The Tag Line: Carveboard is THE original board with adjustable air pneumatic tires to control speed & grip. It carves harder than any board on the street. When the surf snow sucks…

Secondly, this board is designed for riding hills or bombing down moderately sized slopes … not flitting around flat streets and sidewalks, or a mode of transport from class to class on campus. Designed to replicate the motion and movement of surfing through a long rolling wave or a powdery snowboard session down your favorite mountain, the Carveboard uses its massive dual axles and over-sized tires to bring surf and snowboard to life on pavement. You will need anywhere from a slight incline to a moderate hill to get the full effect! After all, as in real life, when the waves are head high or the trails are blues or better (not the bunny hills!), that’s when the FUN begins.

This is a lean, mean carving machine! The similarity between the carving on the Carveboard and carving on a surf board is such that you will feel ocean spray in your face. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, BUT you can ride this board in a steady gentle manner, flowing into turns and still having the feel of surf style progress or take it to the limit and find yourself a nice stretch of tarmac and you can go rail to rail as long as your legs will stand it!

Let’s put it this way: it’s not a longboard skateboard designed for a leisurely cruise down the street, nor is it a performance bombing machine designed to scream you down the steepest of paved streets in San Francisco.  No. This is a machine built entirely for (wait for it) … CARVING. It simulates the graceful and powerful carves you would do while surfing or snowboarding … period.

WHAT & WHY: So why buy this massive, one-purpose board in the first place? When the waves are small, when your surfing needs a boost of grace and style, or when the snow is nowhere to be found … the Carveboard will fill your need! Even in the deepest of carves and the tightest of turns, the Carveboard replicates carving on land like no other board out there.

It will be surprising for new riders to see how hard you can really push the board and not have it spin out. Imagine large rail to rail carves – tight turns, and fast rail switches. Going from rail to rail on the virtually flat you can tune up your pumping techniques and in those crazy annoying high pressure spots when the surf is flat, you can keep your muscles toned and ready to go when the swell returns by regularly using the Carveboard.

Additionally, the wheels allowed me to adjust the air pressure depending on the hills I was riding or how fast I wanted to go —  higher tire pressure results in a faster ride, while lower tire pressure provides more traction for intense carving, and serves to regulate the speed on steeper grades.

The VERDICT: IF you have a surfer in your life, and you want them to feel that same stoke when the waves are good even when the oceans are flat, then the Carveboard will get them as close to the same feeling of carving on their surfboard on flat and waveless days.

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Emily has been patrolling Malibu’s Zuma Beach, with her inventor claiming that she can swim twelve times as fast as human lifeguards.
Emily doesn’t look like your ‘traditional’ robot. Instead she is a four-foot-long remote-controlled robotic buoy. Emily is set to cost around $3,500, and also makes use of a sonar system which builds 3D maps of surrounding water currents and is able to identify noises associated with swimmers in trouble.

47-year-old inventor Tony Mulligan claims that his latest creation can power through Malibu’s heavy white-water breaking surf at over 24 miles an hour. Quite an achievement, as any would-be surfer that’s tried paddling out in heavy waves will know.

Emily was later born out of an original project back in late 2009 to build a small remote-controlled boat to monitor marine life for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mulligan’s new startup is an Arizona-based company called Hydronalix, producing ‘new technology concepts for maritime robotics.’

However, those pesky old-fashioned ‘human’ models of lifeguard are not taking this robot threat lying down. ”This is a classic example of an inventor’s idea of how to solve a problem that doesn’t necessarily coincide with reality,” according to the president of the US Lifesaving Association B. Chris Brewster, who also points out that Emily would be of no help to an unconscious swimmer or surfer.

