Thursday, April 23, 2015

DIY Surfboard May Not Be All It's Cracked Up To Be

3D Printers have allowed people to create some amazing things. Almost anything you can design on your computer can be printed and assembled, letting people innovate and test production on their own and allowing for people to experiment with ideas faster and simpler than ever before.

Of course, a lot of surfers are tinkerers so it was only a matter of time before someone used a 3D printer to craft their own surfboard. Jody Roth took on the project with his son Matej. They started out pretty strong, first crafting a 1/3 scale model with virtually no hiccups. However, crafting the real board was more difficult according to the SurferToday.com article, "The Man Who Printed His Own Surfboard" that quoted Roth saying,
"If not for the glassing, I'd have been pretty damn proud of this project. The fact is this was difficult, did not go as rehearsed and didn't turn out as nice as I wanted," explains the 3D printed surfboard shaper."
Roth says that the board took 164 hours to print, and that the materials cost him just as much as buying a new surfboard would cost, but that in the end he just wasn't skilled enough to create a perfect board, like the kind he could purchase.

Nothing ventured nothing gained.  Thanks to the Roths for moving the frontier forward.  We applaud the effort and we also encourage you to contact us for all of your surfing equipment, apparel and accessory needs.  We have an incredible selection online at competitive prices.

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