Surf skis of the future?

I just purchased what may very well be my last surf ski. I say "last" not because I plan to stop paddling in the foreseeable future, but because given the level of refinement that has already been achieved in surf ski design, it's hard to imagine how they're going to make them even better in the future than what's currently available.

Where would the improvements come from? I suppose new materials may be discovered to make them lighter, but I'm not sure I want a ski that weighs less than the 26 lb. SEL I already have. All that would do is to make it more susceptible to wind gusts and reduce its stability on the water. Unlike leading edge bicycle design, where reducing weight has had only positive results and no negative ones, when it comes to surf skis, lighter wouldn't necessarily be better.

What about improvements in hull design? I remember reading about a lawsuit several years ago in which one ski manufacturer accused another of having copied their hull design. The plaintiff lost the case because the other manufacturer was able to prove that that since the "formula" for designing an ideal hull shape is so well understood, and because designers are using the same computer simulation software, entering the same variables (eg. weight and physical proportions of the paddler) is all but guaranteed to produce identical results. If that's the case, then all we can really expect to see in future are small design tweaks in hull design, but no really significant improvements.

Having said that, I can imagine some radical innovations that would make it financially feasible to produce a custom design for each paddler, much like a tailor made suit. You could in theory design one for a particular paddler's weight, physical proportions, style of paddling, and the environment in which he plans to paddle. But this is just a bare possibility, not something likely to become reality.

Thoughts?

I think you're right in many respects. We may see small tweaks as things like computer simulated modeling gets even more sophisticated however the trend seems to be moving towards make niche skis for paddlers of specific weights and conditions.

The one thing that might enable more/faster prototyping would be the use of 3D printing to create either the hulls themselves, or at least the molds used for the layup. This might allow for a faster turn around times on design changes and more refinement.

kwolfe wrote: I think you're right in many respects. We may see small tweaks as things like computer simulated modeling gets even more sophisticated however the trend seems to be moving towards make niche skis for paddlers of specific weights and conditions.

The one thing that might enable more/faster prototyping would be the use of 3D printing to create either the hulls themselves, or at least the molds used for the layup. This might allow for a faster turn around times on design changes and more refinement.

I use a program (SolidWorks) that can easily make *.STL files to send to a 3-D printer, but the limiting factor is the size of the printer. Right now, what I would have to do is to split the model into sections small enough to print, which would then have to be re-assembled to serve as a mold.

Thinking about this a bit more, I can also envision a new material like the artificial spider silk they're working on, which would be even stronger, lighter, and more durable than carbon fiber. If that stuff can be sprayed on in liquid form, it would be a game changer by eliminating 90% of the labor required to fabricate the hulls, which is what makes carbon fiber so expensive. I'm not a chemist or engineer though, so this is pure speculation on my part.