Your words : Because in 2000 there were approx 3 million surfers in the world, now estimated at 23 million and growing rapidly I was just speaking of the 80’s in my quoted statement . Growth from 3 mil to 23 mil surfers in 14 years with no extra waves is pretty bad , and this bonus round sounds way worse . Just sayin 
Time to leave this thread .
…too many holes in this board - it wouldn’t even float. If these are the new great threat to the surfboard industry , bring it on…a quote from the flipside of the discussion of the hysteria surrounding 3D printing = “I love the potential of 3D printing, but there needs to be a rounded debate about its possible environmental impact. Households spewing out ABS based junk could be the next ‘plastic bag’ disaster. Responsible on-demand printing using renewable and biodegradable materials might have a positive impact compared with mass production methods.”
“Heating plastics in poorly ventilated homes does unsurprisingly prove to be a rather bad idea as the UFP emissions report cautions.”
There are many industries that have been taken over by the advancement of technology. In some of the traditional crafts like pottery. Humans had to hand build there own. The the craftsmen took over the Craftsmen had a superior pot and Other saw value in trading goods for For a better pot. Then came the industrialization a few machines pottery wheels and large kilns with controlled heat. Also many craftsmen doing repetitive work. Next we have advancements in machinery and now we can mass produce potty at very cheap prices. Yet the skilled craftsmen hand throwing pottery doing their own style of decoration is still in demand. And as in many crafts we get the true artist work that is deemed superior in quality and design. This can be seen in almost every craft. Glass blowing, Furniture, cabinetry, woodworking are all crafts that follow that path. You can buy all the above at Walmart. Yet all those crafts can also be bought from the craftsmen artist or even built by hobbyist. Skills will be passed on from mentor teacher to students. I choose to think of it this way Hand built surfboards is now moving into the age of a art. Their value is in that human connection.
In windsurfing, most boards sold are mass produced compsands of high quality.
But still there are many custom shapers. Most of them use shaping machines, but compsands require a lot of manual work after being machined. Building these boards on demand still results in tailor made stronger and lighter boards, people are willing to pay for this!
Custom shapers will not disappear, but only the most adapted will survive. Wave surfing has been spared from this for a long time, way longer than windsurfing. But it’s happening.
When I joined this forum, it was becasue I wanted to understand and learn about surfboard building from those with vast experience. I have had two careers in my life; I was a tile setter in my 20’s and in my mid 30’s I got involved with information technology, which I have spent an equal amount of time. Of course I loaded up BoardCAD and designed a shape, but it wouldn’t print. Down to the building supply I went, picked up a roll of paper.
3D printing has been introduced to the world by stealth with a cleverly worked out marketing strategy full of glowing positives that are designed to have people embrace it without question , until the damage has been done…as far as I’m concerned , it’s just another scam to thieve the livelihoods of honest working people , and create wealth for very few…the further I can stay away from it , the better I feel.
If someone takes the time to create 3D printed surfboards using small connecting triangles, they may have a superior strength to weight core, but what happens to the flex everyone seems say is so important . Then the question is what to use for the skin? Veneer from wood or pre-made fiberglass or carbon panels vacuum bagged over the frame or a hand laminated cloth? I’m thinking veneer vacuum bagged over the frame.
Problem will be cost of the frame/blank. I’d like to see one made and get ride reports. Could be a game changer.
If there was real money in making surfboards the whole process of making a board could have been mechanized. The profit margins and volumes are too low.
I always thought that a roto molded blank (hollow plastic) that was very close tolerance, but with a thick bottom and rails would be a great test bed for taking a shape then constantly reworking the bottom and rails until you have a really dialed in product. That process would give you tons of knowledge about little changes here and there.
With the shaping machine you can do the same, but your working on different boards and there’s a lot of chance that the boards are not going to be exact clones because they need to be scrubbed and glassed.
I think its been about 7+ years since Bufo won the German engineering award.
The prize was use of the goverment owned machine at Wolfsburg .
Story was it did the whole board .
I saw some of these and a board cannot be built nicer . :-)
cnc cutting a blank is a different way of making the same surfboard, it has a lot of advantages over hand shaping, it is repeatable ,fast , and tweaks to the design are easily implimented…
But the end product is still a foam core surfboard and it is very difficult to distinguish a cnc cut board from a handshaped board with the naked eye once it is finished…
The performance of the two will also be pretty close to identical (all other things being equal).
3d printing however is a whole different animal… It gives the designer the ability to not just alter the outer shape of the board, but it also allows them to manipulate the interior structure, giving them an opportunity to control and tweak the flex pattern in a way that was never possible before, which can lead to a lot of innovation (not just at the production level)
The lattice board is a good example of this;
notice the overlapping radial stringers located near and around where the rider usually stands that transfer the stress out towards the rail,
a radial stringer would be more flexible than a straight stringer, and the smaller the radius the more flexible it would be, even the thickness of the stringers can also be easily changed to suit your needs…
This technology literally adds a whole new dimension to board design and performance possibilities, and IMO it is that, more than any marketing strategy, that gets people exited about it…
In the brave new world everyone will surf like Kelly on a 3D surfboard!
If this does happen , perhaps the biggest losers will be the blank manufactuer , and if the boards are clearly superior the backyard board builder will first have to build his own 3D machine and that is maybe not so far fetched there are guys on Sways building their own CNC machines , I would bet that some one will incorporate some kind of propulsion system , then it will be a levitation system and who needs waves . To infinity and beyond .
Cool. While the astro surfers head out to infinity on their plastic 3D rocket boards, I’ll be paddling out into some tidy little peelers somewhere on my handmade antiquated old school surfboard.
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