The world's first 3D-printed high-performance custom boards are about to hit the markets. Is there a revolution ahead?
Can you imagine the perfect surfboard, windsurf board, kiteboard, or stand-up paddleboard designed exclusively for you?
Made Smartboards is a start-up company that is ready to start customizing the board of your dreams. These future boards are modeled through your behavior and preferences.
The concept is quite simple: create the board you need based on your body, your style, and the conditions in which you ride.
"3D printed means no material or resources wasted, no poisonous styrofoam being used or discarded, shaved onto the shaping floor", explains Shanon Marks, founder of Made Smartboards.
"We print only what is required to create a board. Each frame is wrapped in bamboo, then sealed in fiberglass. Sustainable, custom, beautiful, perfect".
But there's more.
The start-up run by Shanon Marks has developed a smartphone app that records your performance along with geographic, oceanic, atmospheric, and other tracking metrics.
The "Volume" app is continuously compiling data to keep you riding better, longer, and more often.
When you're ready for a new board, the compiled data is used to custom-design it.
Every aspect of your Made Smartboard is customizable.
You can fine-tune, change, or modify any of the recommended board attributes, creating boards for anybody, any style, and any level of expertise.
"The idea of 3D printing is something that totally fascinates me. And that somebody is figuring out how to make that happen in the windsurfing industry is the most exciting thing I've heard", says Karen Marriot, president of the United States Windsurfing Association.