is ideal for making fins with accurate foils and details which can't easily be shaped by hand. The main reason for doing this sort of thing is curiosity and fun, it's never going to compete on the mass market. We all know that if a backyarder makes a 'better' fin or a fin which starts to become popular then the big guys will just take it over, so tinkerers are not going to get rich but that's not the motivation.
3 D printers will be available at Aldi next week - $499.
Fanning has just test ridden/struggled on a 3D printed surfboard.....hmmm looked like an absolute dog and coming in at more than double his normal board weight
https://snipfeed.co/wyvesurf
https://www.instagram.com/wyvesurf/
930 Euro.
About 1500 AUD.
5'11" shorty in dimensions I like is 690 Euros. That's $1,124 AUD.
Including delivery to anywhere in Europe, plus a one year warranty.
Not bad.
There's a lot of spin in there, some I'm-a-Millennial-in-a-creative-hub cheeriness, which shits me no end, and I'd like to know the tolerances for changing, say, concave depth, but there's also a few signs they could make it work. The price is good, they're using relatable materials (dings can be fixed with polyester resin), though I guess performance and durability will be the big ones.
OK, I looked at an eggy thing.
Shorties are cheaper, thats good.
I wonder if they have mistimed their run a bit- seems like the surf culture as a whole has moved back to PU/PE construction using traditional piece work methods.
obvious exceptions like Dark Arts, but it feels like the "tech" board phenomena has been and gone.
Not sure. I don't know that much about French surf culture, like say where they stand on enviro issues. Because this design leans more towards an enviro solution than it does a performance one.
Perhaps they care more about those matters than Aussie surfers do? Meaning they attribute it a higher priority so it has a greater chance of succeeding.
I mean, Polyola comes out of France and they're doing well.
Seems like there has been more "engineering" input into surfboards in Europe as well, compared to the more backyard methods of USA/Hawaii/Aus.
Yep, the social scientist in me wonders if that's the product of being a young surf culture - little allegiance to the past, willing to experiment - while the mature surf cultures of Oz and US are more hidebound.
Yeah, was funny though I was talking to Greenough the other day and in the early 90's he made a fully vac-bagged carbon flex-tail board with hot-wired EPS core.
The carbon was a special tensile strength because he had rang the manufacturer and they wanted him to test this new high strength fibre.
Without doubt it's still the most technologically advanced surf craft ever built and it was made entirely in his backyard.
Tend to agree with this, traditional PU/PE has remained. Midget wrote that the epoxies come and go every 10 years or so. My 2c is that PU with epoxy glass job has some merit. My heart wants fully renewable timber. But yeah.
Just by coincidence, I did my very first epoxy ding repair on the weekend. Never worked with it before.
Aside from the increased toxicity - I was careful to get no catalyst on me and worked outside so no fumes - I found it really good stuff to use. When it started gelling it was very mild and, unlike PE glugginess, still really consistent so it worked well to build up edges, fill hollows etc. No smell either.
Took me by surprise how long it takes to go off though.
Probably why the G10 process uses a compression as well as heat curing I guess. Good on you Stu, stay safe from the fumes. Was told the one I used was about 50 times less VOCs than urethane resins - but I do remember for some people there's a real reaction. Eg your story on Josh Dowling, I think, and someone I met who once worked for Sunova, and another who had a hospital visit on initial exposure!
It's likely I'll use it in the future, I'm trying to buy the full moon suit but I've found the providers must hate sales as they don't get back to you.
https://youtube.com/shorts/xzCSPfHIRxU?feature=share