The Company: Based out of Haleiwa, after moving out of a makeshift production line at a house on Sunset beach, Xcel was founded in 1982. Looking to provide wetsuits and water wear, Xcel became widely known as it expanded into sun protection gear, commonly known as rash guards. Xcel services the surf, paddle, dive, wake and sun protection industries … and while it has branched out onto watersports wear as a whole, Xcel’s dedication to the product has not retreated on quality. The market is saturated by many surf and rash guard manufacturers; while the competition has grown to include many cheap unknown and known brands, Xcel rash guards continue to be a great value for the price.

The Product: Excel rash guards provide an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of 50+ — for comparison, a new t-shirt provides approximately UPF 5. The UV protection is afforded by the weave of the rash guard. Excel rash guards are made of thick Lycra with flat locked seams. You can easily feel the difference in thickness by rubbing the various branded rash guards between your fingers and then trying the same with the Xcel rash guard. Xcel provides the Lycra with added thickness that adds a more supple feel next to your skin. The flat locked seams provide longevity as you change into your rash guard each surf session.

As a surfer, let me tell you that nothing is more annoying than your rash guard stitching unraveling around your hand while executing a quick pop-up to beat out five other surfers for the wave of the day. The cut and shape of the xcel rash guard provides superior range of motion for surfing, which I am forever grateful.

Rash guards sizes are the same as shirt sizes, however, they are made to fit snug. When buying a rash guard as a gift the same shirt size should fit comfortably snug. Sometimes a surfer prefers one size larger for a looser fit. Thank goodness for gift receipts!

The Verdict: The surfer in your life probably already has a rash guard but believe me, they could always use another one, especially if it bears the quality and longevity of an Xcel rash guard. Remember that donning a dry rash guard is always preferable to a cold, sticky, wet one! A friend even made a special request for an Xcel rash guard for her birthday last year! And watching her smile as she paddled out wrapped inside that new Xcel rash guard, I knew that it was a happy birthday for her!

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[originally posted as ‘12 Days of Xmas’ #6: Xcel Lycra Rash Guard (for Wahines like me!)]

Your traditional gym workouts will take care of your strength and aerobic requirements, and your yoga class will be more than adequate for flexibility. However, for surf-specific coordination, agility, balance and proprioception, you will need a surf-specific workout.

What is Sport-Specific Training?

In the past decade, sport scientists have begun to reevaluate the way we get fit for a specific sport. Past sport training programs usually involved isolation exercises, which strengthened the muscles used for the sport. However, according to movement science research, traditional strength training does little to enhance sport-specific skill. As such, trainers are now using the dynamic pattern theory of motor learning, which states that the brain is more efficient at memorizing movement patterns than it is at muscular isolation. For example, consider the traditional leg extension machine. Its movements are in no way similar to those used in surfing. Now, imagine a squat, performed in a surfer’s stance on a Bosu or wobble board. The exercise now resembles the movements of surfing, and is therefore a better way to enhance surf-specific skills.

Surf Balance

Let’s start with balance training. Surfing requires three different types of balance:

• Dynamic Balance is balance in motion. This is in sharp contrast to the postures you perform in yoga class.
• Anticipatory Balance is related to agility. It means that you can anticipate the next pattern of the waves, and prepare accordingly.
• Transitional Balance is required for movement fluidity.

When choosing exercises for a surf-fitness program, it’s important to select workouts that enhance all three types of balance. Fortunately, with the excellent variety of balance-training tools on the market, it’s possible to cover all three aspects in one exercise. For example, the Stability Ball Toss and Catch is a superb exercise for developing core strength, agility and balance.

You will need a partner for this exercise:
Partners sit facing each other on the ball, about one foot away. One person sits upright. The other holds the ball from the “crunch” position. · The person holding the ball tosses it to her partner. This brings her to the upright position. · As the partner catches the ball, she goes into the crunch position. Only do as many repetitions as you can perform using good form. Stop if either partner feels the exercise in their neck or lower back.

