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SoulArc Skateboard Has One Big Spring for Surf-Alike Goodness
Posted by Kit Eaton at 8:50 PM on August 22, 2008
There's something about the simplicity of a skateboard that keeps designers coming back to revisit it... but the SoulArc board certainly seems a worthy reinvention. It's designed to make skateboarding feel more like surfing, with a huge leaf-spring mounted between its long deck and the wheels: And it's less unwieldy-looking than this previous effort. As you dig your heel in, the spring relaxes into corners, giving you more of a surfing-through-waves feeling. There's a video of the board in action after the gallery.
Kite surfing is a fun sport that involves using a large kite and a surfboard to get a lot of speed up on the water. It's like wakeboarding without a boat. Naturally, you need a decent amount of wind for it to work properly. There's a limit to how much wind you should use, however, as a dimwitted kite surfer discovered when he tried to unleash his kite during a tropical storm in Fort Lauderdale and ended up getting flung across the beach and into the side of a building right in front of local news cameras.
Not surprisingly, you get the nerdiest surfboard ever. The "Shredder" surfboard was designed by a computer programmer named Mike Sheldrake after he decided to replace his old board. Since he did not possess the skills necessary to make a board the traditional way, he decided to use 3-D modelling software to design a snap-together deck built out of 400 pieces of computer cut corrugated cardboard then shellac it with fiberglass and epoxy resin. Thanks to a mathematically sound triangular pattern, force is evenly dispersed throughout the board—making it incredibly strong.
My name is Addy and I'm a Flickrholic. I'm a window-licking voyeuse who's been pressing her nose up against the cold glass of the lives of utter strangers, snooping through their photostreams. And if you think I'm weird, take a peep through their curtains. Marvel at Polymorfo Perverso's rather delicious fetish portraits (one caption reads 
So, you like surfing, but your apartment and car are not big enough for a full-sized board. What's the solution, I hear you ask. Sure, you could take up a new sport, or you could get yourself a Collapsible Surfboard. Designed by Nicholas Notara, who wanted to achieve portability without compromising functionality, the frame is made of carbon fiber, and the whole board is taken apart in three easy moves: 
The Nixon Lodown has 15 years worth of preprogrammed tidal info for 200 beaches all the world over. Right at your wrist you can monitor the height of the waves, and don't be afraid to jump right in when the surf looks good—the Lodown has a water resistance rating of 100m. The Lodown's simple presentation of data with its gray-on-black blocks makes it look pretty stylish, but is it $90 worth of stylish?
Any information that doesn't update is susceptible to being regularly faulty, but if you visit a lot of beaches, this might be a neat watch to have. Of course, the Lodown also has the usual frills: A light for the nighttime, an alarm and timer, and the date, Also, you get some colors to choose from, either black, silver, and an off white and blue.
Realizing that surfers were way too cool for their own good, designer Marco Torres has designed a surfboard with the geek built in: GPS and radio. The concept is for separated surfers to locate one another with ease through two-way communication and a large onboard display (that we're guessing could point you to your partner), while keeping riders apprised to changes in currents and weather through constant updates and weather alerts.
At first we thought this was one of those levitating skateboards from Back to the Future finally arriving on the market, but no, it's not quite that gnarly. The Light Wave surfboard, from the makers of the 
