Wow, this is a genius idea, a surfboard made out of cardboard triangular pieces encased by a transparent fiberglass.

The board is supposedly super strong and a pro surfer has bought one off the programmer already.

When it came time to replace his old surfboard, Mike Sheldrake decided to build his own. But the former Web programmer didn’t have the sculpting skills to carve one out of foam the way professional builders do. So he used 3-D modeling software to design a snap-together deck that’s as sturdy as a conventional model and performs just as well, made from the cheapest material he could find: cardboard.

INSIDE VIEW: Cardboard slats intersect to form the frame. Photo by Brian Klutch
The board’s frame contains nearly 400 corrugated-paper slats precisely cut by a computer-controlled saw. The slats intersect at interlocking notches, forming a pattern of triangles and hexagons that provides strength by evenly dispersing force throughout the board. Sheldrake makes it watertight by wrapping it in fiberglass cloth hardened with epoxy resin (similar to traditional boards).

via popsci

Tags: cardboard box, conventional model, corrugated paper, epoxy resin, fiberglass cloth, genius idea, hexagons, klutch, modeling software, notches, photo, professional builders, sheldrake, slats, snap, surfboard, transparent fiberglass, triangles, triangular pieces, web programmer

This entry was posted by max on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Consumer, Cool, Design, Educational, Gadgets.