Have you always wondered how many calories you burned on your last session? Me neither!
People like to attach numbers to things. People also like apps and gadgets and things that record those numbers. I think it makes people feel like they’re really working at something–having all those numbers jotted down somewhere gives them something tangible to increase. When it comes to surfing, there are a few of these gadgets, but none quite like Slide-R.
UWL Surfboards has been working on this for a few years, and they just launched a Kickstarter campaign. In short, they stuck a little sensor inside a surfboard that’s able to connect to an app on your phone. It tells you all sorts of things: how long your longest wave was, how many waves you caught, how far you paddled, how fast you went, how many “jumps” you did, and of course, the all-important calories burned. I’m going to insert an opinion here: if you’re surfing to burn calories, you’re doing it wrong.
Does this make surfing less like… surfing?
According to the campaign, the sensor has an operating life of nearly 600 hours and “continuously recharges due to a photovoltaic panel placed on the top side of the board.” When you get in the water, it automatically begins recording everything you do, saving it for later, then firing it off to the app so you can see just how bad at surfing you really are.
Here’s a video. Can you speak French?
SLIDE-R from SLIDE-R on Vimeo.
See more on the Kickstarter page.