Bosu for Surfers:
The Bosu is another fantastic piece of surf-fitness training equipment. There are two sides to a Bosu; the dome side and the platform side. The dome side exercises are similar to those performed on a stability ball, while the platform side is similar to a balance or wobble board. As such, the Bosu is an excellent investment for anyone who does not have the funds and/or the room for a stability ball and a balance board. The Bosu is an excellent tool for developing proprioception, which is your body’s awareness of its position, posture and alignment in space. Since water environments are not similar to the typical concrete on which we walk, proprioception is extremely important for surfers.

Proprioceptive skills also enhance dynamic, anticipatory and transitional balance skills.

Try this Bosu Proprioception Exercise: Start by simply standing on the Bosu. Now close your eyes. You will probably feel an exaggeration of the body’s mechanisms for adjusting to balance challenges. Open your eyes and raise one arm. Follow it with your eyes. Keep following your hand as you bring it down, to the left and right, and back behind you. Repeat this using your opposite arm. When you become comfortable with the Bosu, turn it over and use it as a wobble board. Stand on the board and shift your weight forwards and backwards, and then side to side. Try a few squats. Can you keep the board centered? Surf-Agility Plyometric exercises on the Bosu are great for developing surf-specific strength, balance coordination and agility.

Check out the Bosu Jump, Toss and Squat v Stand on top of the Bosu. Feet are parallel, and open to the width of your average surf stance. v Inhale and jump. v As you exhale, land in this sequence: Toes first, then the ball of the foot, then the heels, then squat. If you body is in correct alignment, there will be minimal wobbling of the feet upon landing. However, don’t expect to be paralyzed! Remember, athletic balance is dynamic. There may be some small degree of motion occurring. You can add agility training to this exercise by tossing a medicine ball in the air as you jump up, and catching it when you land in the squat. Surf’s up! Are you ready? Get on board with a surf fitness plan!

The renaissance of SUP can probably be tracked to a long summer flat spell in 2000, when serious watermen like Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama on Maui and Brian Keaulana, Mel Pu’u and Bruce De Soto at Makaha, seized on the idea of paddling their tandem boards as fitness workouts. As the years went on they found themselves entering events such as the Moloka’i to O’ahu Paddleboard Race and Mākaha’s Big Board Surfing Classic. Now you can find Stand Up Paddle Surfers in many of the Outrigger and Paddleboard races as participants within their own division.

One difference between the modern idea of surfing and SUP is that the latter does not necessarily need a wave. In SUP, one can paddle on the open ocean, in harbors, on lakes, rivers or any large body of water. One of the advantages of Stand Up Paddle Surfing is the angle of visibility. Because of the standing height over the water one can see both deeper into the water and further across the surface of the water, allowing better visualization of features others lower above the water may not be able to see, whether it is the marine life in the harbors, lakes and coves or the incoming swells of the ocean marching on the horizon.

That’s right, only 8 out of 500 sunscreen products were deemed safe for this society of sun worshipers … while 492 sunscreen products merely provide a false sense of security of how much protection people are actually getting as they stay out in the sun a lot longer!

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the first-ever, in-depth analysis of the safety and effectiveness of more than 700 name-brand sunscreens. The new database (located here) lists products that offer the best combination of safety and effectiveness: they are formulated with the safest chemicals, are most effective at protecting against sunburn, and help prevent long-term damage caused by the sun’s UVA rays, which are linked to skin aging, wrinkling and, potentially, cancer. EWG’s sunscreen database is dynamic, which means that the sunscreen ranking numbers may change based on evolving science, new information on UVA, UVB radiation and sunscreen ingredients, market conditions, or other factors.

[ QUICK VIEW: The list of sunscreen by the EWG sorted by BEST OVERALL effectiveness and health score HERE. ]

The EWG analysis found that 84 percent of sunscreen products with an SPF rating of 15 or higher offered inadequate protection from the sun’s harmful rays, or contain ingredients with safety concerns. Some popular sunscreen chemicals break down when exposed to sunlight and must be formulated with stabilizing chemicals, while others penetrate the skin and present significant health concerns.

