The Future of Surfboards

General Discussion
1

every so often someone appears , who has vision and can see that there are easier and better ways of doing things …

mikieinstein , creative genius? visionary? or just plain logical thinker ?

recently i had the experience of a whirlwind tour of the goldcoast , even got to surf superbank with 100 ripping grommets (yes that was fun?) …

i had the priviledge of meeting miki and after signing my life away , being searched for hidden cameras and spying equipment, then lead down a maze of corridors blindfolded , by two armed associates …

i got to see something that had my jaw sitting on the ground …

i shapebot , the only thing this thing didnt do was look up and shake my hand …

i stood there and said "im blown away " another guy who i was with said "youve been building boards for 20 years and your blown away?,well i cant believe what im seeing right now " …

every few minutes another perfect board was lifted off the machine …

miki’s aps 3000 makes everything else look like a rickety mechano creation …

seeing on screen files being converted into shapes in a matter of minutes was mindblowing …

the whole team , each individual who had input into the total design , engineering , and software package are nothing short of genius’s in there own rights …

there is no way after seeing something like that , that i couldnt make a comment about it ,totally awsome …

this machine has the potential to really change the shape of the future , im excited just thinking what i will be able to create with this machine …

every now and then someone comes along that makes a difference …

well this time it was more than one and they made aps 3000 …

to miki and the crew , im hope im not out of place by making these comments …

im not normally easily impressed , but this time i was blown away …(hope there was nothing in the fine print)

well done …really well done …insane…

regards

BERT

2

What does a machine like this cost?Or are they set up like KKL where they machine blanks for other companies?I saw a foam cutting machine in Atlanta,GA that could shape a perfect board but it cost something like a half million dollars just to build it.Thanks for the post Bert.I really like what you are doing. rb

3

send pho…

oh right, the robots track you down with their guided satellites ??

What about if you hide in the underground bunker for a few months while we exchange maps, plans and secret handshakes ?? deal ? …

I guess in maybe 10 or 50 years, this machine will become common knowledge in the surf magazines …till then, we just have your testimony Bert !!

thanks for letting us know what the robots at the slooperbank will be riding soon   



     ben
4

Wow Burt if you were impressed by a machine it must be somthing special or very very scary, I understand the need to keep you industrial secrets but it all sounds a bit cloak and dagger.

Are you sure they’re are not holding you hostage and forcing you to type these thing. If they are we’ll have a whip round to raise the ransom.

Seriously though that sounds like one scary machine, I think the least it could have done was shack your hand, those robots have no respect,

5

Hey Bert, I don’t know the machine at all, but I’m with you on this one, thinking ahead, future unfolding before our very eyes.

I wonder what DP would have to say about it. I guess he’d feel threatened as usual.

6

Scary, very scary…why don’t we create robots to surf these boards too. Then we could sit on the beach and sip a cold one and just watch them surf.

This might be “Your Future”, but its not mine.

“just because we can, doesn’t mean we should…I’m headed home”

-Donovan Frankenreiter

7

That’s really funny, I thought we were talking the advancement in surfboard design technology, not young hippy values.

8

I trust it is an amazing machine and very accurate. I can hear people saying “it gives me a board just like I envisioned it without any human error!” One question: can it be programmed to make mistakes anyway? You know, the kind of mistakes that have often led to breakthroughs in surfboard design? To quote Bert’s favorite (ha!) surf journalist:

“Evolution is based on imperfection, on the happy accidents and odd little quirks of nature. And surfboards evolve just like living things. Hell, half of the time surfboards improved by accident, through mistakes made in the shaping process. The other half of the time the shaper didn’t hit what he was aiming at, but lucked into hitting a hidden bullseye.”

Just wondering if the computer and machine will be as successful at this as our human hands have been.

If popularized, it will certainly be successful at one thing: killing off jobs from actual human beings. Sometimes this is a good idea, if the work was dangerous or overly degrading. I don’t think surfboard shaping is such a task that needs to be replaced by a machine. There are people who want to shape, the current market price of surfboards can support the labor rates, and by shaping they gain the experience that produces the next generation of great surfboard designer/shapers.

If one was a big time shaper who comes up with this year’s model and then needs to pump them out at volume to satisfy the massive demand and either, a) can’t trust humans to shape the boards accurately enough for him or b) would just prefer added profits in his pocket rather than supporting another surfer by paying his salary, then the machine sounds like it is perfect. Otherwise, though it’s a brilliant piece of machinery, I’m not so sure it’s necessary and not so sure I see any upside in the longrun.

9

Yeah,

let’s go back to living off the land using nothing but a pick and shovel. See how much fun that is… (Just for the record, I grew up on a farm)

Techology advances and civilization is what makes it possible for us to have spare time.

regards,

Håvard

10

I must say that some months ago came to Spain a shaper from Australia and he showed me a foam shaped on an APS 3000 machine… I’ve seen lots of foams shaped by the KKL, and they aren’t close, specially in the rails.

This doesn’t mean just that the ghost shaper can do more shapes per day, but that the ghost shaper has less probabilities on fckng a good shape when finishing the rails.

