are here, and advancing rapidly. If the flex and foil were dialed in on this one, sheathed appropriately, likely a board that would travel without a bag and arrive anywhere in the world without a mark.
this one was printed by a father in his garage for his son.
Disrupt surfboards in AU is already taking 3D orders from surfers, letting them design their own boards. 3D printing technology is advancing so rapidly that Disrupt Surfing will soon be able to print the entire surfboard from scratch. His long-term plan is to sell access to a software library of surfboard designs and have customers print their surfboards locally.
Ten years from now, the vast majority if not all consumer surfboards will be 3D printed. Machined shapes from the likes of Arakawa, Rawson, etc will continue to be in demand from advanced surfers, and hand shaped boards will become more and more of a rarity with those shapers able to command even more of a premium from those who can afford them.
If you think about it, this cycle has already been established, with Firewire/Arakawa/Philips representative of the three tiered price points.
All about improving the machines at this point, and as importantly, the utillized materials.
Early adopters, shapers who tend to be highly software literate, will have some serious beta testing ahead to develop all important flex patterns, and R & D into integrated bottoms/fins will bring the first significant such advances since the thruster.
Likely of little interest to the devoted hand shaper, whose relatively modest order volume is easily maintained by hand shaping. Or as one told me once “with my margins, I can’t afford to pay the machine to makes the cuts, I have to pay myself.”
For the larger volume shapers currently using machines, especially the ‘big box’ companies, most likely already invovled in some R & D of their own.
As it is, advances continue to accelerate, as usual, faster then anticipated. Wouldn’t be surprised to see some Swaylockian posting up his first 3D printed board in the very near future.
that’s the thing about the future, it’s constantly arriving…