RSS
Home
Top ten surfing equipment innovations
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
This is one man's view of the top ten surfing equipment innovations, other than the surfboard itself. There was a time when surfing equipment was nothing more than a long board with a glassed-in single fin, and a pair of cutoffs. These days the variety, reliability, and scope of surfing equipment is mind-boggling. Here's one view of the best of the best.
10. Surf wax: There was a time when you would visit the home canning section of your supermarket or hardware store to pick up a bar of paraffin for your board. Remember that? Now you have a choice of waxes for every water temperature and in multiple flavors.
9. Travel bags: Modern travel bags provide your quiver with robust, lightweight and safe storage when traveling by car, train, bus, boat or plane.
8. Removable fins: FCS was the first, but there are other companies providing removable fins too. Two big reasons these fins are important: They facilitate packing your stick for travel, and you can radically change the response of your board just with a different set of fins
7. Leashes: Most of the best breaks in Santa Cruz are adjacent to or opposite steep craggy cliffs. Without a surf leash, you could loose your board exactly once before you had a huge ding repair task in front of you.
6. Water housings: World-class cameras manned by world-class photographers stationed in the break zone and in the barrel. This would not be possible without modern camera housings that provide the waterproof protection for equipment worth thousands of dollars.
5. Vibration reduction camera lenses: Whether hand held on land, on a pitching boat, or in the water, the image stabilization features of camera lenses has advanced the art and science of surf photography.
4. PWC: Expanding the limits of extreme surfing has been driven in large part by tow-ins with personal watercraft. Some now are talking about riding a 100-foot wave.
3. World wide web: Love it or hate it, the web has made more surf information available to more people than could possibly be imagined just a few years ago. From surf cams, to buoy reports, to predictions, forecasts and session reports, it's all there for us.
2. Thruster: The prevalent three-fin surfboard design from Simon Anderson has withstood the test of time. It is the single most versatile, stable, and responsive fin configuration ever.
1. Wetsuit: Thanks to Jack O'Neill, surfers are no longer limited to warm water seasons and warm climates. Wetsuit technology is so advanced that surfing New England in the dead of winter is now a distinct possibility. For the most part, Santa Cruz surfers wear full suits all year long.
What is your view? Do you have other items that should be considered for the top ten? Do you think some of them listed here are overrated? Send an email and perhaps a follow on article will be forthcoming using your ideas.
You might also enjoy these:
Related Articles:
Comments
