With over 35 million surfers worldwide, the sport is big business. The industry is increasingly turning to technology for bigger, better and safer thrills.
Kiana Fores appears to be standing on a surfboard that flies through the air nearly 3 feet (1 m) above the waves.
Gliding smoothly over the water off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the former pro surfer rides a hydrofoil surfboard, also known as a foil board.
These are surfboards that have a long carbon fiber shaft, or mast, that extends down from the bottom to two underwater wings.
When the speed and momentum of the sea are sufficient, the wings (also made of carbon fiber) push through the water, lifting the surfboard and its rider into the air.
In turn, many foilboards now have electric propellers built into their masts, giving them extra power so they can be used when there are no waves. This means that the user can surf not only on flat seas, but also on lakes and rivers.
“Part of what made me frustrated was the fact that there weren’t many women doing it,” says Ms Fores, 26. here’.
“And then I think it trips them up that I can really frustrate them. So it’s kind of exciting,” he laughs.
While hydrofoil technology has been around in boating for over a century, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that it began to make its way into surfing. Electric hydrofoil surfboards or ‘efoils’ arrived in 2018 when Puerto Rican firm Lift Hydrofoils released the first commercially available one.
“Thinking is opening up the realm of what can be navigated,” says Nick Leason, the company’s CEO.
Our largest efoil sales by far come from people who don’t live near the ocean. They are like 50-year-old women who live near lakes.” Leason adds that the firm sold more than 4,000 products last year.
Artificial indoor surf facilities have been around since the late 1960s, and to this day, bigger and better waves are the goal of designers.
Australian firm, Surf Lakes, is preparing to unveil what it says is the biggest thing to hit the industry, literally and metaphorically.
Still in the research and development stage, it has built a large test facility 20 km (12 mi) inland from the Queensland coast. In the middle of a nine-acre (3.6-hectare) man-made pool, a 1,400-ton steel compressed-air pump pumps up and down every six seconds. Powered by electricity, the pump creates 360-degree waves up to 8 feet (2.4 m) high, at a rate of 2,000 per hour.
“Imagine the best surf session of your life, on endless repeat,” says Aaron Trevis, founder and CEO of Surf Lakes.
He adds that there are five rings of waves in the pool at any one time, varying in shape as they hit different parts of the lake. “So you can have a whole family with different levels of surfing, all surfing together at the same time.”
Although the company has yet to open a facility to the public, it says it now has 20 projects in development across Australia, Asia, Europe and the US. Its largest sites will allow 200 people to browse at the same time.
“The real market is the 99% of people in the world who have never surfed,” says Mr. Trevis. “In the next 10 years, surfing could be 10 times bigger than the current industry.”
He adds that, in theory, the Surf Lakes system could generate 15-foot waves for professional surfing competitions.
Back in the ocean, Maya Reis Gabeira from Brazil holds the record for the highest wave successfully surfed by a woman. This was in February 2020 when she conquered a 22.4m (73ft) tall one in Nazaré, Portugal.
“There are a lot of improvements with the help of technology,” says the 34-year-old. “How to scientifically measure the height of the waves, in real time, to obtain a world record.
“And communication is also becoming much more sophisticated between people in the water.” [on jet skis] and on the cliffs”, he adds, referring to the crews on alert to rescue professional surfers who are in trouble.
For environmentally concerned surfers, the fact that most surfboards are still made from polyurethane, a type of plastic, is problematic.
A small French start-up called Wyye says that one of the solutions is 3D printing surfboards using bioplastics that are made from corn starch.
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Founded two years ago by friends Sylvain Fleury and Leo Bouffier, Wyye now has eight employees and four 3D printers running around the clock at its base near Biarritz, in southwestern France. The firm manufactures the boards according to the size, weight and needs of each surfer, and ships them throughout Europe.
In the future, he wants to set up other manufacturing facilities abroad, each near key surf spots.
“The goal is to duplicate our micro-factory model and 3D printed boards near popular surf spots around the world,” says Leo Kerhir, head of international business development at Wyve.
He adds that it currently takes an average of 20 to 50 hours to print a single dashboard. “But 3D printing technology is improving very fast. It’s now a two-week process from order to delivery, which is the same as a normal custom surfboard. And I think we can reduce that very soon.”
While shark attacks around the world remain mercifully rare, with a global average of 72 a year, they are of concern to many surfers.
Nathan Garrison is one such person, after a childhood friend from his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina was attacked as a teenager. And then, years later, a great white shark killed a neighbor of his in California.
To help prevent attacks, Mr. Garrison launched a product called Sharkbanz in 2014. It’s a small device that a surfer can wear on their wrist or ankle.
It uses magnets to create an electromagnetic field about 6 feet that interferes with the electric field senses a shark uses to hunt and navigate.
“It’s something like [the human equivalent of] staring at the sun with your eyes or shining a bright light in someone’s face,” says Mr. Garrison. “It’s off-putting to the shark and makes it want to get away.”
Although it now sells up to 30,000 Sharkbanz per year, a Western Australian government report found the technology has a 65% success rate. That’s less than two-thirds, and in 2016 a surfer in Florida wearing the device required 44 stitches after a bite.
“Like any security device, it will never be 100% effective,” says Mr. Harrison. “Sharks are wild animals. But this has been shown to at least reduce risk. It tells a shark you’re there and to look elsewhere for food.”
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