How surfboards connect us to nature

Here's how the surfboard changed our relationship to water, according to fuseproject founder Yves Béhar.

Riding a wave is like
suddenly gaining speed

and gliding at the same time.

Like walking on water, like flying.

I think it's really about being one
with a natural phenomenon.

[Small thing. Big idea.]

The surfboard requires
a lot of ergonomic thinking.

How do I stand on it?
How do I not slip off?

But at the same time,

it really has to work
in that fluid environment.

It's really considered
for the rider in some areas

and for water and physics in others.

A surfboard is made out of a core element

which tends to be foam,
which makes the board float,

and the skin of the board
is some kind of resin,

epoxy, sometimes fiberglass.

There often is also a stringer,

a wood piece down the middle,

which makes it stronger.

The rocker is the curvature
of the board in the front.

That is important because that determines

what kind of wave
you will be able to take,

how steep the wave is.

The tail affects performance.

Different tails will make
the board react differently,

so it's a lot about personal preference.

Our understanding of surfing

comes from when the Tahitians in 1200 AD
brought it to Hawaii.

So when James Cook arrived around 1780,

he was mesmerized
by hundreds of people in the water,

children, women, men, surfing naked.

Calvinist missionaries arrive

and they're scandalized by it.

It becomes an illegal activity.

It becomes counterculture.

The father of modern surfing
is a Hawaiian named Duke Kahanamoku.

He is an extraordinary swimmer,

wins gold at the Olympics in 1912.

Goes around the world
to show his swimming

but brings surfboards
and demonstrates surfing.

Imagine, people had never
seen surfing before.

Suddenly, some person from a faraway place

is standing on water, riding on water.

He comes back to Hawaii,

and they start to make more boards.

Pre-Second World War,

you're still looking
at big, heavy wood boards.

Post-Second World War,

new materials and new technologies
become available,

and those make the board
lighter, more accessible, cheaper,

but it continues to be a custom object,

something that is made
specifically for a person

or for a certain spot.

It's a very symbiotic relationship

between surfer and shaper.

There's so many different criteria

that affect the physics
of how that surfboard

is moving in water.

A longboard is typically
used on smaller waves.

The riding has a lot of style.

You can walk the board,

put your toes over it, do a hang ten.

A shortboard will be faster.

They're harder to ride,
they sink under the body.

Board design comes at the intersection
between those physical factors,

and really, how I want to put
myself in the water.

It's an expression
as much as it is a physical activity.

The draw may be
because water is so elusive.

You can't fight it, you can't change it.

The best I can do
is recognize what it does.

The surf may be big and getting bigger

and surging while you're in the water.

The elements are changing.

The wind is coming up.

You have to be in symbiosis
with the environment.

You need to look and feel for everything

that's happening around you.

And yet, it's so short.

Five, eight, 15 seconds.

It's fleeting,
but you have to go back to it.