SurfSens Brings Surfing Into the Computer Age

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

Surfing in the age of wimps

[Anonymous Coward]

No need for skill anymore. Slap some speakers on it and call it Surf Hero.

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[Anonymous Coward]

No need for skill anymore. Slap some speakers on it and call it Surf Hero.

Call me when they fix a motor as well.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because data logging somehow surfs for you. WTF?

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[toastar]

Slap some speakers on it and call it Surf Hero.

Cowabunga dude!

Surprising

[Toam]

I'm quite genuinely surprised that this has not been done sooner.

In hindsight, it seems quite an obvious thing to do.

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[psithurism]

You are obviously not a surfer. What is obvious or useful about this?

You are obviously not a nerd. What is NOT obvious or useful about more data.

I skimmed the article just far enough to figure out I NEED to put a GPS on my surf board. I've got a few theoretical models about paddle speed, wave speed, velocity along the face and height changes that partially work out with videos. But to get real data? I'm already thinking about how you could incorporate your top paddle speed on various boards against an expert system to choose a board based on needed speed in various condition

Unacceptable.

[Anonymous Coward]

As an Amish gentleman, I find this product quite wicked, and I shall not purchase one.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[kitsunewarlock]

Not that I'm saying you believe what will soon follow, but it's a general misconception due to many (usually comic) depictions of them in popular media. But the amish don't believe technology is wicked because of any kind of supernatural fear of the technology itself (i.e. they don't believe electricity is evil) so much as they believe that relying on things outside their immediate community is wrong and will lead to dire complications. Plus they believe electricity leads to unnecessary wants that distrac

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[Locke2005]

I hear using this technology can get you kicked off of this service [amish-online-dating.com]!

LOL

[DNS-and-BIND]

Yeah, right. Take one of these foo-foo boards out and get the **** beaten out of you by "locals only" townies. These rednecks then take your board, break it in half, and sell the parts to a chop shop. (Do they even have chop shops for surfboards? Well they'll have to start now!)

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[camperslo]

Well just add a winch and tell them you're fishing for lost satellites.

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[drinkypoo]

Yeah, right. Take one of these foo-foo boards out and get the **** beaten out of you by "locals only" townies.

One of my brothers was a Santa Cruz surfer and another friend still is and it doesn't matter what kind of board you have, if you're not there with a local and/or you're not everything they think you should be then you're getting that ass-kicking.

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[dfenstrate]

Yeah, right. Take one of these foo-foo boards out and get the **** beaten out of you by "locals only" townies.

One of my brothers was a Santa Cruz surfer and another friend still is and it doesn't matter what kind of board you have, if you're not there with a local and/or you're not everything they think you should be then you're getting that ass-kicking.

I wasn't aware surfers were such violent degenerates, in addition to being the airheads they're traditionally portrayed as.

You learn something new every day.

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[DoraLives]

> I wasn't aware surfers were such violent degenerates,
> in addition to being the airheads they're traditionally portrayed as.

It's worse than you imagine, by far.

Surfers are dangerous thugs, and they will issue beatdowns at the slightest provocation, or even no provocation at all.

They roam in packs, speak in a near-incomprehensible dialect, and evade all duties to god, country, family, and work in a crazed hedonistic pursuit of some delusional "perfect wave."

The most cursory of examinations

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[drinkypoo]

I wasn't aware surfers were such violent degenerates, in addition to being the airheads they're traditionally portrayed as.

Well, like anything else it's not universal, but yes; Surfers tend to be violent and territorial. I imagine after the fifth or sixth time some jackass cuts you off or better, rides over you, it's tempting to go pretty aggro, but on the other hand, a lot of surfers have a problem with sharing. On the gripping hand, what are violent young men supposed to do with their time?

Obligatory

[zill]

Yo dawg, we heard you like surfing so we put a computer in yo' surfboard so you can surf while you surf.

Oh, it's THAT kind

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't until the end of the summary I realized it was referring to something else than web-surfing. Duh.

flex and return speed

[Anonymous Coward]

Recently surfboard flex and return speed have bean at the forefront of board design. Unfortunately there are two very big problems with trying to design a board that has perfect flex. One is that surfers descriptions are flawed. A surfer might say a board feels stiff when the board is actually very flexible. The stiff feeling comes from the board having a fast return speed from flex. The second problem is that a board that has the best new flex design could get bad reviews because it is not what people

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[Purity Of Essence]

I'm glad somebody gets it. Performance surfing lore is filled with so much misinformation. Tools like these can bust some myths and clarify what is actually happening to the board and to the water when someone is surfing.

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[thegarbz]

Isn't this the same with any sport? I mean looking at reviews for skis one person will say it's a garbage set, and the next will say it's the best they've ever clipped their boots into. Each has pros and cons on the various large number of possible types of skiing conditions.

Bicycles are the same too. I heard one group of cyclists arguing over a set of carbon fibre rims, one cyclist loved them and the other said he tried them and returned them for something else.

You can surf *without* a computer?

[Arancaytar]

Huh. :P

Hydrofoil Boards

[GrahamCox]

Talking of high tech, whatever happened to the thing I saw about 5-6 years ago where someone had fitted a small hydrofoil blade beneath the rear of the board, which lifted the whole thing out of the water at speed and made it ultra-fast and ultra-manouverable. I know little about surfing, so maybe that wasn't playing fair, and it got seen off by the surfing equivalent of the "get off my lawn"brigade, but it seemed a great idea and once seen, sort of obvious. Not even expensive to make.

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[GrahamCox]

This is the thing I mean: youtube vid [youtube.com]. Did it come to anything?

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[kaizokuace]

woah thats totally sweet! I can see why competition surfing wouldn't allow that though. There was a related link there to a kayak with a couple of those hydrofoils that I thought was cool.

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[psithurism]

it got seen off by the surfing equivalent of the "get off my lawn"brigade

If there was such a brigade with any influence whatsoever, paddle boards would not have happened.

I only saw it (in videos) for tow surfing on hideously large waves, and there it did not appear to me to give the speed or control of a typical big wave board. I doubt you could paddle that thing up to speed on smaller waves, and if it endangers your life on waves that are larger, I don't really see it becoming popular.

It's better

[jimmydevice]

than what Intel cooked up back in the mid-2K's. A board with a PC and wireless connectivity. Almost as bad as branding with Disney.

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[psithurism]

A board with a PC and wireless connectivity.

Back when I was single, sitting out there for a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon hoping the wind would die or knowing a particular mob would leave, I would totally go for some wireless web surfing.

Could have been awesome...

[Crudely_Indecent]

What, no media player? No digital camera? No Shark Shield [sharkshield.com]?

With all of the possibilities, they seem to have chosen the lamest ones.

A GPS? Seriously? "Dude, this surf is awesome....where the hell am I?" I still remember where I was the last time I surfed - 14th Street, Del Mar - a short climb down the cliff to the isolated beach.