Stewart board headlights

http://www.stewartsurfboards.com/news/2010/08/03/open-invitation

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/sports/One-Surfers-Bright-Idea-100165399.html

http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-night-surfboard,0,3244573.story

 

Wonder how much that will go for?

Hey lockedin - are you seeing this?  this is your next board LOL!

Spotlights for shark bait -

100+ hrs and ovr $600 just in lights...

eaten by a shark?

 

[quote="$1"] Spotlights for shark bait [/quote]

in that case that board would be better off surfed here in the philippines--- sharks keep away lest they lose their fins to local dimsum chefs hehe.

hmm then again if anybody ever needed headlights to go night-surfing, why not use those fuss-free, superbright LEDs on elastic headbands used by cyclists & spelunkers? they don't cost $600 'no?

x )

 

At least 25 maybe 30 years ago, Dick DeLong made a board with built lights facing foward. It looked like a regular board, but on each side of the nose there were lights built in to the board. They were covered with clear plastic like a modern sports car. He was showing it at crafts and new product shows.

In the late 60’s early 70’s, Dick was building boards for all the guys in Ewa Beach. Some with the Surfline label and some with the Lightning Bolt label. He had moved up to Haleiwa by the time I saw the board with lights. I mentioned to him that it was a cool idea, but I’d be afraid that it would attract sharks.

I don’t know what happened to him. 

LOL Nice! Can’t wait to see someone out on that at Malibu some night soon!

http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-shark-sighting-san-onofre,0,4728057.story

Stewart needs a go pro in that window section of the board.. "be the first to video your own shark attack!!"

I was talking to someone recently about dawn patrols and he mentioned that he often paddles out before first light. I told I used to do that when I lived across the beach but I always found it a problem because many times you can’t see the waves coming till they’re right on you. Sometimes I’ve paddled out and found that the waves were much bigger than I thought. He said he had done that just the day before we were talking when we had a high surf advisory swell.

A board like the one Dick DeLong showed would be great for heading out about 20 minutes before first light and be surfed out before the crowds. With everything built into the board, you can go through the sets just like a normal board. I think the Stewart board has a good chance of being destroyed on the first clean up set.

priceless! better in 3D hehe

x )

There was a contest held one night at Malibu 1st point. They left the lights up (looked like a few banks of 100Kw lights) for an hour after the contest so that the public enjoy them too. The reality was that the lights created very unnatural shadows, reflected strange contours on the wave face, and didn’t illuminate what we really need to see - incoming waves. And once a wave was caught, we had half a stadium worth of blinding white light in our eyes, and could only see a few feet ahead of the oddly lit face. - kinda had the sensation of surfing into heaven! lol

 

Having night surfed Malibu (and surrounding points) for over 20yrs - IMHO moonlight and streetlights are far more effective. Just let your eyes adjust, sit just off the peak, hoot at others to let them know where you are when you are paddling, and to bring some stoke out there!

From the Nite Rider website ( http://www.niteriderdive.com ) :

“In the summer of 1989, Tom Carroll, a Del Mar California surfer/diver found that working full time took a serious chunk out of his water time. To rectify this problem, he set out to extend his day by way of a 150 watt helmet-mounted halogen light with a NiCad batteryl pac attached to his waist belt. He called it his “NiteRider” and used it for late night surfing sessions and spearfishing forays. Tom took this concept a step further by starting a successful business around the idea of a “hands free” underwater lighting system.”

[Note: To the best of my knowledge, NiteRider is currently one of the biggest manufacturers of diving, surfing, and bicycle lights in the world]

I bought (and still have) one of Tom’s surfing oriented (helmet-mounted) lighting systems in the early 90’s . It differs from the system described (above) primarilyl in that it has two lower wattage halogen lights instead of a single brighter light. One light has a wide field of illumination; the other, is more like a spot light. You can switch between the two patterns. An advantage of having the lights helmet mounted is that it illuminates the area in the same direction you are looking (not only left-right, but also up-down) versus a fixed system of lights built into a board.

