Shapeshifting - The art of hand-making surfboards
To most, a surfboard is a simple thing – a flattish pointed object with a fin sticking out. But to surfers, all the possible combinations of proportions, profiles, and fin arrangements make a surfboard a thing of real complexity. How elegantly these complexities are combined, and how well it works in the water, depends on the craftsman who shapes the board. A surfboard shaper is the artist/technologist/craftsperson who sculpts blocks of plastic foam into boards ready for glassing. Within surfing, they hold a venerated position; and their craft has a magic and mystique all of its own.
Jay Jackman shapes boards in a workshop in what used to be a tannery in a light industrial zone of Christchurch, flanked by an engineering company and an upholsterer. Shaping has always been a cottage industry, harking back to days when people made what they needed or had it made for them by the local furniture maker, tailor, baker, or blacksmith.
Both of Jay's parents were keen surfers. In the entrance to Jay's shop, two framed black and white prints take pride of place. One shows his father, a pioneer of European surfing, on a large wave off the south coast of France in the early 1960s. So unusual was the sight of somebody surfing in those days, says Jay, that people used to sit on the beach watching and clap.
The other shows Jay's uncle, Dave Jackman, taking a steep drop on the Queenscliff Bombora, a much-feared Sydney reef break in 1961. The ride is still rated by some as the greatest Australian surfing feat ever. Dave Jackman went on to become one of the first Australians to ride waves on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, and one of New Zealand's pioneer surfboard manufacturers.
Jay's father helped him build his first board when he was 12. "When I put my first ding in it, Dad said, 'You dinged it, now you can fix it. I'll show you how.'"
Jay built a few boards when he was at school, and all of them were "dogs" to surf. In his last year at school he did work experience at Bennett Surfboards, Australia's longest surviving surfboard factory, and went on to learn his trade under some of Australia's master shapers.
Since Jay began shaping boards, mass production has grown to the point where it is a real threat to his craft (aspects of this issue are discussed in the section: Critical issues 1: Mass production vs handmade). Fortunately, the technology has not won over the entire surfing world. Surfers with specific, highly individualised needs are poorly served by the limited range, one-size-fits-all programme inherent in the mass market model. Performance in surfing is directly related to the equipment used. Waves differ in their characteristics: some are slow, others are fast, some are steep, and others mellow. Different boards suit different waves – and different styles of surfing for that matter. Besides their quest for perfect waves, serious surfers also quest for the 'perfect' board; a magical combination of elements that work together to make the rider surf like never before. An essential part of this quest involves finding a shaper capable of two essential things: understanding what the surfer wants to achieve, and transforming these thoughts and desires into a board up to the job.
Client consultation
Designing a board requires a shaper to make many precise and arcane design choices. Some apparently simple decisions, such as length and width, are more complicated than they appear. The length and width of a board both affect its volume and therefore its flotation. The better a board floats, the faster it will paddle; and the faster it paddles, the better it will catch waves. But at higher speeds, extra bulk will make the board plane on top of the water rather than carve through it, compromising control. Other choices such as rail shape (where and to what degree the curve of the board's edge becomes a hard angle near the tail), the location of the board's widest point, and the extent of its lengthwise flat spot, are critical. As is tail shape: a stiletto pin tail will keep the centre point of the board close to the wave and allow it to hold a high, fast line on a steep wave; a wide, flat-bottomed tail will give the board a loose, broad pivot for skateboard-like turns. Still finer distinctions lie in the contours of the board's underside – distinctions that can be difficult to make out visually.
Before any decisions can be made, a shaper interviews the customer to gain a good understanding of his or her wants and needs. A well-designed surfboard must be functionally relevant to the surfer and their particular surfing environment. The only way a shaper can achieve this is to meet the customer and take stock of their size, skill, technique, and goals; and the specific conditions – the size, power, and shape of the waves they ride.
Jay asks what sort of waves his customer likes to surf – mellow or heavy, critical ones? Where do they surf most of the time? Do they travel? Are they an aggressive surfer, or do they have a subtle, gentler style?
"Most people play themselves down a bit. I don't judge anyone. I get them to bring their boards in and say let's work around what you are using now and maybe modify things. Or if they are happy with what they've got, we can work along those lines and apply a few subtle ideas. That's where a shaper can add an extra element to make someone surf even better."