The EWG’s list of top-rated sunscreens all contain the minerals zinc or titanium. They are the right choice for people who are looking for the best UVA protection without any sunscreen chemical considered to be a potential hormone disruptor. None of the products contain oxybenzone or vitamin A and none are sprayed or powdered.

Our Surfer’s Sunscreen Tips:

• Buy a broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
• Apply sunscreen to exposed skin on a daily basis, even when it’s a cloudy day or when you plan to stay mostly indoors.
• Avoid the sun during the peak hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. When outside, wear a hat, sunglasses and sun-protective clothing.
• Apply sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before going outside, so the product can adhere and absorb into your skin. And use plenty — at least one ounce, about a shot-glass full.
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours, or after swimming, drying off or sweating a lot.

A superior example would be Zinka Sunscreen, utilizing a Broad Spectrum UVA/UVB protector that performs in ‘extreme’ conditions. The formula contains high amounts of Zinc Oxide, an ingredient alone that represents one of the most powerful blockers of UV rays known to date. Zinc Oxide is all natural and proven highly effective to reflect the suns damaging rays. Add the bonus that it is also water resistant and oil-free and it’s just what the sun-loving Goddesses ordered! Oh, Zinka Sunscreen is also loaded with aloe vera & Vitamins A and E, which are great for your skin!

I asked myself what I wanted in a sun protection product and this one seems to have it all! I have tried many other types of sun protection and high quality brands in the past, and the Zinka (Colored or Clear) Waterproof Sunblock has the whole package … great protection, a reasonable price, and a nice size tube. I found it useful that it is endorsed by dermatologists as well … making it, what I believe, as one of the most popular and effective sun protection world wide … and because of it’s natural ingredients, it is suitable and safe for sensitive skin

The coolest, and most visible, Zinka product by far is their all-too-reminiscent-of-the-80s nosecoat. The great thing about Zinka Colored Nosecoat is that it works as a sun BLOCK not a sunscreen, the colour stays on your skin ensuring maximum protection by reflecting sunlight so the rays are not absorbed by the skin. The very waterproof colored Zinka Nosecoats are not micronized, so they go on opaque.

All in all, Zinka seems to be the best sunblock on the maket, it is available in lots of different colours which makes it fun for both children and adults alike.

Bomber Floating Eye Wear

There is a fair number of sunglasses available from Bomber’s website (here) starting at $16.95, but our sunglass of choice for WATER TESTS was the Bomber Stink Bomb model (at the higher price end of $34.95). As soon as we got our hands on the Bomber “Stink Bomb” model (courtesy of Aloha Boardshop) , a matte black frame pair of sunglasses sporting polarized smoke tinted lenses, we immediately knew that these were not your ordinary pair of glasses. Stink Bombs greet you with a daring bold look and oversized frame, designed to keep your eyes protected as much as possible from the sun’s rays.

We’re not easily impressed with superficial good looks or mere aesthetics when it comes to surf wear, but the very flexible frame does fit most face sizes … allowing for comfortable all day use. The  light, wrap around design provides good wind protection. Additionally, the sunglasses claim to block out 100% of harmful UVA and UVB rays while providing the wearer with a clear view via polarized lenses – although it is fair to note that these features have become a standard for most higher end sportswear sunglasses.

THE FRAMEWORK TEST: What immediately stands out about Bomber Floating glasses is the inclusion of patented foam rubber linings along the arms and spectacle corners (foam shown in light cream and dark brown on our test model). Unlike other “buoyant” glasses – which use hollow frames or inserts for float-ability - the foam linings on the Bombers also double as dampening bumpers, useful for reducing friction contact for the wearer … less chafing and skin irritation!

The Stink Bomb frames are very flexible, allowing for an unbelievable range of movement when taking the glasses off, or putting them on. The snug but comfy fit prevents the glasses from blowing off while surfing (or windsurfing) … while the same flexibility also allows for a better fit for the wearer, which extends the wearability of the glasses, a definite plus when going from land to water, and back to land again!

