3D surfboards

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…

 

I don’t this will happen :

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. I think the marketing will make consumers want or value Handshapes even less .

Not a happy scenario .  :-(

many if not most of the hand shaping tribe is in their 40 -60’s now, as are many if not most of their primary customers.

They will age out together, with the older shaper happy to do fewer boards (other then Jim Phillips, lol), the aging surfer ordering a few less.

The drawknife and handplane gave way to the Skil, the Skil has been giving way to the machine, the printer next, such changes inveitable.

However, just like mechanics who keep 65 year old hot rods running and will continue to do so,

there will always be a backyard shaper, mowing some form of ‘green friendly’ foam into the next shape.

as to the high end custom hand shaping, it all comes down to who’s mentoring the next generation of hand shapers to carry on.

Without them, hand shaping truly will revert to its backyard shop roots.

With them, there will always be a niche market among the knowledgeable and reasonably affluent for custom boards…

 

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I am 65 years old , and have seen the changes .

In the new Wade Tokoro video on surfline he states handshaping is an art but he can create anything in AKU with higher accuracy .

This is the current standard and what 99% of what customers are buying .

Any technology advances from here will move the consumer interest even further away from handshpes at any price .

So I doubt the value - increased price like you forsee will happen for the last handshapers in the near future .

I have used machines for the last 14 years , currently I am paying extra to have it run slower with many more passes to make these cuts as close to the program they can be and am very happy with them . :slight_smile:

No stopping the Future  :-)  Off to scrub !

 

To bad design doesn’t seem to keep up with technology.

As a backyarder I have little interest in this.

As a craftsman / artist I grieve the increasing dependence on technological “advances” whose primary impetus is profit from increased production by using machines and computers to eliminate the human labor force.

I believe depression, health problems, and other larger societal problems, like unemployment, unrest, and yet greater uneven distribution of wealth, will increase in proportion to this trend.

Meh…

shaping your own board in your backyard is WAY too easy and cheap for it to become an option for only the rich.

As far as printable surfboards taking over the larger share of the market, that may well be.

As long as the materials are available at a reasonable cost, homebuilders will continue the art of handshaping. When the cost for blanks and glassing materials exceed the cost of buying a board, we will see handshaping and homebuilders disappear. When that big EMP hits and we all go back to a world without electronics and machines, those with the ability to use their hands to build things will be important.

To the old masters, I say please teach some of the younger generation what you can. Your knowledge must be passed on. This is for every step of the boad building process.

In the mean time a really good glasser looks like a more valueble person to be.

That wire frame stuff with a skin might work but can 3D printers print light weight WHITE foam?

 

Disrupt are not making 3d printed surfboards they are PU garbage made in china and ordered from aliexpress.com

not a wire frame, polymer.

currently utilized materials will become more expensive as demand decreases, less is manufactured, and environmental laws continue to strengthen. 

The Disrupt example is about the business model, which will become the likely scenario - buy the design over the internet with tweaking rights, print it out at the local commercial scale printer.  Kinko’s doing surfboards.  And they’ll have to.  Why?

Because in 2000 there were approx 3 million surfers in the world, now estimated at 23 million and growing rapidly, as is the demand for surfboards.  400,000 boards were built in 2000, 2x that this year and growing expotentially. 

Which creates a staggering waste stream from building surfboards and abandoned surfboards, the highest in all sports.  

So a neccessary upside to 3D printing will be utilizing materials which can be recycled with minimal waste.

There will always be backyard shapers, and there will always be small shaping/board building operations.  They can’t keep 23 million surfers in boards, however, much less the 30 million+ surfers projected to be in the water by 2020, that requires pure productoin capacity.  And this vast herd of surfers have made it easy, they all want the same homogenized 'pro’shapes that are only differentiated by builder stickers.  

This isn’t about personal preferences and asthetics, ‘soul’ shaping vs. high volume production, it’s about pure supply and demand.

Just is what it is.  Like most of what is happening all around us…

 

Because in 2000 there were approx 3 million surfers in the world, now estimated at 23 million and growing rapidly, as is the demand for surfboards. 400,000 boards were built in 2000, 2x that this year and growing expotentially.

Thats why I am a Happy mountain bike rider :slight_smile: I had it great before all this . Saw Mason Ho today on the trails - another happy biker . :slight_smile:

[quote=

In the new Wade Tokoro video on surfline he states handshaping is an art but he can create anything in AKU with higher accuracy .

[/quote]

I don’t see this kind of accuracy necessary for a surfboard shape. A favorite board of mine was snapped and repaired a little crooked and it still was epic. 1/8" to 1/16" is good enough for surfboard design. Could you feel the difference?

 

I can feel an 1/8 "  twist

Doesn’t break it but can be avoide this with glassing skill . :slight_smile:

I can tell many great stories about machines but , nope  :-)

…hello GregGriffin; may be the problem are in the guys like you that let the machine shape the board, the crew glass them; then put the sticker on them but you are not the big brand (that have almost all the market, more in Hawaii) and the teenagers want the big brand stickers, the mid 40s crisis guys too.

Being in the middle of the way regarding business may be is not the best idea.

 

Very happy to have all those years of being able to sit at my spot and just let the wave come to me .  :-)

Rather than hustle and bustle for it , like today . :slight_smile:

I had a great time handshaping ,assisted with a profiler I made for machine like accuracy .

Transferering that into and learning machine programs has been fun too .

like to hear what Huie has to say since he’s been around as long if not longer than Greg and plays with the latest of technology.

probably would be something that technology has its place.

on the other hand a quick browse thru the local craigslist shows at least 30% or more of the sports catagory postings to be sales of used and new SUPs which is another example of a bubble bursting before our eyes.

hardly see real brewers, BKs or griffins in decent shape for sale versus lots of firewires, SUPs and costco boards for sale. Even used tokoro’s out list the minami’s eventhough glen’s board aren’t that much less of quality than wade’s.

drive down to the surf factory outlet in campbell industrial park and you can see the problem.

I see it with every board I sell on craigslist and the actual knowledge level of the buyers, its a pretty pathetic uneducated mass market out there which is the result of all the marketing of the “lifestyle” these past 30-40 years.

The greatest education a surfer can get is by making their own equipment (or at least try to), learning to surf in all conditions with just one board, and doing it without a leash or surf report. Ding repair is a long lost art, as is staying in control and holding on to your board or swimming long distances in open ocean rips. None of which 70%-80% of today’s surf population can do.

I gues I’ve been around too long to think like this

but I’ll continue to hope for a turn around one day, which I see in its very beginnings lately in the generation below the hipster crowd.

 

 

Huie is my elder in all ways  ;-)

I  wonder if 3d printed boards will replace custom boards .  

Scott has been riding these for 15 years.

Get on out there and spend your money.  Be the first on your block.  Hang all thos Colyers on the wall as art and get out there on a 3-d

**currently utilized materials will become more expensive as demand decreases, less is manufactured, and environmental laws continue to strengthen. **

Not sure this will be the case, as lots of others, way more than surfboard makers, use glass and glue, and non-premolded foam. And there’s the all wood guys…

When that big EMP hits and we all go back to a world without electronics and machines,

I laughed out loud to this one Harry – I’ve been saying that for years. Although, I’m not so sure I want to live to see it anymore…

Very happy to have all those years of being able to sit at my spot and just let the wave come to me .  :-)

ya, early 60’s to now was a great time to be a surfer…all those great memories in the bank, now onto the bonus round…