Future of Surfing: Board Sensors Record Everything

Ever wondered how you can catch a perfect wave? Well, now you can track it down. Internationally known Spanish surf company Pukas teamed up with Spain’s research giant Tecnalia to create SurfSens, a board that records everything that happens to it while surfing. 

SurfSens uses a wide array of sensors; from accelerometers, strain gauges, compass, to GPS, to make scientific measurements and test every movement of a surfer. How do they take all this amazing data and translate it into something they can use? They use the Robot Operating System (ROS) or open source robotics to visualize and process their data. When a surfer challenges the waves, an embedded computer (an IGEPv2) records the data from the board’s sensors to a flash memory stick. When the surfer returns, the data is transferred to a PC via WiFi connection.

Future of Surfing: Board Sensors Record Everything 

Corporación Tecnalia is a technology corporation started in 2001 with is main objective being the contribution to the development of the economic and social factors using innovation in technologies, and research in an international context.