Mechanically and electrically the system works as intended. The principal problem that I experienced with in the ocean is backscatter (due to moisture in the air). When close to sea level, and the light is turned on, what one sees is the appearance of driving through fog with one’s car headlights turned on. I do not know if the moisture levels where I used the system are typical of all other areas or not. Presumably the system would work better in areas where the relative humidity is lower.

In the area where I experimented with the light, the thickness of this layer seems to roughly extend from the sea surface up to an elevation of about 15 feet. More specifically as I descend down a stairway to the beach, everything looks pretty good and backscattering is minor until reaching approximately 15 ft above the sea surface. From there on down, the backscatter quickly increases as one approaches the sea surface (as when paddling a board-mounted light system).

So, one might the backscatter problem to increase on a board-mounted system since the light is is closer to the sea surface than with a helmet mounted system when riding on a wave. However, the intensity of backscatter falls off rapidly with increasing angle between the axis of the illumination and the the axis of sight. With a helmet-mounted light the physical (vertical) separation between the lights and the eyes is only a few inches. On the other hand with board-mounted lights, the separation would be several feet. Hence it is possible that the associated increase in angular separation in a board-mounted system could offset some of the effect of a higher moisture content.

[Note: All of these observations were made 20+ years ago, so although these are my best recollections, there’s still potential for error. Seems to me a good reason fix my system (I need to replace the failed water-proof switch), then redo my observations and see if my recollections are correct.]

mtb

 

Man...  This is depressing, because I hate to see the night go mainstream.  I guess that's just how things go.  What was once a secret becomes over run by the masses.  The last time I surfed Malibu at night I counted over 30 boards in the line-up -- which is a lot considering that it's dark.  Back in the 90's my buddy & I used to surf Rincon at night alone on a regular basis.  That is the only time when you can get really glassy conditions there.  The most incredible thing I have ever experienced was surfing a 2xOH perfectly glassy cove wave, where the water was glowing bright blue from the phosphorescence.  This was a truly amazing experience that would have been completely ruined by headlights on your board. 

You don't need much light when you are up and riding.  It's positioning yourself for the drop in the dark that is the challenge.  You just have to practice a few times (ie, get slammed by the wave because you were out of position) to get the hang of it.

If you are afraid of people running into you, then just get a glow stick.  You can tape it on to your zipper with athletic tape.  Halloween is a good time to stock up on glow sticks, as they are really cheap then.

I think that it should have brights too - you know, so if a kook drops in on you, you can flash your brights to tell him to pull over and let you by!  Hey, maybe a horn, too!  That'd go over big in the crowded L.A. lineups!

anyone ever tried to find a waterproof headlamp for nightsurfing?  with brights to flash at kooks of course!

http://www.niteriderdive.com/Products.htm

It will still ruin your natural night vision

Underwater Kinetics makes some great lights for diving; and their SL4 eLED comes with straps to attach it to your mask.

http://www.uwkinetics.com/dive/catalog/lights?svs_lamp-type=eLED

 

edit: wrong UK model

Yeah, lights on your head probably make better sense. That boards was made for Billabong Art of Shaping Charity Auction. Some of the boards at that event where more art pieces than rideable boards. Anyway the headlights board got the winning bid in the auction -$5250 which goes to the SIMA Humanitarian Fund charity. Stewart got $2000 for winning the event and a helluva lot of free local and national news coverage.

 

Rincon by braille is fun! Nothing like making the drop, looking up and seeing the moon through the lip (just before it hit!). A buddy and I paddle a lot of Rincon, Secos and other breaks at night whenever possible since the mid 80’s - some of the best sessions I ever had!

In the 90’s I had a nite job that usually let out about 12 - 2am. I drove PCH past all the North LA points, and had plenty of time to make it to Rincon (or surrounding points) before dawn. Had some absolutely epic solo sessions! Over the years I’ve found that some spots are actually easier when there’s a marine layer overhead - it creates a more diffuse light, but shows detail better.

 

I’ve seen people attempt lights at Malibu in various forms. Most entered and left the water pretty quickly.  - IMO none worked as well as patience and positioning. I never saw anything but glow sticks at the other spots. I always avoided those since they I use them to attract bait fish…seemed riskier than being without one. And surfing a rock point alone at night is such great judgement in the first place    8^P