Do you think transparent or transclucent boards would be a good idea? Is “clear” a selling point? Imagine a totally clear bodyboard or surf mat! Or a clear wetsuit! Thanx in advance!
I swear to God if I went out and saw people wearing clear wetsuits - I’d probably saw my eyes out.
Well…most people anyway. Lord knows clear wetsuits would be a Godsend for some people.
Transparent boards… be kinda tough to find , drifting around on a glassy day, no? Let alone the refraction problem:
Headline: Local Man’s Car Catches Fire Today on Beach Road: he blames his surfboard, Fire Marshal Investigates.
Transparent wetsuits… well, I have friends who don’t wear anything under their wetsuits. And being out there with a bunch of equally bald, hairy, scarred up guys covered in the equivalent of Saran Wrap wouldn’t really add to the fun any, far as I’m concerned. Though it’d definitely go over big with the Blue Crush crowd…
Clear wetsuits, yep I can think of some practical applications:
Doc read my sentiment exactly. If I were forced to see hairy scarred up men in clear wetsuits, I’d saw my eyes out.
However, there are SOME certain hot females who I wouldnt mind seeing in clear wetsuits.
Maybe we’d stop seeing all those annoying “Surf Naked” and crap shirts if there were clear wetsuits, so that could be a plus.
Clear wetsuits and baywatch has finished , they may have got ten more seasons out of it .endless possibilities
I think a clear board or mat would be pretty intriguing. Translucent and transparent parent materials are definitely adding value in lots of other design areas like architecture and furniture. If it could be achieved without compromising performance and functionality, I think it could be cool.
On the other hand, people would pay good money not to see me in a transparent wetsuit.
I saw a big Hawaiian that had a clear window in his paddleboard.He used it for fishing and diving.
In the summer of '65, I surfed Nauset Beach, Cape Cod for the first time. The waves were invisible, the water was so clear and the surf so glassy, that when you stood up, there was no bottom to the wave, just the ripples in the sand, pebbles on the sea floor and shells. It was difficult to surf with no reference as to where the wave face stopped. Ah, what a day, I had 3 girls from “Woostah” take me home with them
I surfed some ‘invisable’ waves like that in oz one day at a very unlikely location - D-Bah. Small and clear and glassy. I couldnt see the wave except for the weird refraction of the light off the bottom .
See-through surfboard: put heavy glass on an eps styrofoam board and cut out some holes and flush out the foam with a solvent then seal it back up - someone mentioned doing this the other day to make hollow fins. It would probably break. You could use wooden or polyurethane foam stringers or maybe clear plastic stringers! in the board that would not dissovle like the eps and then it might have enough structure to hold up. Or build it like that S-core board but use clear glass instead of carbon and dont put foam over the mold. Use more glass in stead. There was a thread a while ago about building a hollow frame board like paul jensens but using clear plastic - they make some canoes like that.
What would be the best shape for a clear board to enjoy riding while lookindown at the wave? - I vote 6’0 single fin egg.
I saw a skate video yesterday - they took the video and photoshopped out the board and put the riders shadow under them so the skaters were skating around town manueling and grinding down handrails on ‘invisable boards’ . It looked really cool. Imagine seeing that on a wave in real life - someone build it!
A clear lexan boards is buildable and surfable…
The rails would likely be opaque, but from the rails inward, you could have it be totally see through…
Anyone want to buy one…???..
I’d build it…
Quote:
In the summer of '65, I surfed Nauset Beach, Cape Cod for the first time. The waves were invisible, the water was so clear and the surf so glassy, that when you stood up, there was no bottom to the wave, just the ripples in the sand, pebbles on the sea floor and shells. It was difficult to surf with no reference as to where the wave face stopped. Ah, what a day, I had 3 girls from “Woostah” take me home with them
They took you back to Worchester? or “they took you home with them?”
One’s a nightmare; one could be paradise.
Quote:
In the summer of '65, I surfed Nauset Beach, Cape Cod for the first time. The waves were invisible, the water was so clear and the surf so glassy, that when you stood up, there was no bottom to the wave, just the ripples in the sand, pebbles on the sea floor and shells. It was difficult to surf with no reference as to where the wave face stopped. Ah, what a day, I had 3 girls from “Woostah” take me home with them
Heh… a few years later, I ran into their sisters at Nauset Light.
We still get those days…
doc…
That would be a very interesting project. Quite a conversation piece too.
They took me home with them to “Woostah”, it was fun for about a month, time to be movin’ along, new beaches, new waves, “Dottie I’m a loner”
There’s precious few waves up on the Quabbin Reservoir, and badada chips anna cup-pla 'Gansetts don’t make up for it. Yeah, know how that goes.
And then there were the four from Ohio around '73. I had a little apartment by the beach and…
I kinda miss that era. Not only does it seem like it was better, wave wise, it was definitely better otherwise.
Funny thing, friend of mine used to be a Cape lifeguard and surfer, wound up writing a book on the subject of surf weather. And he was mentioning, last time I ran across him, that the average New England summer wave size was indeed bigger and more consistent then.
doc…
Doc, when I moved back to the Cape from Hawaii, I thought the Cape would have the best waves on the East coast, it sticks out so much further than anywhere else. But I think it is too far out, a lot of the souths go right by and the good norths have the lows racing off for the maritimes. I would watch John Georci’s weather forecast and see a low forming off Hatteras and be all excited, only to wake up to find it racing at 50 knots past Thule, Greenland, not to say the Cape does not have it’s epic swells
Yeah, Jim, I know exactly what you mean. You can get some epic stuff in late summer and fall, but nothing seems to hang around of late.
Which is kinda weird, as I’ll swear I can remember storms just hanging around out there, not necessarily heavy stuff but good waist to shoulder and consistently there all summer. My buddy Vic did some research, and he mentioned that the average summer wave activity recently ( this was a few years ago ) was something like 70% off the historical average and had been for 20 years. Much like how no hurricanes making landfall here for decades, maybe. Might be the gulf stream has changed a bit, might be something else, never really pursued what it was, after all there’s precious little I can DO about it, y’know?
And then there’s George’s Bank and the shoals to the SW, we get a little blocked unless it’s right in the groove.
Coincidentally, I happened to run across one of the guys who started up the old Nauset Surf last weekend at a party. He’s doing well, and I run into the other two on occasion.
Best
doc…
Doc, did the have their boards displayed on the side of Packet Landing Road on the way to Nauset? They had G&S and I can’t remember what else for labels, I did ding repair for them, so I would have gas money to travel some more