Design and creation: The shaping
When he has a firm idea fixed in his mind's eye, Jay starts a board by choosing a blank as close to the new board's finished height and thickness as possible. The bottom rocker – the overall curve from the tip of the nose to the tail along the bottom of the board – is generally the first design element a shaper puts into a board. A well-designed and well-executed rocker is the foundation of a board; all the other variables – the bottom contours, the outline, etc., must tie into and compliment the bottom rocker of the board. Most surfboards have a smooth entry rocker for catching waves and taking steep drops and a gentle tail rocker for release. Too much nose or tail rocker will make the board push water and become slow to paddle. A rocker can be "continuous", "staged", or a combination of the two. A staged rocker has a bottom curve which is relatively flat through the mid section of the board to increase board speed. Increasing fore and aft curve and shortening the flatter mid section yields a tighter turning radius. Good performance characteristics depend on getting these flat and accelerated curves right for the client's individual needs.
"Rocker is everything," Jay believes, "it's a very subtle, fine line."
After deciding on a rocker design, Jay slices the blank in two and glues in a stringer – a wooden rib that maintains the rocker of the blank as it is shaped and stiffens and strengthens the completed board. Besides these strictly functional roles, the stringer (or stringers, some boards have two or even more stringers) may serve as a decorative element: Jay uses a variety of hardwoods that contrast elegantly with the white foam of the board.
Most tools used for shaping are standard low-tech carpentry tools: a hand saw, electric planner, a range of small planes and Surform rasps, together with foam-backed sanding pads and a variety of rules and other measuring tools. A dust mask, protective goggles and ear-wear are essential safety gear. Shapers need an environment where they can clearly see the subtle curves and shapes that they are making. Typically the room will have dark walls and low-angled fluorescent lights, mounted on the wall and parallel with the floor, to side-light the bumps and hollows of the blank so that the lines and curves can be seen as they emerge. The blanks are held in place on shaping rack so they may be easily worked on from different angles.
After stripping back the surface 'skin' of the blank to reveal a good working surface of fresh white foam, Jay uses a long flexible batten to mark out the centre line of the board and its nose to tail length, as measured around the curve of the bottom rocker. Three key reference points are marked on the centre line with a soft pencil: a point 12 inches (305mm – shapers work in feet and inches) from the tip of the nose, the centre point, and a spot the same distance from the tail.Design and creation: The outline
The outline of a board – its plan shape or template – determines the overall configuration of the board's surface area. A designer may settle on a fundamental overall outline then incorporate specific elements into the outline (nose and tail configurations, and width throughout) to tune it up. Distinct overall outline configurations include predominantly 'parallel' outlines, predominantly 'continuous curve' outlines, or 'hybrid' outlines where parallel and continuous curves are integrated. Alternatively, outline may be determined by the configuration of specific elements of the board: its tail (roundtail, roundpin, pintail, squashtail, swallow tail); its nose (shortboard nose, full nose, single fin nose, longboard nose); or its relative width (narrow board, wide board). How these features go together determines the outline of a board.
Jay believes certain nose designs work with specific types of boards, while tail shape can vary a lot more in the same model of board.
"Depending on the aggressiveness of the rider and the size of the wave, one type of tail will allow the board to cling to the face of a wave, while another design will be a lot more 'skatey' to turn."
While the intended use of a board determines to a great extent the outline, shapers differ in their preferences – some prefer wide, fulsome curves, others like narrow thin boards. Nose and tail shapes are the signature of a shaper and add a style or look to a shape. A shaper will gradually accumulate a library of templates of cardboard or wooden sheet, which, like tailor's patterns, are used to draft curves. Whether or not a shaper makes templates using curves he or she has created anew or borrowed from others, every arc and line on a template descends from the past, sired by preceding shapers, ultimately all the way back 1,500 years to the forests of Hawaii, where the first surfboards were created. Jay says he is constantly adjusting his templates, refining them and smoothing out their curves.
Taking care to include the three reference points marked on the blank, Jay moves a set of templates around on the bottom of the blank like a set of draughtsman's French curves to create the outline of the new board, and when he is satisfied with the smoothness of the line, he cuts around it with a handsaw and cleans up the result with a Surform tool. The elegance of the board starts to emerge. It's time to begin work on the bottom of the board.Design and creation: The bottom contours
The bottom contours of a surfboard may be flat, convex, concave, or a combination of these. Longboards typically use a combination of flat or concave in the centre with a slight roll towards the rails nearing the tail. Shortboards may be concave throughout. Very subtle convex or concave areas can be built into the bottom of a board to channel the water's flow for particular effects.