BETTER HALLWAY VISION? The polarized lenses on the Stink Bombs are quite effective in reducing glare and blinding light sources, allowing for better vision whether you are walking down the street or surfing the pounding waves of the North Shore. Much like other polarized sunglasses, there is always a “give and take” when using them – the lenses provides a clear image BUT also reduces some of the wearer’s ability to read subtleties on the water surface, so reading waves from a distance or from differing angles may take some getting used to.

WATER TESTS: The bottom line is that Stink Bombs do float in water, thanks to the foam inserts! During our first paddle out, we gingerly tossed the glasses into the water just to see how well the buoyancy claims held up … and in a matter of seconds the glasses floated up to the surface without any problems. Admittedly, we did this in shallow enough waters so that we could retrieve them just in case they didn’t float … but our worries turned out to be (thankfully) unfounded!

With much confidence in the floatation ability of the Stink Bombs, we paddled out into the head high surf for surf testing.

The wrap around design of the glasses coupled with the snug fit held up well during moderate duck diving on the shortboard, while the longboard tests found that the glasses stayed put while busting through waves, even with the most frothy of white wash. The lenses did not suffer from fogging up like most sunglasses we have typically worn out to surf, and with the aid of some diving lens solution the water beaded off the lenses quite nicely.

We opted to test the glasses without the use of brightly colored tethering devices like croakies, in order to get the full effect of wearing Stink Bombs naturally … and found that the stylish colors of the sunglasses made it difficult to find in the open ocean. Once the glasses drop in moving water, just barely below the surface of the ocean, the glasses were difficult to make out due to the dark color of the frames. Additionally, when we tested the glasses in moving surf, the force of the churning waters mixed with the white wash that directly follows the surf made the Stink Bombs difficult to retrieve immediately.

Out testers found that the glasses took an average of five seconds to float back up to the surface … which would normally be an acceptable time frame. While surfing however, once the glasses fell into the moving water, the constant churning of the water held the glasses down much longer than it took us to easily retrieve them. The glasses did float back to surface as the manufacturers claim, but the glasses were almost always twenty to thirty feet away from where our testers initially (and purposely) fell off their surfboards. And remember how difficult the glasses were to find in the open ocean due to the dark (and yet stylish) coloring? Our advice is to use some form of tethering string or device in order to save you the hassle of lengthy retrievals! Yes, the glasses do float back to the surface, but having to retrieve them from 20 to 30 feet away every so often can dampen your surf session … think of them as a leash for your glasses!

iJS SURF NOTE: During our subsequent test, we found that wearing sunglass leashes made for a more enjoyable surf session … and the foam inserts on the stems bounced back easily after having been underneath the croakies for several hours and a few long session!

THE VERDICT: Stink Bombs by Bomber are exactly what they claim to be … stylish, comfortable, and floaty! There is no doubt that they are a great deal (starting at price of 16.95) for nice looking glasses that provide UVA and UVB protection, polarized lenses, AND the additional bonus of floating in water.

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Summer is the most important time for sunglasses to be worn, and we have just stumbled on what may be the new item for the surfer inside all of us – Bomber floating eye wear! The staff at iJS got wind of these new eye wear and its unique approach to floating eye wear for water sports:built-in EVA ( Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) foam!

Designed and patented by jet ski racer, Tommy “The Bomber” Bonacci, the sunglasses utilizes the smooth, light, and dense properties of EVA foam inside the frame of the glasses.

Techie note: It is used as padding in a variety of sporting equipment such as handle grips, ski boots (snow, waterski, etc.), hockey gear, boxing and mixed martial arts equipment. EVA is also typically used as a shock absorber in sports shoes.

The thin foam that lines the sunglasses’ stem pieces are inset, meaning that overall width is virtually unchanged. The corner foam is also very low profile, never touching the face or blocking vision.

We managed to get our hands on a pair of Bomber eye wear, and have sent the staff off to the wild blue ocean to test them out for all you watermen … stay tuned!

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