Edison Conner and Parker Borneman, founders of Varial Surf Technology have created a blank they hope will revolutionise the surfboard market.
The Motivation: We grew up in Santa Barbara surfing poly boards and they dinged and broke all the time and we thought ‘there’s got to be something better’. I went to engineering school and one of the introductory classes was all about the materials that go into really high tech bicycles. It got me thinking that if they use all these high tech materials in bikes why can’t you make a surfboard with better materials? First we used Varial foam in the rail of the board. Then we thought, ‘let’s make something shapers can shape and the Varial foam that we’ve adapted from an aerospace formula will go insane as a core in the board.’
Making Surfboards Better: We figured out that one way to make surfboard better is to make a much higher performance core. The key with making a core better is that you want to make it more rigid and you want to do that without adding weight. That requires using a whole new chemistry of foam.
How It Works: One of the key design concepts from the beginning was that we wanted this to feel a lot like a regular board but better. By keeping the overall bending, twisting and stiffness the same it’s a really natural progression, except the surfer experiences this extra push back and responsiveness.
Shaper Feedback: At first people saw a stringerless blank and it was a little intimidating. But once they started shaping they loved the texture of the foam as it’s so much easier to shape than polyurethane. The finish is smooth and it glasses really well.
Pros Going Varial: Italo [Ferriera] got the first board over in Portugal and by the time the CT contest came along he was riding it in competition. Shane [Dorian] has been riding them, Mick [Fanning] has tested one and Mitch Coleborn has been getting a few with Chilli and Keanu Asing is developing a board with Tokoro.
The Challenges: Any new technology that’s disruptive is challenging. When you do something for so long it’s hard to break that mould. One of the challenges we face is that this is a more expensive product. We’re trying to change the mindset of surfboard consumers and show that this is going to help them surf better, and will last longer.
The Future: Polyurethane hasn’t progressed in 50 years so we’re not looking for a one per cent gain here or there. The gap is so big that we can actually get a thirty to fifty per cent gain just by providing new materials. We can bring the whole surfing industry on the material side up to the most cutting edge technology.
This article first appeared in our Hawaiian issue, Tracks 546 on sale now featuring Mark Mathews on the cover.
