With more than 35 million surfers around the world, the sport is big business. The industry is increasingly turning to technology for bigger, better and safer thrills.
Kiana Fores appears to be standing on a surfboard that is flying through the air nearly 1m above the waves.
The former pro surfer moves smoothly across the water off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, riding a hydrofoil surfboard, also known as a foilboard.
These are surfboards that have a long carbon fiber rod or mast that extends down from its underside to two underwater wings.
When the sea’s speed and momentum are sufficient, the wings (also made of carbon fiber) are pushed through the water, lifting the surfboard and its rider into the air.
In turn, many foilboards now have electrically powered propellers built into their masts, providing extra power so they can be used when there are no waves. This means that the user can not only surf on the flat sea, but even on lakes and rivers.
“Part of what got me into foiling was the fact that there weren’t many women who were doing it,” says Ms Fores, 26. “Sometimes I catch the guys off guard because they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s a girl out here.’
“And then I think it’s tripping them up that I can actually thwart them. So it’s kind of exciting,” she laughs.
While hydrofoil technology has existed in boating for more than a century, it only started making its way to surfing in the early 2000s. Electrically powered hydrofoil surfboards, or “efoils,” then arrived in 2018 when Puerto Rican company Lift Hydrofoils released the first commercially available one.
“Foiling opens up the realm of what is surfable,” says Nick Leason, the company’s CEO.
By far our biggest Efoil sales come from people who don’t live by the sea. They’re like 50-year-old women who live near lakes.” Mr. Leason adds that the company sold more than 4,000 products last year.
Artificial surfing facilities have existed inland since the late 1960s, and to this day bigger and better waves are the designers’ goal.
Australian company Surf Lakes is gearing up to debut what they believe is the biggest thing to hit the industry, both literally and metaphorically.
The Company is still in the research and development phase and has built a large test facility 20 km (12 miles) inland from the Queensland coast. In the middle of a 3.6-hectare artificial pool, a 1,400-ton steel air pump moves up and down every six seconds. The electrically powered pump creates 360-degree waves up to 8 feet tall at a rate of 2,000 per hour.
“Imagine your best surfing session ever, repeated endlessly,” says Aaron Trevis, founder and CEO of Surf Lakes.
He adds that at any point in time there are five rings of waves in the pool that change shape as they hit different parts of the lake. “So a whole family with different surfing levels can surf at the same time.”
Although the company has yet to open a facility to the public, it says it now has 20 projects in development in Australia, Asia, Europe and the US. On the largest websites, 200 people can surf at the same time.
“The real market is the 99% of people in the world who have never surfed,” says Mr. Trevis. “In the next 10 years, surfing could be 10 times the size of the industry it is today.”
He adds that Surf Lakes’ system could theoretically generate 15-foot waves for professional surfing competitions.
Out at sea, Maya Reis Gabeira of Brazil holds the record for the tallest wave successfully surfed by a woman. That was in February 2020 when she conquered a 22.4 m (73 ft) high in Nazaré, Portugal.
“So much can be improved with the help of technology,” says the 34-year-old. “Like scientifically measuring wave height in real time for world record prospects.
“And the communication between people in the water is now becoming much more sophisticated [on jet skis] and on the cliffs,” she adds, referring to the crews on standby to rescue professional surfers who get into trouble.
Problematic for surfers with environmental concerns is the fact that most surfboards are still made out of polyurethane, a type of plastic.
A small French start-up called Wyye says one of the solutions is to 3D print surfboards with bioplastics made from cornstarch.
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Founded two years ago by friends Sylvain Fleury and Leo Bouffier, Wyye now has eight employees and four 3D printers running day and night at its headquarters near Biarritz in south-west France. The company manufactures the boards according to the size, weight and requirements of each surfer and ships them across Europe.
In the future, it wants to set up further production facilities abroad, each in the vicinity of important surfing locations.
“The goal is to duplicate our micro factory model and 3D printed boards near popular surf spots around the world,” says Leo Kerhir, Wyve’s Head of International Business Development.
He adds that it currently takes an average of 20 to 50 hours to print a single board. “But 3D printing technology is improving super fast. Now it’s a two-week process from order to delivery, which is the same as a regular custom surfboard. And I think we can reduce that very soon.”
Fortunately, while shark attacks remain rare around the world, with a global average of 72 per year, they worry many surfers.
Nathan Garrison is one such person after a childhood friend from his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, was assaulted when he was a teenager. And years later, a neighbor of his was killed by a great white shark in California.
To prevent attacks, Mr. Garrison launched a product called Sharkbanz back in 2014. It’s a small device that a surfer can wear on their wrist or ankle.
It uses magnets to create an electromagnetic field about 6 feet long, which disrupts the electric field senses a shark uses to hunt and navigate.
“It’s something like that [the human equivalent of] staring at the sun or shining a bright light in someone’s face,” says Mr. Garrison. “This is uncomfortable for the shark and causes it to turn away.”
Although it now sells up to 30,000 Sharkbanz a year, a Western Australian government report found the technology has a 65% success rate. That’s less than two-thirds, and in 2016 a surfer in Florida wearing the device required 44 stitches after being bitten.
“Like any safety device, it will never be 100% effective,” says Mr. Harrison. “Sharks are wild animals. But this has been shown to at least reduce the risk.
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