"It's all in the bottom really, the deck's just about volume," says Jay.
Jay uses the power planer to rough out the bottom contours of the board. He works surprisingly quickly, cross-stepping up and down the length of the board over a bed of shavings and dust, making smooth passes with the planer. He has a tradesman-like attitude, "I haven't got time to mess around." Jay learnt his skills in Australia, where in some factories, contract shapers are expected to shape five boards a day, five days a week. He works barefoot, "It's more comfortable. I don't know any shapers who wear shoes when they work. You do a lot of walking." Jay figures he covers about 4km for every board he shapes. When he is done with the planer, Jay uses a series of progressively finer sanding blocks to refine the bottom contours. The hardwood stringer is shaped using a small-block plane and a tiny violin-maker's plane.Design and creation: The deck
Once the rocker and the outline bottom have the right shape, the deck of the board is worked on to create the desired thickness for the different areas of the board – the nose, middle and tail. Generally, the widest part of the board is the thickest. The contour of the deck controls the volume of water as it flows out to the rail: a flat deck carries more volume of water, making the board more stable and more suitable for surfers who use their full body to control their board; a domed or crowned deck carries less volume of water, making the board more sensitive and more suitable for a light-footed surfer.
"People spread their weight differently. Some people are naturally inclined to turn off the back foot. Some people have more of an ankle thing, others a hip thing; some drive off their front foot."
Surfers also vary in their mental approach to waves, says Jay.
"Some people look at the lip and the bottom of the wave and see the first ten yards. Others look 300 yards down the line and think about how many sections they can make. It's all about wave approach.
"There is no one 'magic board'. There isn't just one final evolutionary product for surfing. It's never going to be like that."
Design and creation: The rails
The thickness and shape of the outside edges of a board, its rails, determine its sensitivity and flotation. Generally, the bottom edge near the tail is hard-angled to help water release from the edge of the board. The easier water can release from the board, the faster the board will go. In the middle of the board, rails are softer, more rounded so they won't catch or dig into a wave. Harder edges will give a board crispness.
"The rails are where a board comes alive. It's my favourite part of shaping a board; it goes from being a slab to a living thing," says Jay.
After marking out a series of bevels using a marking gauge, Jay uses the planer to cut a series of long flat bands that twist along the length of the bottom surface of the board. In the low-angled light of the shaping bay, the bands flow together like the lapstrake planking on a Viking longboat. The process is repeated on the deck. Then Jay uses a foam-backed sanding block to blend the bevels into each other, and into the nose, tail, bottom and deck. Curves flow together and disappear into each other.
"It's all about hands. You've got to move your hands so that you are following an endless curve – you have to roll your hands and move them in a three-dimensional movement."
Jay frequently hefts the board from its rack to sight down the rails, and he uses his fingertips and palms a lot, to feel out what he can't see.
Only a surfer can be a shaper; what's more, says Jay, "the important thing is that you have to know different waves, not just surf."
To visualise how a board will perform, how it will travel across a wave, shapers must draw on their surfing experience and link the shape of a board to specific feelings and recalled experiences. Good shapers imitate the flow of water across a board with their fingers, translating what they feel into a picture in the mind's eye of how water will flow over the surface.
Jay describes shaping as a "flow thing". When it's going right, shaping involves intense concentration that has a feeling of timelessness about it and a near-total lack of self-awareness. After checking his measurements in the nose, middle and tail to make sure they are still accurate and that the board is symmetrical, Jay pencils in the dimensions of the board near its rocker and signs his work. In the low light of the shaping bay the board glows and has the soft curves of a snow bank. At this stage the board is "roughed out" – the shaping is largely finished, and everything that follows is more or less cleaning up the blank for glassing, 'finish work', as shapers call it. While the shaper's craftsmanship shines from the complete board, his mastery, his understanding and control of design components is visible in the board's roughed-out state.
It's important to know when to stop, Jay says – when to down tools and resist the temptation to make one too many adjustments.
