photo credit: bk2000

The recent injury of Pascal Dattler, a ten-year-old Australian surfer who was struck by the pointed nose of another surfer’s board (requiring seven titanium plates to repair his skull), has “sparked an intense national debate among the surfing fraternity” around designing safer, dolphin-nose boards to avoid these types of on-water accidents.

“Robert Holt, the co-ordinator of the Surf Science and Technology program at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, said 41 per cent of surfing injuries were lacerations. Of those almost a quarter were lacerations to the head, caused mainly by the fins, tail or nose of the board,” reports Nicky Phillips of The Sydney Morning Herald.

“A veteran surfer, Rusty Miller, suggests boards be shaped with a ‘dolphin nose’, where the tip of the board is rounded off into a 75-millimetre-sized semicircle.”

Convincing the conservative surfing community to alter longstanding board designs is another story…

photo credit: rowland_rick

Ocean Beach, CA’s Danny Hess of Hess Surfboards is creating elegant, environmentally friendly, and high performance surfboards from reclaimed and sustainably harvested wood, renewable cork, and recyclable foam, in addition to coating his designs with half the fiberglass of conventional boards.

“By synthesizing the woodworking techniques of cabinetmakers and boat builders with the standard foam-and-fiberglass approach, Hess creates surfboards that push the boundaries of environmental sustainability, aesthetic beauty and speed generation. They may cost twice as much as conventionally shaped surfboards, but they have the durability to last a lifetime,” writes Eric Gustafson of the San Francisco Chronicle, as he chronicles Hess’ circuitous path from Colorado carpenter to San Francisco surfer to custom surfboard shaper.

Stay updated on the design evolution of Hess Surfboards at Danny’s blog.

photo credit: Indy Charlie

Joey Santley and Steve Cox of San Clemente, CA start-up Green Foam Blanks are trying to change the toxic manufacturing history of the surfboard industry by creating blanks that are 60 to 65 percent recycled waste.

“Green Foam has sold about 1,000 recycled surfboard blanks since it began production earlier this year. Mr. Santley has put Green Foam surfboards into the hands of surfing celebrities like Cameron Diaz and surfer-singers like Jason Mraz, as well as professional surfers and influential board makers,” writes Todd Woody of The New York Times.