Inside or outside design.

It's just how my brain works, inspiration comes at times you least expect it and so when I was at the local Aquarium I thought about how a fish has a soft exterior built around a skeleton and I thought it could add another riding dimension by putting a component inside a mat. As the mat inflates the sides are drawn in between 5% to 20% of the original length/ width and a flexible frame inside would be held by the forces of inflation. Of course the thicker the mat inflates the greater the reduction in width so each mat design would have its own frame shape and size. Fr'instance, a flat, empty mat 111cms X 61cm loses 5% of its length and 10% of its width at a 90 degree inflation it's also 3.75 in thick. And at full inflation the mat is now 5 inches thick, loses no more length, but loses 20% of its original width.

Mini surf mat

A friend said he wanted to try a small surf mat so I whipped up a Tube Mat for him, its 15 in wide X 22 in long. The Tube mat design is so much easier to build than the traditional two piece, deck and hull technique. There is just one piece of material that forms the hull and the extra wide sides fold over and join on top to create the deck with just one straight weld or glue line. Using the Tube Mat concept eliminates the flaps around the perimeter of the mat and when you seal the ends you can choose to add a flap or not. If you do the two piece technique both sides have to align perfectly and when joined need to be connected without any stretch or inaccuracies. Makes me value the skills of the mat guys who still build them by hand ! Instead of a series of longitudinal I-beams Ive connected the deck and hull with vertical posts only an inch wide, the posts reduce the amount of material used inside the mat and so reduces the weight as well. It also creates a flatter mat when inflated because there are no valleys between the pontoons. Ive been able to take advantage of the 'post design' by designing a completely contoured shape where the front and back edge of the mat is tapered into a sliver and the rails are a different thickness to the middle of the mat. That's real customisation, a lot of work to initially figure out how to do it, but it would be easier next time round. I was going to give the Mini Mat a test ride but the surf was crap yesterday so I posted it off. Hopefully I'll hear how it goes.

Swallow Tail Surf Mat.

Learning a lot from looking outside the rectangle... Built in touch of nose rocker. I even added a clear window to look for innovation from within the mat. Construction is basically using 'seam-seal' tape that's used to build yacht sails and rolling the join flat. Half-deflated and the rails are built by overlapping the top and bottom rather than flat welding that leaves a perimeter flap. I always forget to take pics when a mats finished and this ones being ridden daily. Ive learnt that new techniques bring new performance and there's a lot more to discover about speed and controlled manouver ability.

The simplicity of mat making.

Mats can be very technical to build, and the wilder the design the more accurate the planning, measurements and construction techniques need to be. So in the construction of a mat there's always a top piece and the underside piece of material, but what's with all those I beams ? On paper it all looks simple enough but when you get down to getting all the parts exactly positioned, it can become a very intricate 3-D creation. So how simple can a mat be ? Sure you could just get a garbage bag and give it a go, but how simply could you build a reasonable mat with the fewest parts... If you accept the essential of a hull piece, (and maybe it's not actually essential) then well start there. This ones ribbed for your enjoyment. A flat piece with the pontoons evident for illustration purposes. Add a Second piece, maybe as the deck. And weld / glue the two together to form 6 pontoons. Now add a third piece over the top creating another level of pontoons. So the 3rd piece becomes the deck and the 2nd piece is in the middle. And inflate. Now the 2nd piece in the middle creates a series of triangular pontoons, which as a stand alone concept opens up questions about how the shape of the pontoons concentrates the vertical energy transfer between the wave / mat / surfer and back again. There's only 3 pieces to connect and its a simpler build and a more stable platform with angled beams. I'd make one today but it will have to wait until I come back from holidays in the UK.

New Concept Surfmat -Asymmetrical.

I love asymmetrical surfboards and surfmats, they're not a generalised shape that works for left and right waves but specifically crafted for one direction of wave and sometimes even a specific wave break. So I'm doing an asym-mat with my usual variations... Pinched inside rail, reversible for lefts or rights, massive valve for instant deflation, blind sleeve with glassed batten, knee loop and instead of I-beams, a new technique of internal structure using fine nylon filaments called Tensairity. Apart from the new ideas the mats fairly standard. The Tensairity filaments are planned out in a cross hatch pattern so there's no grooves from the straight I beams or propensity for the mat to fold in any direction. The pattern connects the deck and hull from top to bottom, from side to side and creates a flatter surface under the mat with less drag and gives a greater overall rigidity to the mat without increasing the internal pressure or volume, with Tensairity its possible to ride a mat that holds its overall shape but skims on a sliver of air.