North Shore NewsArmed with high-tech equipment such as GPS trackers, motion sensors and fluid simulation programs, a newly-formed team hopes to use their scientific research to improve surfing.
The Surf Engineering Association (SEA) team is Marc in het Panhuis (Australia), Luca Oggiano (Norway) and David Shormann (Haleiwa). Their first published research as a team involved North Shore testing of a humpback whaleinspired longboard fin design.
In 2020, the SEA team will travel to Tokyo prior to the Olympics to present new and exciting finds at the International Sports Engineering Conference. Unlike many other Olympic sports, the use of scientific tools to measure surfing performance is limited. SEA hopes to change that.
SEA is holding their first symposium Monday, December 9, from 7-9pm at Sunset Beach Elementary School Cafeteria. The free public event will include several presentations highlighting their current research and future plans, followed by discussion/talk story.