Wearable technology in your surfoutfit?!

[DC147]

Hey people,

For the upcoming summer O’Neill had brought out a new jacket. This jacket contains an integrated mp3 player, this is because snowboarders like to listen music while boarding.

Now we got the assignment to create/design something like this for the summer/surfers. We are asked to design a new communication devise integrated into surfers clothing and that’s why we ask you to exchange thoughts on this subject with us. What do you lack while surfing or what would be really handy? Our main objective will be integrating communication, but this is not a priority, we want to know everything!
You could think of an integrated Camera to share your thrills with your friends?!

If you want to help us, you can send and e-mail to DC147@tue.nl or just react on this topic. It would really help us and if O’Neill sees a future in our concept, even yourself!!

Greets,

Auke, Misha, Bram, Ali and Werner
Industrial Design TU/e
Holland

[sandshark]

A tiny waterproof digital camera that didn't impede your movement might be fun, but definately no music or communication devices in the water please! We go surfing to get away from noise or our wives nagging us and having a phone in the water would be really irritating. If we had to hear a ringtone in the early dawn lineup, there'd be a lot more violence in the ocean!

[DC147]

A communication device could be very discreet. Wouldn't it be handy to be able to receive sms messages in the water? Or weather information?

[saffasurfer7]

I have to agree with sandshark on this one. One of the great appeals of surfing is getting away from EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Having anything but the bare essentials while in the water would be defeating the object slightly.

I find great pleasure in locking my belongings in my car, including my phone and heading off to the ocean for some tranquility. As much as I love my music and have it with me anywhere else on land it's just not right to have anything but the sounds of the ocean while you're surfing. It's music to my ears...

:D

[babyboarder89]

totally agree about the no pho0ne thing but what about a little walkie talkie, so say, youre surfing and err, with like a litle brother oir sister r something or teaching someone and you want to go out and get some waves while they stay in the shallows so you could check theyre ok every now and again? i dunno, but no no mobiles, imagine all the rubbish ringtones while you try to surf! itd be horrendous!

[DC147]

From all the different forums we posted we could conclude that most surfers want some kind of communication device to talk to each other on the water.
There is also a need for some kind of pager/alarm, possibly connected to you cell phone so you can see when you get a call.
Some people want to listen to music, want to have pockets or want a camera in their suit.
I think it is remarkable there was little interest in a system which warns you for sudden weather changes.

[jonny]

I think it is remarkable there was little interest in a system which warns you for sudden weather changes.

what benefit would that be to a surfer though?

A bit of rain never hurt anyone and when surfing you can just get out if the wind changes direction or you don't like the waves. It's not like snowboarding or sailing (or even windsurfing) where there is a danger of becoming cut off or lost.


Jonny

[d3ad1y]

Just an idea, but what about a digital camera which is attatched to the inside of the suit on your shoulder, so while you are paddling back out after a wave, you just have to press a little button on your wrist or sumthing... and it begins to record.
Think of this..... if its on your shoulder, it is pointed directly infront of you while paddling and you dont have to use any extra effort. While you paddle out, just say a mate pulls in a real beauty and your there to watch everything unfold, and the camera records it without you fumbling around or anything. Wave comes towards you, you duckdive and when you come up, press the little button on your wrist and it stops.

Now if you have a pretty large memory card, you can have alot of movies of your mates surfing (and thats just from one day... when you get home you empty the card onto your computer and start fresh the next day).

You have an awsome set of short clips, and if you get your mates to have one aswell, you can analyse each others surfing techniques and style, and see what you can do to improve your surfing performance while at home in front of your cpu.......

Just a little idea

[azuresurf]

I like the idea of a digital/video camera, although you'd need some sort of interface to move things to another device. If the data were taken and stored in some user-specified and web-accessible area you could get at later, lthat would be cool.

I like the alert idea in case of danger. The balloon is a nice idea, unfortunately some sort of SMS alert to a lifeguard wouldn't work well. Now, if the lifeguard was equipped with GPS, and the SMS sent off contained the location (assuming the lifeguard is trained to read as such), you'd have a great system and you'd be able to initiate a direct response. This is a bit of a pie in the sky idea I think though.

Music is always good, but the bottom line here is whatever the technology is, it's got to be minute in size and annoyance.

[deathfrog]

what about something useful, not just like music or something, but like what if you had something that would say stuff like your average speed, fastest speed, ride time, wave height, and other little random things like that could be fun.

[Brent]

What about something practical. Like a decent pocket mechanism in your wetsuit top to store your car-key in securely. It's like all the legrope ones are rooted and were designed by marketing muppets...not surfers. The size of a modern car key is too big and when you do use them...it's like you've go a knife stuffed sideways in the pocket. Perhaps a small draining outer pocket on wetsuits to store things like a disposable waterproof camera (oh god someone please design one soon...)

Perhaps something more mundane...like shorter boardshorts. I miss the ones from when I was a kid in the 80's that were about 1/3 up your thigh and a slimmer fit. They were so much more practical for surfing, never flapped about & created drag and we never got boardie rashes.

Fashion triumphs over practicality at the moment...

[deathfrog]

you can go ahead and wear those ill stick with my normal ones.

but hey, if you want to avoid boardie rashes and stuff use the longer competition suits, called jammers. They should suit your needs.