The mechanical properties of a board – its toughness and its durability – are determined by the properties of the core and skin it is built from. A designer/shaper must arrange his chosen materials to give the board the best possible compression, flexural, impact, shear, tensile, and thermal strengths, while considering its overall strength-to-weight ratio. The density or mixture of densities of a board's foam core affect its mechanical properties, notably its flex. Increasing the number of fibreglass layers in the skin or using a heavier grade of cloth increases a board's resistance to dents and overall rigidity against flexing under stress. Jay does his own glassing, but some shapers contract out the job to other specialists.
Critical issues 1: Mass production vs handmade
Having a board shaped by hand is primarily about the search for performance, but it is more than that.
Industrialisation has vanquished many crafts, and globalisation is now threatening traditional shaping. In the early 1990s, surfboard manufacturers began to experiment with computerised shaping machines, and they found that by creating a master blank of a shape that rode especially well, taking measurements from it, and feeding these into a computer-driven foam cutting machine, they could produce clone boards that required little hand finishing. This represented a large saving in labour, and, as the price of shaping machines dropped, major boardmakers bought their own.
This threat to the handmade-surfboard industry was driven in part by professional surfers - their boards, the lightest, thinnest, most highly refined in use, are delicate and essentially disposable items. Because they ride their boards hard and take big chances in powerful waves, in the course of a season professional riders may break any number of boards. Because they do not want to adjust to a handmade board's quirks every time they jump on a new one, they quickly embraced the new technology.
Inevitably, production shifted to Asia, where labour was cheap, health and safety standards low, and environmental safeguards a thing of the future. Today, boards are produced by the container load using automated systems in China and Thailand by people who have never surfed.
A typical consumable is relentlessly anonymous, detached from its designers and its producers. With all mass-produced goods, the buyer does not have a clue who or what produced an item, nor any idea of how they are made. A bespoke board is an antidote to the sameness and predictability of mass-produced objects. The decision to have a board made by hand is a statement about mass production, individuality, and anonymity.
The owner of a handmade board has a tangible personal association with his or her board, not only through the individual way it looks and feels but also through the shadow presence of the shaper. In some cases handmade objects – pottery for example – the fingerprints of the maker are literally impressed on the object; in others, such as bespoke surfboards, evidence of the maker survives only as careful workmanship and the ideas embodied in it. A handmade board links the owner to the mana of the shaper.
Some mass-produced boards have the look, if not the reality, of the handmade in an attempt to 'design for emotion' and tap into consumer desire for personal connection with their purchase.
A handmade board also links the rider to the past. The surfboard has a long and storied history. Australians Bob McTavish, Wayne Lynch, and Simon Anderson, Californians Mike Hynson and Al Merrick, and Hawaiians Ben Aipa, Dick Brewer, Gerry Lopez, and George Downing are just a few of the great shapers and free-thinking innovators who helped make surfing what it is today. Surfboard shapers are an important way of keeping the sport connected to its history, its legacy of self reliance and community – its soul.
"No matter how far surfing strays into mass consciousness, it's always going to have this grass roots background. We still haven't shaken off the last great boom in design and materials. We're still using WWII aeroplane technology and still measure in feet and inches. We still have crazy names for the moves made up in the 1960s. We have a proud heritage for sure. It's a timelessness. People can reflect on it. There's a healthy respect there for the forefathers of surfing. As the world gets more crowded and the waves get busier and everything gets globalised, I think there is a yearning for the old values that you can cling on to. People want that connection," says Jay.
Part of this yearning is reflected in the trend towards a retro look in modern boards. In the early days of New Zealand surfing, shapers, eager for the latest design ideas, used to devour magazines from overseas. Now Jay uses a stack of 60s, 70s and 80s surfing magazines to travel back in time for ideas that will strike a chord with his customers in their quest to connect with the roots of their sport.
Critical issues 2: Materials and Sustainability
Most surfboards today are foam and fibreglass sandwiches, with a shaped foam core wrapped in several layers of resin-impregnated fibreglass.
Before the late 1950s, all surfboards were made of wood and were quite heavy. The development of polyurethane (PU) foam cores and polyester resin and fibreglass skins in the mid-to-late 1950s, revolutionised the sport. Because foam was so much faster and easier to shape than wood, surfboard design sped up. Working with foam and fibreglass, shapers could be far more spontaneous and creative and move rapidly from design theory to testing to modifying a design, which greatly accelerated the evolution of surfboards. This technological breakthrough led to the modern lightweight surfboard and worldwide popularity and mass demand. An industry evolved to supply shapers with a catalogue of foam blanks – a whole range of foam cores that required little in the way of major shaping.
