Surfboards are incredibly complicated works of craftsmanship, of that there is no doubt. They're three dimensional shapes comprised of varying and complex parabolic curves which are meant to carry a human being across the face of a curved fluid surface and change direction on a whim. They have to provide optimum hydrodynamic performance in a range of conditions. We’re all different, our surfboards are all different, and the waves that we surf are all different, every single last one of them.
So why, when it comes to measuring the dimensions of these non-comformist sculptures, do we still revert to the incredibly basic dimensional equation of length x width x thickness? Is there not more to it than that?
This week I had a piece published by The Inertia which examines the language of surfboard design and presents an argument for adding a fourth dimension onto the scribbled pencil statistics that straddle the stringer of our surfboards: volume. The piece features incredibly insightful contributions on the topic from the coaches at the Surf Simply resort in Costa Rica and from Nick Blair of Joistik Surfboards in Sydney, Australia, for which I'm incredibly grateful.
If you've got even a passing interest in how your surfboard works and the thought processes and design principles that went into it, then hopefully you will find this article of some interest. As far as I'm concerned, the more that we all know about our surfboards, the better.
Click here to check it out. I hope that you like it.
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