Newave Surfboards is making a modular set of surfboards that can be mixed and matched into a variety of shapes. But how do they go? Photo: Newave
A surfboard company called Newave is attempting to solve a problem that plagues most traveling surfers: how many surfboards to bring on your surf trip.
Traveling with boards, no matter who you are, sucks. Sure, it would be wonderful to pack the whole quiver, from shortboard to hybrid to mid-length to longboard — but the simple fact is that navigating an airport and all the stops along the way with a giant coffin bag is not a fun experience. Even taking one surfboard is a pain in the ass, and then you risk taking the wrong one.
Say you book a last minute trip somewhere because the forecast is calling for the best waves ever. You pack your things, throw the standard shortboard in the bag with confidence that the waves will be up to par. But forecasts are just that: forecasts. And they can — and often are — wrong. You land, disembark into a humid, warm breeze, and jump in the rental, single surfboard strapped to the roof. You find your way to wherever you’re staying, lug your things in, and, with all the excitement in the world, check the forecast again, because tomorrow it is on.
But then, disaster. The forecast has been downgraded. The swell will be half as big, the winds onshore, and you’re sitting there with a 5’10” performance shortboard that, if you’re being honest, probably isn’t the best surfboard for you no matter the conditions. It’s probably happened to you. I know it’s happened to me. That’s what Newave is trying to solve with its 9-in-1 surfboard. Or surfboards, I guess.
“At Newave, our mission is to transform the surfing experience by simplifying the way surfers get to the ocean,” the founders explained on Kickstarter. “Designed for surfers seeking freedom and simplicity, our modular boards adapt to all conditions and are easy to transport, avoiding the usual constraints of transport.”
Now, it should be noted here that this is far from the first time someone’s tried to do this. As far as I know, none of the attempts have ever really panned out, because surfers are pretty picky about how their surfboards perform, and modular surfboards appear to have some inherent flaws.
The first one, I think, was likely the Pope Bisect, which was created back in 1964 by Thomas Price and Karl Pope. According to New Atlas, Pope spent the next three decades mulling over how, exactly, to make his idea work. He was an aerospace engineer, and what he came up with sounded pretty good. It was called the Pope Bisect Stealth, a 9’6″ hollow carbon-fiber board that broke into two pieces.
Then, Pope started a business called Bisect that, as far as I can tell, failed pretty spectacularly after a series of terrible customer service catastrophes and generally bad business practices including shipping broken products, failure to fix those broken products, and bounced refund checks.
Perhaps, though, Newave has cracked the code. I haven’t tried these surfboards, so I can’t say, but the attempt is interesting. They have three models: a two-piece 6’6″ Hybrid Fish, a three-piece 7’6″ Mini Malibu, and a three-piece 9’0″ Longboard, that, according to Newave at least, makes it “possible to compose, interchange or upgrade your board according to conditions or desires.”
Modular surfboards have pretty much been a flop so far, but maybe this one will work? Image: Newave
Using something they call the “W” binding system, which took them over two years to get to the point it’s at now, Newave surfboards “retain the rigidity and flex of a traditional board,” according to the creators.
Surfers, as I mentioned, are picky, so anything new is often scowled at. Innovation is slow to be picked up by the masses, and if you’re prone to be affected by someone calling you a kook — surfers often aren’t all that inclusive — paddling out on something like this might be a bit of a deterrent. But I’ll be honest: if I could find a surfboard that worked as well as a plain old one piece but could change into a handful of different surfboards, I’d be pretty interested in it.
