Greatest Surfing Invention

Sex Wax

 

They're all so important it's hard to choose just one as being the greatest. The leash I don't think is the greatest invention because you can surf just fine without it, but you'll be swimming in for your boart. The Fin is really high on the list, but people surf finless, so it's possible to do without, but man what a game changer when you have the right fin setup for the boart you're riding. I really don't know the answer to the question, but it's one I will ponder for a while.

 

Wheels on surfboard travel bags.

 

Roy Staurt's borts

 

fin box for travel.
super stretchy neoprene for home
Swellinfo.com for talking ish.

 

Volcom super-stretchy boardshorts

Scantily clad treadde

The thruster

 

i would say foam blanks.

I would rather go back to surfing and traveling with glass-on fins in my nice light custom poly and EPS boards.

than i would

Have the convenience of removable finbox systems in my wooden surfboard. Even if that wood board is a Lis fish!

 

fish developing lungs. Think about it...

 

Anything invented by Bob Simmons (lightweight poly boards with airplane-foil rails), Jack O’Neill (how popular would surfing be w/out wetsuits), or Steve Lis (the first real short board, and progenitor of the Thruster).

Look it up.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Blake_(surfer)

 

id have to say da surfbort, followed by the fin and then wetsuits

 

First boards carved from timber by Polynesians.

Riding waves.

All progression and innovation stems from the roots.

Modern surfboard design has changed things but I can’t help but wonder how cool it was to cut/carve timber and score a wave on it....for the first time. Our perspectives are naturally identifying episodes in the evolution but to me, the invention itself.

 

I remember years back one summer Grain Surfboards came down the coast in a truck full of demo boards. They were at the inlet in Ocean City Maryland one morning and there happened to be some fun warm waves. I grabbed a 5'10" twin keel fish from them and had my one and only session on a wooden shortboard that day.

I have to say it was fun, and easier to ride than i expected. BUT still quite a transition in feel. The way it rode was glidey and stable. I imagine more suited to long sweeping lines than the beachbreak peaks of that sesh.

 

I’d have to say thank you to jack.
I surf without leashes, fins, wax...
I think I’ve surfed 10x in just board shorts. Shoot. I’ve got 3-4/3s and 3-3/2s hanging in my shower at the moment.

 

Wetsuites opened up a wealth of areas/spots/seasons.

 

Cool discussion.

Foam blank is definitely up there, but not the top of the list.

The fin is the greatest invention in my opinion. Im simply using DPs logic in his post. Which is a good way of looking at this question. I just came to a diffrent conclusion. He mentioned people surf finless so it could be done without it. Finless surfing is a completly diffrent thing. It's like comparing surfing vs bodyboarding. Similar. But diffrent. Wooden boards have a diffrent feel than foam but it's comparable. The fin box makes things fun and easier but isn't needed. But fins. Without fins we wouldn't be anywhere close to where surfing is today. Lots of great inventions but i see fins as the biggest "game changer". Only thing that can possibly be more important is the invention of a surfboard itself. But i think that may be taking the discussion to literal.