Nice work, “well done” as Bert said!!! And thanks for sharing your software!!!

11

I am glad that things like robots and fancy machines floats your boat! To me that would depress the hell out of me… Sounds like a very scary future to me… did that machine glass the board to?

Ben

12

Hey Bert

isn’t FeralDave using Miki’s machine to support his production operation?

I thought he was one of Miki’s test pilots…

13

Why do people get so combative on this site. The guy was just voicing his opinion and suddely he’s a caveman hippy?

14

Amen to that…imperfections and the element of chance to discover something new…its the journey that is so important. Sorry everyone if I didn’t explain my comments as well as this gentlemen did, but I agree. I am a artist by trade-graphic designer. I have worked in the industry for 10 years, have a family so I am not some hippie living off the “land”. But what is wrong with the land? I like technology, but everything has its place. I don’t feel like things are slowing down but ever speeding up. Its just sad that no one anymore sits back and questions things and really thinks about whether or not we need these “things” in life.

15

The snow ski industry evolved in a similar way, from the local master who used his experience, skill and hands, to choose and then shape the preferred wood for it’s flex and strength characteristics, to modern production as we know it today.

Now it sounds like Bert is doing the full circle in his own hi-tech way.

The real advancements take place once the human error is eliminated, whether you like or agree with the advancements or not.

One day I expect there will be a foam, or coating, or combination of both, that won’t need the human skill or labour factor, again eliminating human error. Sure, it will do people out of jobs, bad jobs, bad for health, bad for the environment. And as Havaard pointed out, it will give us more free time to actually surf, that’s if I’m alive to actually take advantage of it.

Whether we accept progress for the production lines that exist today is not an issue. It will progress whether we like it or not.

Anyway, that’s my theory, and my thoery is “my theory”, theoretically speaking.

“Funny” to me is humourous, not “strange” or “read between the lines”. That’s me voicing my opinion.

How did cavemen enter this discussion? Well, I guess the logs they used to ride turned into foam and fibreglass.

I’m sure it’s been said before, but there will always be people out there, like just about everyone here at Swaylocks, including myself, who want to do their own thing, design and make a board, go surfing, have fun. That will never change and I hope it never does.

Go catch a wave, that’s primal enough for me.

16

Progress? Doesn’t sound very fun to me…

The real future? Probably more like this:

After a totally bitchen surf session at your favorite break, you will, still dripping wet, pick up your Apple cell phone/personal computer and punch in your personal “surfer-unit” code then describe to the speech-recognition software, how your latest shape went in the conditions that were just “experienced.” The software will pull-up your personal file and adjust your shape as you provide the positive and negative aspects of your latest session. You will then be provided with a list of options; save to file, add to wish-list, commit to foam and finish style. If you choose “commit,” a pre-formed composite blank made of either eps/wood fibers or eps/bamboo fibers, gets pulled out of the oven and moves to the internal stringer station and gets a multi-layered internal force dampener, then moves and parks under the shaping head of either the Samsung KKP 450 or the KIA QPS 3000. The little kids at the super mall have been eating their treats and jamming some incredible moves on the outdoor anti-gravity fullpipe, but run quick to the front window of Krispy-Kreme Surf to get a look at a “real” surfboard moving along the conveyor belt. It’s always fun to watch the machine pull a wood/resin infused or plastic sandwich down from the upper storage area and “woosh,” it’s quick-vacced to the board, or watch it move to the retro-style cloth/resin - disposable finish station so you can use it the same day at the second session, same swell. The kids can’t wait to see the board cranking thru the waterfall of clear-coat resin, cause last step - it’s into the oven for a quick cure, then a quick countdown and “ding” - surfboard. The software e-mails your phone and still dripping wet, you drive thru Krispy-Kreme Surf and some robot arms take your “old” board out of the “surfboard cradle” and move it on the conveyor belt to the section of the store where it is scanned by robot eyes and either marked for recycle or sold as “day old”. Your move…

17

I want one of them in my backyard with my wave pool…very cool…don’t even use the phone…you’re being scanned…no wait…no crowd…no worries.

18

For me it doesn’t matter, the backyard board builder. I will continue to build for me and my friends only. I don’t want a job in the industry, just to improve on my own abilities.

It is different for the shaper who does it for a living. What matters, raising the bar of the industry or continue the history of hand made boards made by skilled craftsman?

Bert shapes for a living and is excited about it. Of course he is always pushing the envelope to new ideas.

Either way it is here to stay. I do care about the importing from China and the loss of jobs. But I don’t really have a say on that either.

As long as there is money to be made and people looking to improve the wheel there is nothing we can do.

I will continue to shape and ride my boards. This is my opinion and in no way am trying to offend anyone.

19

LOL! Wow Daddio…sounds like a movie or something…you should be writing science fiction novels

…technology is cool but 20 years from now I’ll still be making my on sticks in my own garage by my own hands…

20

on their web site that say it is $60,000 usd… or about the price of a fancy SUV… seems pretty cheap when you consider the cost of a skil 100…