In time, the foam blank industry became dominated by a single Californian company, Clark Foam, who by 2005 supplied 90% of the world market. But on 5 December, 2005, the owner of the company, Gordon "Grubby" Clark, closed his doors with no prior notice, smashed his moulds, sent 1,000 employees home, and ceased production altogether. In a seven-page fax sent to surfboard companies on the day he closed, Clark cited pressure the US Environmental Protection Agency was bringing to bear over his company's use of the carcinogenic chemical toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) to make its foam.
After an initial period of shock and disbelief, the surfing industry rushed to fill the void. New foam manufacturers sprang up and some existing ones expanded their operations. Others, with an eye to the future, began working on alternative, less toxic PU foam formulations. Some board manufacturers experimented with alternative foams altogether. Unlike nearly all other segments of the sporting goods industry, the use of high-tech materials in surfboards has been limited. Despite the fact they were hazardous and toxic to work with, PU foam, polyester resin, and fibreglass was such a functional marriage of materials that surfboard builders had felt little need to find alternative materials. The closure of Clark Foam changed that.
The main alternative to replace PU foam is extruded polystyrene, or EPS foam – the material used to make Styrofoam cups. Building surfboards from EPS presents several challenges. EPS requires a different type of resin, since the resin commonly used with PU foam will melt EPS. A more environmentally friendly, but harder to control, water-based epoxy must be used. Another drawback of EPS was that, at least until very recently, no company offered pre-made EPS blanks, which added a few steps to the board building process.
One way to get around the PU supply problem is to build boards without any foam at all. Surfboards were built out of solid wood for centuries and hollow wood in the 1920s-1950s. In the 1940s and 1950s, balsa wood was the most popular core material for surfboards, before moulded PU blanks began to replace it. Recently, wooden boards have enjoyed something of a renaissance, as boatbuilding techniques have been applied to the challenge of fabricating surfboards from wooden members.
The environmental impact and sustainability of surfboard manufacture has increasingly come under the spotlight. Most surfboards are made from petrochemicals. Most have only a limited working life before wear and tear destroys their performance characteristics. And most are, to all intents and purposes, impossible to recycle and so are sent to a landfill where they take centuries to break down. Growing concern about the depletion of non-renewable resources and the degradation of the world's eco-systems has given rise to a call for more sustainable development. The challenge is usually seen in purely technical terms, one of improving production processes. Some surfboard manufacturers have improved efficiency and cleaned up their production systems, but little progress has been made in addressing the other part of the sustainable development challenge, that of achieving sustainable consumption.
Environmental problems are strongly connected to consumption, particularly when it goes beyond the meeting of real needs. Consumerism – the human desire for non-need items – is driven to a great extent by advertising and marketing, which serves to convince people to buy products they don't really need. The surfing industry is no exception. Glossy magazines, DVD's and lifestyle marketing, all serve to sell products to surfers. Surfers are often guilty of letting the waves pictured in magazines and movies dictate their surfboard choice, rather than letting the local idiosyncrasies and subtleties of their local break be the guide. As result, a surfer may accumulate a quiver of boards, where one good one would do for most of the time.
While board making has a long way to go before it can be termed eco-friendly, having a board locally made to suit local conditions, rather than buying a generic board built overseas and shipped into the country using carbon miles is one way surfers can become proactive sustainable consumers. Shapers have an obvious role here, in that they can provide boards that suit local conditions. They can also build equipment to last, rather than cynically sowing the seeds of continued demand by building light boards.
Outcomes
The satisfaction of the job, Jay says, lies in being able to stand back at the end of a working day and see something for his efforts; of being able to look at a beautifully sculpted, highly functional board and say: "I made that".
The satisfaction lies in doing work that involves a direct link between the head and the hands (and the heart) that allows for creative freedom and pride in the quality of one's craftsmanship. Part of the price paid for this freedom and pride is the time and effort required to achieve mastery over the materials and techniques of the trade.
Some shapers, such as the 'gunsmiths' of Hawaii who build needle-nosed big wave boards for their local breaks, spend their careers endlessly refining one type of surfboard. Jay describes himself as a broad range shaper. "I like different shapes, different boards that make you surf really differently. Boards that make you approach waves differently. From a shaping point of view, it's really pleasing to see different curves. Like big differences in board shape. I think it's a sign of good craftsmanship if you can build aesthetically different boards that both work, not just scaled copies of the same board."
