OK, so I start building bamboo covered boards, can I sell them to the public or does the inventor of bamboo, Gary Young, have patents on covering a board with the stuff? If I rubbed some gorilla excrement traction on the deck (see attachment) would that be considered a new technology that would prevent any patent infringement suits? Lost in the jungle and ready to go to the town market.
Wood/Natural fibre composites are undergoing a huge amount of development for commercial applications, try some web searches, as above fibre and fiber. Not my thing but worth a punt.
Clearly, if it can’t be done, somebody oughta do it.
As soon as possible.
Hi. My partner asked me to post this!
Quote:
There is already a revolution happpening on several fronts:
The use of horizontal foils for a more efficient lift/drag ratio than that which is possible with planing hulls. Keel finned tow in boards, Bonzers, Starfins, Redtips, and other horizontal foil area fin setups (like tunnel fins) are all doing this.
An exploration of the upper limits of board size with a view to opening up previously unsurfable breaks.
Every revolution has something in common with the past.
i’ve been lurking around here for a few months and one thing is for sure, my money is on bert. this dude seems to be sitting on a f’ing gold mine of info. i was looking back at his thread that introduced us to his OLD vac-bag technique which he used 8 or 9 years ago. are you kidding me??? i wish this guy was on the NASDAQ or something. my only question for him is, why haven’t you sold your ideas? you have complained about other companies like surftech making poor designs and introducing them as cutting edge. so why not either sell out to a company or expand your own so people won’t have to wait a year for one of your boards, and surfing can progress even farther. you would be a legend, the bill gates of surfing. i think i read something where you said you didn’t want to release all the information because it would be just a novelty, or something like that. well, if your boards can do all you claim then i don’t see how your designs could just be cast aside. though, i do see how holding some cards and watching “the cats run around the yard” can be quite amusing. you’re the man bert!!!
-rick
Bert’s said that he used to run a factory with lots of guys, lots of boards, lots of headaches. He simplified for quality of life reasons.
I started a business 10 years ago with 6 guys. Now I have 2 partners (needed money) and more than 35 people. I can certainly understand a desire to go back to a simpler time.
On the plus side, I have a 7 minute commute, flexible hours, and work with good people. If I sold out, what else could I do that gives me all that & income too? I bet Bert’s in the same place, with regards to selling out.
I very much admire the choices he’s made. Dodge work to take his kids sandboarding? That’s a guy I could hang out with. If I were in his shoes, I don’t think I’d change a thing.
This might be really stupid, but I’ll say it anyway. What the hell. I’ve always thought that there just might be something in the finless surfboard design. I lived in Laguna Beach for a while and saw some really incredible skimboarding. These guys could paddle (sort of), turn pretty hard, get barrelled and they could do 360’s on the face of the wave. Granted they were riding 6’ shorepound.
But, i always thought that maybe if there was some sort of really significant design change in surfing it would be a very short, very buoyant and extremely maneuverable double-ender with no real difference between the “tail” and the “nose” and it would be skegless… Maybe it would have deep lipped channels. I don’t know. This is complete fantasy bullshit, but man it’d be cool. Did anyone catch the footage of Dan Malloy in Sprout when he’s riding his Merrick w/o fins?
Quote:
…why haven’t you sold your ideas?
No good offers…probably only bad one’s…have you read Gary Young’s story? I think its on swellsociety.com…small time guys get screwed by 800lb gorilla’s all the time…stay tuned…
For the New Frontier see “REVOLUTION OR REVELATION” thread.
i could understand that crafty. i’m just really jealous of bert, and i want one of his boards.
and deke, have you seen the video of donovan f. riding a couple finless boards. they have very deep channels that form a middle “fin”…i’m trying to find them.
EDIT: here ya go…
http://www.surfline.com/video/vids/2002/aug/jsps/doc1_qt.cfm
http://www.surfline.com/video/vids/2002/aug/jsps/doc2_qt.cfm
yeah, sweet thanks for diggin’ those up. i remember that now. the silver board. so weird. i think in my mind i see more of a skimboard or even wakeboard shape. but, this is all conjecture for sure!
I predict that Vietnam will become the leading producer of biotech surfboards. Marine sponges grown in molds, shaped and then plated with a thin armor of conch shell. Pressure-sensitive bacteria will provide traction on the deck while still allowing water to easily flow across the surfboard. The bac-dec will die and wash off with 120 degree water. The whole board will be 100 percent recyclable…run through shredders to make potting soil to grow brain food.
Living, breathing surfboards. A new lifeform. Now that would be a revolution in surfing.
I think we’ll just eventually wear some sort of hovercraft shoes and walk on water, but hey what do I know…
But seriously, we are all looking for the newest thing…so this is what I propose. We start a new thread concetrating on the design of a completley original “swaylockian” design. Everybody who wants input, well, all they have to do is post. We can feed off each others ideas. We’ll first compile a list of all possible “new” surfboard designs then we’ll narrow it down and collectively refine the board. After a few generations of redesign we might jsut be on to something big…hey, you never know. The point is, there is alot of knowledge on this website and it has never really been tested. So, lets stop arguing about what the future is and make one right now…I’m willing to shape a first generation board, but i want alot of input, I’m sure other people will want to get into the action as well. If you think this is a good idea, someone repost this and start a new thread. I want to make sure I’m not the only one who wants to do this.
Oh no! Not another board designed by a committee!
well its not so much a committee bottom line is im going to shape what i want and then I’ll psot results and who ever is in it will do the same…by using swaylocks we could develope something refined with out as much personal testing. Is this such a bad idea? Beside I think the forum needs something to bring the stoke back, just haven’t been feeling it as much…
Sounds like fun. What if we also require the use of some of the hi-tech or organic natural materials as well? Y’know push the envelope a little.
I think it’s the shape that’s due for a change .If we study the board in action we must wonder about the need to have such a sharp nose when it’s hardly ever justified functionally other than to create fear into other surfers. We only need a few of the topguns to change this ridiculous design and bring some sense into the industry which will itself of course benefit from the new trend.
Perhaps a new non agressive nose will go a step closer to educating the riders to ‘SHARE the SURF’
Don’t get me wrong, some very successful board types have been committee designed. The fantastically popular modern noserider/progressive/performance/traditional /lightweight ‘Malibu’ is a classic example of a commercially successful committee designed board. We call them camels (a camel being a horse designed by a committee)