‘It’s like an e-bike for surfers’
After building e-bikes, electric skateboards and e-foils galore, a Taranaki grandfather has come up with another motorised creation – for the waves.
Michael Parker has built an electric surfboard from scratch, and has been trialling it this summer after discovering his love for the water sport in his early 50s.
He began work on the twospeed motorised board after quickly realising how difficult surfing was.
‘‘I was about to give up, because paddling’s just really tough,’’ the 58-year-old said. ‘‘But this, it’s going really good. It just assists your body, and it’s solved all the problems.’’
The New Plymouth Boys’ High School technology teacher built the 300-watt engine from scratch, as well as the board from carbon fibre.
It is controlled by two small buttons. One is half speed and used for getting out past the break, and the other is full speed, to give a five-second boost to catch waves.
And apart from a ‘‘bit of a whining noise’’ when the engine is kicked into gear, it appears to be just a standard long board.
‘‘I just look like some old guy on a surfboard,’’ Parker said. ‘‘It’s like an e-bike for surfers.’’
The grandfather, who is originally from Whitianga but moved to Taranaki in recent years, first gave surfing a go at the age of 53. ‘‘I’ve always really wanted to, but it looked too hard.’’
And he was right.
‘‘I sucked at surfing – it would be so frustrating,’’ Parker said. ‘‘Quite often I’d get out the back and be tired and not able to catch the waves.
‘‘I thought, ‘There must be an easier way to do this?’’’
Parker, who used to build boats and calls himself a machinist, had already built an e-bike for an easy commute to and from work.
But he had leftover batteries, so went on to build an e-foil, which is for riding water without waves, as well as multiple electric skateboards.
Then, he combined his knowledge with leftover materials and created the electric surfboard, spending about $1200.
‘‘This is a prototype of being able to paddle easier.’’
Parker has now gone from catching ‘‘one or two’’ waves in a morning paddle, to spending three hours – the board’s battery life – out in the surf catching almost everything he tries for. And his board is reliable.
‘‘I thought I’d blow it up.’’ Parker said he has seen electric surfboards in the past, but they have bulky extras added on.
‘‘My one looks like a real surfboard.’’
But he didn’t perfect its appearance overnight – he spent about three-and-a-half years
designing and building the board.
‘‘It took a while as I was determined to keep the weight and look of it as close to a normal surfboard as I could.’’
And although he built this and all his other creations
‘‘for fun’’ and convenience, he’s now considering turning it into a business.
‘‘A lot of people struggle surfing,’’
Parker said. ‘‘I would be keen to team up with a surfboard builder to take the idea further.’’
The electric surfboard is something that Taranaki surfing stalwart Daisy Day thought could catch on.
‘‘Heck yeah,’’ Day said. ‘‘It would be so good for getting out the back.
‘‘I think it’s great. I want to try it.’’
Day said she ‘‘had a go’’ on an electric surfboard of sorts a few years back.
‘‘It was heavy to get out into the surf,’’ she said. ‘‘It got you onto the waves great – but it wouldn’t stop.
‘‘You couldn’t turn it.’’
She thought the idea could work with the right development – particularly among the ‘‘mature surfers’’ in the region.
‘‘It’s a bit like an electric bike,’’ Day said. ‘‘Surfing’s just evolving all the time.’’