Benjamin Thompson wants to use science to make a better surfboard.
Surfboard design, which has remained largely unchanged for decades, is a challenge to manufacturers because boards need to be flexible enough that they’re enjoyable to ride, yet not too flexible that they break easily.
“In a lot of people’s minds, those are in conflict,” said Thompson, an avid surfer and Ph.D structural engineering student at the University of California San Diego.
Local surfboard makers are intrigued by Thompson’s lofty mission to build a better-performing, more cost-efficient surfboard. They say his research, at the very least, will start chatter in an industry that’s slow to change.
The first step of Thompson’s project is to define the optimal performance of a surfboard.
With the help of undergraduates, Thompson recently reached an important step in answering that question.
The group developed and attached a waterproof computer and sensors to a surfboard for recording the velocity of waves. As students surfed, data were sent to a laptop on shore.
That information is crucial in studying how surfboards bend as they are ridden. The change in shape correlates with the surfing experience, which is subjective.
The computer is about six inches by six inches and works with eight sensors. Thompson hopes to shrink the computer to the size of a cell phone to decrease the weight placed on the board. He also hopes to increase the number of sensors to 50 to get a better sense of how the board flexes. The challenge, he said, is to keep the weight down.
Nathan Delson, director of the mechanical engineering design center at UCSD, sees value in Thompson’s project because it tackles “real-world challenges.”
Every year, Delson accepts submissions for senior design project ideas, which come from students like Thompson, nonprofits and businesses. Seniors in the mechanical-engineering program then vote for a project they want to work on.
One of the available projects last semester was Thompson’s surfing project. After it was accepted, he was assigned a group of students to assist him with research.
Hank Johns, a longtime surfboard-materials supplier from Solana Beach, also sees value in Thompson’s project.
“He’s taking great pains to be precise in his measurement,” said Johns, co-owner of Los Angeles-based Graphite Master. The company has been around for about 55 years.
Johns said there’s an educational interest in Thompson’s research. He said a lot of surfers are uneducated about “features and benefits of the surfboard.”
The surfing industry, he said, is slow to make changes because “if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.”
He hopes Thompson’s research will change that.