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Birth of a Motorized Surfboard
An anonymous reader writes: "The October Mechanical Engineering has a article on the creation of a motorized surfboard. Looks like a bigger creative leap than Segway and potentially a lot more fun!"
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Bob Montgomery didn't think he'd need a computer to design his motorized surfboard. Boy, was he wrong.
by Jean Thilmany,
Associate Editor
When Bob Montgomery brought his motorized surfboard to market, he expected engineering challenges--but maybe not as many as he eventually met. He didn't think, for example, that he'd have to become an expert in choosing and integrating engineering technologies or in engine design.
A look at the process he went through as he started a company from the ground up provides a glimpse of how engineering technologies can be the hidden driver in bringing a new product to market. Montgomery hired engineers, made decisions about purchasing engineering technologies, and implemented a just-in-time manufacturing system--not to mention the marketing of an entirely new product-- successfully feeling his way through each step of the process.
Sixteen years ago, Montgomery, a former professional surfer and construction foreman, turned on his garage light in Capistrano Beach, Calif., and sat down to sketch the first rough design for an idea he'd been playing around with a while: a motorized surfboard he calls a jet board. He said his concept would bring surfing to the masses, no matter where they live, as long as it's near a body of water, whether that body is ocean, lake, or river. The Powerski Igniter 330 is newly available in the United States. Riders stand on it like a surfboard, and although it includes a mechanism for maneuvering, riders also steer it like a surfboard, by shifting their body weight. The Igniter 330 is now distributed in 35 countries. In August, it earned Coast Guard approval for U.S. distribution, Montgomery said.
Montgomery's 16-year journey from that initial rough draft to jet board production was by no means easy. Along the way he founded a company, Powerski International, in San Clemente, Calif., and hired an engineering team, led by Bjorn Levine, to design and patent a two-stroke, water-cooled, 45-horsepower engine that weighs about 40 pounds. The engine was specially designed to be light but powerful, to be compact with a sleek, side profile, and to perform well as it moves through water. Montgomery himself designed the jet-board hull, hollowing out the space beneath the rider's feet to house the engine. He hand-made a number of prototype hulls from composite materials.
CAN'T DO IT BY HAND
Between the first design on paper and actual production, Powerski engineers made thousands of changes to the hull, engine, and other components. After he built an initial model of the hull in his garage, Montgomery needed an engine to motorize the surfboard.
"I wanted the engine to be low-profile," he said. "Surfboards are flat. They don't have big humps on them. There was no engine out there to fit that profile. I had to pull an engine off the shelf, an outboard engine, which I placed in the hole in the hull horizontally. It was ineffective. It wasn't the correct design."
He would have to do it himself. Montgomery hired Levine, who had designed motorcycle engines successfully in the past. He created a 330-cubic-centimeter engine, known as the SuperTorque XT, that fits nicely within the hull's profile.
"I'd designed the hull and originally it had a sort of bowl in it," Montgomery said. "I said to Bjorn, 'I need you to make an engine to fit this bowl.' And he did it.
"It had to be long, like a little torpedo engine, and narrow, because the board had to be narrow," Montgomery said. "And it couldn't be very high.
"There's a host of design and engineering challenges when you design a surfboard and add an engine," he said. "Water intrusion was one of them. When you sit on the board, it sinks. We had to make it not sink. We've come up with inflatable seals to equalize the pressure around the hatches. Then, the exhaust on the engine had to have one-way valves so water couldn't get into the engine."
The motorized surfboard invented by Bob Montgomery includes a 330-cu
I'm not Seth.
This isn't the first motorized surfboard I've seen. I once saw a gas powered surfboard posted on Ebay, and it looked to be created in the 70's or 80's sometime, if not before that. The thing weighed in at over 50 lbs from what I recall, not too practical for surfing or carrying around the beach.
Here is the site, PowerSki.com
I have dreamed of these for years.
I wonder if I can get it in kit form?
comment directly in my journal
Sorry, motorized has been done. Even has hydrofoils!
http://robijn.net/hydrofoil/
John Kerry is a Joke!
This was done before I was born /and/ hung with -
and
just about anybody I ever hit waves
Talked about this type of fun...
Simple Google search:
"motor surfboard" yields competition.
Too easy to check.
Whatever...
As a surfer, I'm appalled. This looks more annoying that gas powered scooters and jet-skis combined. If you can't paddle out, you don't belong on a surfboard (the guy who started Life Rolls On and tow-in big wave surfers aside).
Some people just don't get it. I'm sure the first person to bring one of these into our local lineups will be dealt with accordingly.
From a techie standpoint, I can only wonder why this was created.
It's all Hood
AOA Fact Sheets
So I'm guessing BIG really does mean lard-ass, in the american case anyway. Especially since it would appear from those stats that more than half the population is overweight.
For the record , from OECD health data, the list from most obese to less obese countries goes
- USA
- UK
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Spain
- Finland
- Italy
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Switzerland
I presume by "skinny whine drinking smoking shorties", you mean the french... they're not even on the list.You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.