Feedback from customers is important. Shapers stand or fall on, the judgement of others. Failures and shortcomings can't be interpreted away. "It's when someone else can surf the board you can surf that you know you are getting there."
The shape of the future...
Industries come and go. After all, the tannery building where Jay works used to be part of one of New Zealand's largest export industries. While hand-shaping has much to recommend it, can it possibly survive in today's globalised economy? Or will it go the way of other crafts such as cabinet and furniture making? Jay is quietly confident shop-front operations like his will survive for a number of reasons.
"The sort of people that come in here want something particular. And they want that connection between the craftsman and the sea. They want to talk to somebody knowledgeable and not just somebody who wants to sell them something."
The economics of the market may shift in favour of the handmade, he reckons.
"It wouldn't surprise me if eventually it's cheaper to deal directly with your local shaper than deal with a big commercial operation through a whole lot of middlemen."
And as the realisation grows that the environmental and social costs of industrial mass production may be too much to bear, tradition-based more sustainable alternatives such as the handmade may become more attractive. Evolving lifestyles may also help, as people start to value 'unproductive' diversions like surfing for its own sake. Demographics suggest this will be the case. Surfers are getting older.
Jay believes that while shaping will survive, change is inevitable. "Design has ruled for the past 40 or 50 years but I think things are moving along now in a different way. I think materials are going to play a big part in developments in the foreseeable future."
References
The following sources were used for the writing of this article:
Suggestions for curriculum related activity
Introduction
This case study examines the practice of surfboard shaping and manufacture within the wider context of surfing as a leisure activity. Issues that are addressed in the case study include:
In this Curriculum Links section we first identify curriculum terminology and achievement objective that arise from this case study – see Linking to the Curriculum.
This is followed by comprehensive links to webpages and videos to provide additional contexts which could be explored by senior students to address the above objectives:
Linking to the Curriculum:
terminology and achievement objectives
This case study can be used to facilitate discussion designed to familiarise teachers and groups of students with curriculum terminology. Specific terminology illustrated includes
Strand |
Component |
Terminology |
Nature of Technology |
Characteristics of Technology |
Purposeful intervention by design |
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Characteristics of Technological outcomes |
Material products developed through technological practice |
Technological Knowledge |
Technological modelling |
Functional modelling |
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Technological Products |
Relationship between the properties of materials and their performance capability |
Technological Practice |
Brief Development |
..taking into account the social and physical environment Ongoing evaluation |
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Planning for Practice |
Fitness for purpose of planning tools |
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Outcome Development and Evaluation |
Creative generation of design ideas |
The case study material and the additional resource material below can be used to address the requirements of achievement objectives across the three strands and a range of levels. As an example the following achievement objectives have been selected:
Strand |
Component |
Level |
Achievement Objective |
Nature of Technology |
Characteristics of Technology |
4
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7
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Students will: Understand how technological development expands human possibilities and how technology draws on knowledge from a wide range of disciplines |
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Characteristics of Technological Outcomes |
Level
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Achievement Objective |
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1
2
5 |
Students will: Understand that technological outcomes are products or systems developed by people and have a physical nature and a functional nature Understand that technological outcomes are developed through technological practice and have related physical and functional nature Understand that technological outcomes ate fit for purpose in terms of time and context. Understand the concept of malfunction and how failure can inform future outcomes |
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Strand |
Component |
Level |
Achievement Objective |
Technological Knowledge |
Technological Products |
4
8 |
Students will: understand that materials can be formed, manipulated and/or transformed to enhance the fitness of purpose of a technological product understand the concepts and processes employed in materials development and evaluation, and the implications of these for design, development, maintenance and disposal of technological products |
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The development of artificial surfing reefs
ASR website
New Zealand company ASR (Amalgamates Solutions and Research) is a leading company in global multi-purpose artificial surfing reef development.
www.asrltd.co.nz/
The site incorporates a comprehensive 'Downloads' section which inclues:
Reef company making waves worldwide
Surf's up for Raglan company Artificial Surf Reefs, and so is business
New Zealand Herald article November 2007
www.nzherald.co.nz/surfing/news/article.cfm?c_id=91&objectid=10353883
Makig waves
Unlimited online article 2004
www.unlimited.net.nz/unlimited.nsf/UNID/4442D2A5D03E54F3CC256EED0076D2A9
Protection of Surfing Breaks
The current literature on ASRs has primarily focussed on reef shape and its role in creating surfing waves. However, this study suggests that impacts to the offshore bar, beach-state, scour hole and surf zone hydrodynamics should all be included in future surfing reef designs. More real world reef studies, including ongoing monitoring of existing surfing reefs are required to validate theoretical concepts in the published literature.
