Surfboard

They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as papa heʻe nalu in the Hawaiian language, and were usually made of wood from local trees, such as koa.

Recent developments in surfboard technology have included the use of carbon fiber and kevlar composites, as well as experimentation in biodegradable and ecologically friendly resins made from organic sources.

Most concaves on the modern shortboard begin about 30 cm (12 in) back from the nose of the board on the bottom and then carry out through the middle to the tail of the surfboard.

These systems provided surfers with the ability to alter the riding characteristics of a surfboard, by changing the size and shape of fins used.

Tunnel fins were invented in the 1960s by Richard Deese,[13] and were found on longboards by multiple manufacturers of that era, including Dewey Weber.

Bullet Fins were invented in the 2005 by Ron Pettibone to increase surfboard hull planing and rail-to-rail transition speed.

Roy Stuart worked on wooden prototypes for years before creating the first polycarbonate, 3d printed, whale bumped surfboard fins in 2013.

[18] The additional fins ensure that even what riding down the line, two, or at least one, vertical control surface is in black water (not unstable foam) allows riders better turning capabilities.

The camber is angled front in and top in, directing energy from the incoming wave to lift the board and straighten it, not dissimilar from the force vectoring provided by the geometry of a rocket's nozzle.

A "Quad" four fins, typically arranged as two pairs of thrusters in wing formation, which are quick down the line but tend to lose energy through turns.

Tail shapes vary from square, pin, squash, swallow, diamond, and so on—each one in turn having its own family of smaller variants.

In construction, the stringer can have no special parts, or can embed a stiff, thin, vertical slat, usually of wood but sometimes of carbon fiber, running from nose to tail.

To achieve positive buoyancy and a stiff deck, shapers have always reached for a foam, often hardened with a tensile skin, using toucan beak engineering concepts.

One of the most recent modern advancements in surfboard technology is the creation of high performance boards which are wrapped in a stretchable soft skin which does not absorb water.

The internal structure of Cush (cushion) boards is an epoxy surfboard with an EPS (extruded polystyrene) shaped foam core.

The "skin", made of a gloss coated foam, is stretched and adhered while vacuumed over the surface of the entire epoxy surfboard.

The purpose of the cush is for dampening of chatter, absorption of impact landings, airs, grip, and overall added protection for a light epoxy board.

And recently a few company's including Spacestick, Radiowake and CUSH (brand) have begun to market the advancements to the surfing community.

This blank construction is then laminated with epoxy resin and fiberglass or other composite cloth as any other surfboard would be, by hand or via vacuum bag.

Since the late 1960s when Gordon Clark found the optimum formulation of urethane foam, many of the surfboards in common use have been of the shortboard variety between 180 and 210 cm (6 and 7 ft) in length with a pointed nose and a rounded or squarish tail, typically with three "skegs" (fins) but sometimes with two or as many as five.

The manufacturer has shown that these channels create versatile and controlled characteristics using the venturi effect which guides the water off of the surface of the board through a narrowed passage.

Narrow outline & thruster-fin set-up make it a close companion in size and performance to a round-outline single-fin mini mal.

Mid length surfboards excel good in both small and weak & large mushy waves by light and heavy surfers.

The advantage of a longboard is its substantial buoyancy and planing surface enable surfers to ride waves generally deemed too small to propel a shortboard.

Compared to the shortboards, longboards are considerably easier to learn on as they are capable of achieving stability, thus making the transition quite difficult.

The ancient boards were carved and fashioned out of solid wood, reaching lengths of 300 to 430 cm (10 to 14 ft) long and weighing as much as 70 kg.

[citation needed] In recent times replicas have been made of Olo's and alaia's by experienced surfers and shapers wishing to explore the roots of the sport.

Beginning in 1912, Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian Olympic swimmer in the early 1900s, brought surfing to mainland United States and Australia.

In the 1960s, the introduction of the shortboard, averaging 200 cm (6 ft 6 in), allowed surfers to make tighter turns, quicker maneuvers, and achieve faster speeds, thus radically changing the way people surfed.

The first stand up surfboard ridden in Australia by Duke Kahanamoku and Isabel Letham is an oversized longboard with enough buoyancy to support two people, tandem surfing.