From Stuff: Champ sold surfboard to cover costs
Silvana Lima sold her surfboard to fund her trip to Taranaki. Yesterday it paid off for the Brazilian surfer, who defeated Australian Laura Enever in the final of the ASP 6 Star Port Taranaki Pro women’s qualifying series event at Fitzroy Beach. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (05.10.2014): Paying It Forward, Pro Set Up, High Water Bike
If you’re heading to the water you should do so with Aqua-Bound line of stand-up paddles from Branches. The new stand-up paddles include “The Spark,” for beginners, “The Freedom,” for intermediate paddleboarders, and “The Challenge,” for more seasoned paddlers.
This offshoot of the 1960s surfing culture in Hawaii has a true Polynesian ancestry, but only arrived in California in 2004. The sport has since migrated throughout the United States, including to inland lakes and rivers, and Branches is finding that it is increasingly be paddled by women of all ages.
With this in mind Aqua-Bound has created StandUp Sisters to inspire and support women who don’t want to be up a creek (river, or on any body of water) without a (Standup) paddle! Continue reading Up a Creek With a Stand-Up Paddle
Whether you hit the waves a few times a year or chase the endless summer looking for the big one, the Rip Curl Search GPS Surf Watch will let you track how many waves you rode, your top speed and even your location. This waterproof watch features built-in GPS and motion sensors that will allow you to get real time data, and back on the beach you can sync it with your mobile phone.
From Bicycle Retailer: The single biggest issue facing the bike industry (A blog by Jay Townley)
As we finish the first quarter of 2014 the U.S. bicycle business is preparing for its April gathering of industry leaders at the Bicycle Leadership Conference and the IBD Summit. We have noticed that the U.S. bicycle business continues to separate the meetings of the specialty bicycle retail, or bike shop channel of trade suppliers from the retailers and the separate agendas for these two important annual gatherings still do not mention or pay attention to the most important single issue facing the U.S. bicycle business today!
The following chart (above) is a graphic presentation of the 18-year history of U.S. bicycle riding participation from 1995 through 2012. The data is from the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA). The overall trend is a slow decline, from the peak of 56 million in 1995 to flat overall bicycle riding participation at 39 million for the last three years. 2013 bicycle riding participation will be available in early April, but we don’t anticipate any significant change from the history you see here. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (04.05.2014): Bike Decline, RIP Hobie, Total 360, Old Timers
Warning: Graphic Content in Video and in image below.
Australian professional surfer knows something about riding on big swells. Now he’s created his own “big swell” so to speak with a rather phallic looking surfboard, which he unveiled on his FollowTheFish.TV website.
We’re not sure why someone would want to hang ten on a penis-shaped surfboard, but apparently Fisher liked the idea of hanging ten while looking… well, hung? Photo of the board after the jump
Shark attacks are rare, but they do happen. Now Shark Shield has been awarded a government grant for a surfboard shark deterrent. The Western Australian State Government Grant has been presented to Shark Shield to develop a shark deterrent for surfers. The company, along with two Western Australia universities, have been award $967,161 (AU) in the second round of applied research funding. Continue reading Shields Are Up
While much has been made about BMW helping develop the Team USA’s Bobsled at the Olympic Games rival automaker Mercedes-Benz has been busy developing a surfboard with Garrett McNamara. The result is the “The Silver Arrow of the Seas,” which was used to catch the massive wave breaks at Nazaré North Canyon in Portugal earlier this month.
In addition to looking every bit a Mercedes-Benz this board offers built-in telemetry system capable of measuring surfing performance. Video after the jump
From BikeRadar: The History of Mountain Biking released this week
The History of Mountain Biking is a special edition publication that charts mountain biking’s rise from the dying embers of the 1960s hippie movement in California to the tech-driven super sport it is today. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (01.25.2014): History Lesson, Flying Surf Boards, Sports DNA, Old Time Skiing
While shark attacks are rare, and drowning is actually the greater risk for surfers, there is another dark side to surfing. What exactly are the health risks for the shapers – those who create the boards? Surfer Today poised that question earlier this month, and noted that many of today’s higher tech materials – notably polymers – could put the surfboard shapers at health risks.
That’s certainly not to increase the good vibrations anytime soon, but as with our modern materials it is crucial that safety protocols are followed.
[From Surfer Today: The health risks of surfboard shaping materials]
Now you can surf the web and then use the Surf Report 2.0 app from Oakley before heading to the beach. This app provides information on conditions for thousands of breaks worldwide. Details including weather, tides, sweels, water temperature and much more are now at your finger tips.
It is hard to think that there could be much be done to foam, but Varial Surf Technology introduced this month the new Varial Foam, which is made from an advanced aerospace formula and a new chemistry to surfboards all together. The foam is reported to be 25 percent lighter and 20 percent stronger as compared to a standard polyurethane blank with a stringer.
This means that it can eliminate the need for a stringer or any other strengtheners that current surfboards require, while the compressive strength of the foam makes the board highly responsive to riders by transferring energy directly through the core to the water’s surface.
Surfboards hit the waves, but if a board breaks or pieces chip off those can remain at sea for years and years. However, designers from Netherlands – not exactly a region thought of for surfing – has created the Bióm, the world’s first certified 100 percent biodegradable and 99 percent biodegradable bio-based surfboard foam. The material is produced via locally abundant sugarcane biomass that is polymerized and expanded into rigid foam, while the foam further boasts the ultra-eco use of benign CO2 as the sole blowing agent in the expansion process.
This foam will be used in stand up paddleboards, wakeboards, skimboards, kiteboards, and other types of watercraft.
Bióm Official Website
[Via Surfer Today: The world’s first 100% biodegradable surfboard foam]
While skateboarders may like to “thrash” one skateboard company is instead looking to trash. Bureo Skateboards has picked up on the old adage that one man’s trash is another’s treasure and the company is looking to reduced the plastic pollution along Chile’s coastline while at the same time producing new skateboards.
The company is among 85 businesses that were accepted out of 1,300 applicants into Start-Up Chile, a government-sponsored accelerator program that provides these start-ups with $40,000 to get rolling. Bureo Skateboards was reportedly the only non-technology based company accepted into the program but clearly its message struck a nerve with someone.
North¬eastern alumnus Ben Kneppers is the company’s co-founder, and he previously received $10,000 in gap funding from IDEA, the Northeastern student-run venture accelerator. Thanks to this Bureo team has made it their mission to make a difference and contribute to the fight against plastic pollution in the oceans, while providing innovative skateboards on lane.
Bureo Skateboards
[Via news@Northestern: From plastic pollution to sustainable skateboards]