This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.
This time it is Karen Watts, CEO of Corefino, which is pioneering Accounting in the Cloud as she wrote on the Deal Architect blog. She writes about how she relaxes with surfing.
“When I moved to Santa Cruz 10 years ago, learning to surf came with the package. Like golfing in Carmel, wine in Napa and fresh vegetables in Watsonville - Surfing is what you do in Santa Cruz – especially at “The Hook” as the video below shows.
For me, even just one or two afternoons spent surfing works like nothing else to unplug and relax. Every time my feet leave the sand and I push off into the water padding out, I am literally stepping off of the continent and into a new world. Each paddle stroke through my hands puts a next layer of distance from me and whatever urgencies that were waiting for me back on shore. Like a bird on a tree branch looking at the frustrated house cat on the ground below, when I am sitting out on the water and floating on my board, the view back to the shore is a welcome chance to exhale as much as it is a chance to put it all at a distance and back into perspective.
Surfing and surfers are not especially known for either the wide use or early adoption of new technology adopters. We are seen much more as Spicolis vs. Jetsons. However the past two decades of technology have not only dramatically altered not only surfing as a sport but also sent some of surfing most enduring icons, mythologies and traditions into the sunset.
From the adventure and magic of surf travel captured with the release of Endless Summer more than forty years ago, there has always been a romantic vision of intrepid surfers traveling coastal roads checking the swells and looking for ideal conditions and “secret spots”. Within a tight knit community of “true believers”, these secrets and mysticism were handed down within an enduring oral tradition and earned each day driving the coast.
Like the image of a cowboy on the open range, this icon of the traveling surfer in search of a perfect wave is as charming and iconic as it is long gone. Today’s surf cams and forecasting tools can not only tell you exactly what is happening at hundreds of breaks around the world, but tell you what they will look like for the next 3-7 days.
Meteorological data and oceanographic models that used to be the province of only the top universities and government teams have been widely democratized across the web for surfers with sites like Surfline. If you want to get a buoy reading off of the coast of New Zealand from your office in San Jose, you can get it. If you need to know how that buoy reading will produce rideable surf for the next week to ten days, there are web sites for that too. More still, if you want more personal opinions or a local insight the blogosphere is teeming with independent surf reporters offering daily assessments of the local surf if not up to the minute tweets for the more impatient.
Technology has effectively transformed finding surf from an art to a science. Though traditionalists and local surfers complained wildly against surf cams in the early days, their protests faded away in time. That these new tools made finding great surf a near certainty has more than outweighed any disadvantages of a having a handful of new faces at their local break.
Whether its professional big wave surfers flying to destinations to compete in huge surf on 24 hours notice or friends planning an extended weekend, finding is now simply clicks on the screen vs. miles in the station wagon
I have yet to personally witness a waterproof smart phone while out in the water, but I know its only matter of time before I will be able to download not only the latest conditions but also a photo of who rode the last wave at my favorite break.
The surfing lifestyle at its core is about being at the right place at the right time. When a great day comes, it’s rare, it’s special and it’s meant to be seized. No different than great business teams that work each day to see new markets and seize opportunities as soon as they appear and well before they vanish.
Like to the enduring image of traveling surfers, there is the enduring charm and traditional appeal of a handcrafted board shaped by a known master. Surfers used to seek out shapers who could work with them to create one of a kind masterpiece that could best match not only the unique style of the surfer but also the unique requirements of the local waves they were planning to ride. The hand shaped board has been a longstanding symbol of the soul of the sport and I am a proud owner of an original Hobie and yearn someday to find a handmade Noll or Yater.
However I am well out of date on this one. Wide accesses to sophisticated computer design tools and marine modeling software have unleashed a torrent of new deign approaches and creativity into board designs. In a steady progression, digital design and manufacturing technology has driven today’s equipment to produce more and more refined designs and opened new possibilities in board shapes and capabilities.
These new innovations have also demanded new approaches to materials and more narrow manufacturing tolerances than ever before. As little as a quarter inch off from an intended template can make the difference from a board that works vs. one that doesn’t.
At all levels, hand made boards have been almost entirely replaced by digital manufacturing systems that can shave boards exactly to the intended template of the board for the exact height, weight and style of the surfer. Though these automated systems began initially as a cost saving device, they have quickly evolved as the core foundation for making advanced board design concepts become actual boards in the water.
However much technology is changing surfing, there’s still plenty of room for art and magic. A day in Hawaii still stands out in my memory when one of the old men in the line up peered out the horizon then paddled about 20 yards deeper into the ocean than all of the other surfers. With a minute, easily the best wave of the afternoon rolled through and he was on it. Pure magic.”
Comments