Waikato University publication 2008
http://adt.waikato.ac.nz/public/adt-uow20080806.195651/
Material relating to the development or proposed development of artificial reefs at Lyall Bay, Opunaki, Orewa and Mount Maunganui includes:
Lyall Bay
www.lyallbayreef.org.nz/
www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_Policy/2005/21Jun0915/pdf/a_lyallbaysurfreef.pdf
www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Planning_and_Performance/2002/24Jun0915/pdf/851_12.pdf
www.captimes.co.nz/news/32/n/1150/Outlookbleakforsurfreef.boss
SURFERS want to know why the Wellington City Council is prepared to support a multi million dollar bypass "that doesn't work" but unprepared to spend two million dollars on a surf reef that all surfers want and will use.
Capital Times article March 2007
"Surf's Up – An Artificial Reef at Lyall Bay?"
www.tki.org.nz/r/ncea/geo3_6Bv1_10feb02.pdf
NCEA Geography Level 3 assessment task using Lyall Bay Surf reef proposal as a context
Opunake Surf reef information
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/1395634
Taranaki Daily News, February 2009
www.stuff.co.nz/environment/373562
April 2008
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/1392260
February 2009
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/features/775660
December 2008
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/804633/Opunake-reef-needs-fine-spell
January 2009
A range of news articles from stuff.co.nz
Orewa Surf reef information
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/291241
www,stuff.co.nz Feb 08
www.surf.co.nz/news/local/news.asp?newsletterId=2924&archive=1514
Surf.co.nz website
Mount Maunganui Surf reef information
www.mountreef.co.nz/
Mount Maunganui Surf reef webs site . Includes web cam photos
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10554007
New Zealand Herald article January 2009
Mount Maunganui Surf Reef – is it worth the money?
http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/1/29/mt-maunganuis-15m-artificial-surf-reef-waste-money/?c_id=1501154
Mt Maunganui's $1.5 million artificial surf reef, branded as fickle by its designers, has been virtually ignored by Bay surfers since it was completed last June.
New Zealand Herald article January 2009
Surfboard design and manufacture
History of surfing in New Zealand – Te Papa website
http://tpo.tepapa.govt.nz/ViewTopicExhibitDetail.asp?TopicFileID=MINZ_t7
New environmentally friendly surfboard
Creators of a new environmentally friendly surfboard believe it could revolutionise the industry. The Eco board, produced by British company The Eden Project, was launched last week in England. More than half of the materials used in its construction were renewable.
New Zealand Herald, March 2009
www.nzherald.co.nz/manufacturing/news/article.cfm?c_id=60&objectid=10564192
SURFBOARD COURSE OUTLINE
Surfboard design and Construction
Course outline of a 40-hour course designed and delivered at Gisborne Boys High School
www.gisboyshigh.school.nz/images/course info page cv.jpg
MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURE
COMPSAND– company website [comp(osite)/sand(wich)].
www.compsand.com/technology_description.html
High Voltage company website
Whole surf board development process shown on one page
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hvsurf/highvoltage/production.html
Kiwi Scientists Build Surfboard Using Native New Zealand Flax as Fibreglass Replacement
A surfboard made from Native New Zealand Flax (harakeke). Scientists working for BPN – a biotech joint venture between AgResearch, Crop & Food Research and Scion - created a harakeke fibre to replace fibreglass in the surfboard, which is responsible for giving the board its strength and stiffness. BPN research is focussed on creating products using renewable, natural materials – or biomaterials – instead of petrochemicals.
Infonews.co.nz website, June 2008
www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=11&t=56&id=21811
New uses for flax
In the 2000s scientists began to explore different uses for flax. The Biomaterials Engineering unit at Scion, Rotorua, is investigating ways to improve the strength and performance of flax fibre by combining it with other natural fibres such as hemp and wood, and synthetics such as glass fibre. Results are encouraging, and the material also looks attractive. Future uses include building materials, furniture and packaging.
