This may be the dumbest idea out there but the other day i was bored at work and started thinking about the newer technology used in performance swimming wetsuits, where they are made like the skin of a shark, which makes the swimmer faster. So in theory couldn’t you use some type of material or laminate in the same fashion on the bottom of a surfboard and wrapped over the rails??? This is probally just some kook idea but has anyone ever seen this tried tried it out?? Dave
what aspects of the design is making it faster? I had an epoxy board that had a “shark skin” finish on it i think it was just some kind of powder or cabosoil that made it grippier
Swimmers have those kind of suits for racing on the arms and legs so every time they kick or stroke they pull and kick as much water as possible
this idea would be good on the arms of wetsuits
I dont think it would work good on surfboards because the surfboard is not kicking or stroking the water, the more smooth the better because it glides across a wave
Maybe if it gripped the water a certain way it would help maintain more control of the board
I was looking at this site just for some background on how the design works. If the scale design reduced drag, I thought maybe it would have some effect.
May I suggest you check through the Swaylocks archives for some long discussions on this subject.
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Google fastskin
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Look thorough the Virginia Tech college tutorial I posted the other day under the heading “fluids in nature”.
This has been around for a while, and there are people doing a lot of work in the field.
Are there any known links for this, or maybe someone knows of a company trying it out. I really just want to check it out for curiosity sake. Dave
400-600 grit does the trick for me…or a hydrophilic coating…