Surfboard design is one of those things that doesn’t change all that much. Sure, there was the shortboard revolution, but aside from that, not all that much has changed in the last few decades. Materials are largely the same, shapes are roughly the same, and mentalities haven’t exactly evolved–at least for the majority of surfers.
There are a few outliers, though, that are slowly making a mark. Tomo is the obvious man to mention here, but there’s another man who has some interesting ideas. His name is Brenton Woo, and he’s been toying with variable rocker. “Snowboard flex allows the board to change its shape to match the arc of the turn,” Woo explained to Grind TV. After the turn is done, the board flattens out, which, of course, pours on speed.
Woo, who is both a surfer and a snowboarder, is hoping that surf coaches are going to be his foot in the door of a notoriously finicky market. He’s sending to them to people who might train Olympic surfers in the hopes that the new technology catches on. “My sense is that 2020 could push surfboard innovation in a big way,” Woo said.
Although it would seem that there is almost no chance we’ll see established surfers riding Moda technology in the 2020 Olympics, Woo is banking on the hope that countries without a lot of surfers will latch onto it. “A country that isn’t normally competitive in surfing yet traditionally has a strong Olympic presence–maybe China or Russia–would be very open to tech that could win them golds,” he said.
If nothing else, though, Moda Surfboards–much like the Wavestorm–look like they’d be a hell of a lot of fun. Time will tell if they turn into a competitive surfboard, but it’s probably more likely they are competition for companies like Catch Surf.