Te Ara - The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/NativePlantsAndFungi/FlaxAndFlaxWorking/5/en
New materials
Carbon-fibe and Kevlar technology related to improved functionality
Black Boards company website
www.blackboards.co.nz/index.html
Cardboard core surfboards
Orewa Longboard Club newsletter May 2009
www.orewalongboardclub.com/newspage.htm
So you want to be a surf board maker? Questions and answers
New Zealand Herald article February 2007
www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=10426096&pnum=2
USA surfboard manufacturing scene.
Article on the Sacred Craft Exhibition in Southern California, October 2008
www.byrningspears.com/news-sacred-craft-surfboard-exhibition.php
Manufacturing by machine
Creative Energy Surfboards website. A company which has invested in a Shapers Profiling machine – technology to allow it to customize more deeply with improved detail and less error than ever before. It also minimizes labour times, increases production levels and offers all around time efficiency.
www.creative-energy.co.nz/index.htm
Extensive range of surfboards now available
New Wave Board Company – Buyers Guide 2009
www.newwave.co.nz/includes/New_Wave_Board_Guide_09.pdf
Surfboard accessories
Designing a range of surf board accessories
www.locusresearch.com/downloads/CurveSurf_BestAwardsA4(Web).pdf
Surfboard innovations
Time Magazine 2002 Best Inventions – the travel surfboard
www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/toy_board.html
Surfline website
www.surfline.co.nz/index2.htm
VIDEO CLIPS
YouTube
YouTube video clips under the serach 'surfboard manufacture'
(www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Surfboard+manufacture&aq=f ) includes the following selections:
Social issues of surfboards and surfing
Sociology of sport. Online
This academic paper considers the motivations and requirements for obtaining membership into the surfing subculture, and demonstrates the added value an ethnographic and participatory approach can provide to the improved understanding of the sociology of sport and sport-related subcultures. In this paper it is suggested that if surfing is to be understood as a sociological phenomenon not only must the subculture and its motivations be understood, but the activity itself.
http://physed.otago.ac.nz/sosol/v4i1/v4i1butt.htm
Hazards of handling / working with boat building materials
New Zealand Medical Journal, March 2001
www.nzma.org.nz/journal/114-1132/2210/content.pdf
Proposed New Zealand Costal Policy Statement 2008
Brief of Evidence of Jonathan Patrick McCarthy
www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/getting-involved/consultations/current-consultations/nzcps/evidence/018-nzcps-evidence-01-of-02-a.pdf
In the Water: Cobalt enters the surfboard fray
The sudden evaporation of Clark Foam — which at the time seemed like the end of the world to many, but now seems to me as if it simply had to happen — was the spark needed to ignite a worldwide rush to fill the sudden polyurethane foam vacuum in the multi-billion-dollar surf industry, but also to experiment, develop, innovate and push the old boundaries of accepted materials and limitations. What's that Chinese proverb? "In crisis lies opportunity"?
Deepfried TV website, March 2006
www.deepfried.tv/news/default.cfm?ID=947
Surfboard shaping industry in strife
More than 200,000 New Zealanders try surfing in some form each year, and SPARC figures suggest there is a harder core group of around 70,000 board riders in this country.
Over the last 50 years, surfboards have evolved from heavy longboards to the much shorter performance boards seen filling the racks of surf shops around the world.
However, in the last couple of years the shaping industry has fallen on tough times and now that worldwide trend has washed up on our shores.
TV3 News video, July 2008 (3.13)
www.3news.co.nz/Video/Business/tabid/369/articleID/63033/cat/52/Default.aspx?articleID=63033
Environmental issues"Surfers Against Sewage campaign for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. Using a solution based argument of viable and sustainable alternatives, SAS highlight the inherent flaws in current practises, attitudes and legislation, challenging industry, legislators and politicians to end their 'pump and dump' policies."
Surfers against sewage website
www.sas.org.uk
Surf parks
Surfparks LLC is a US-based company focussed on developing and operating innovative wave-riding facilities. On a mission to deliver every surfer's dream of perfect, uncrowded waves, Surfparks has licensed exclusive rights to proprietary technology capable of delivering world class surf in controlled, salt-water pools.
www.surfparks.com/home.php
Versareef progress information
New Zealand Herald article January2007
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10419144