Surfboards and Batteries

How Surfboards Influenced  Next-Generation Battery Manufacturing

I stared at the giant Styrofoam rectangle, trying to see the surfboard it would eventually become. It was 2013 and I wanted something that wasn’t on the market. A stand-up paddle board that would ride waves like a performance surfboard.

There were plenty of those on the market. But they weren’t made for me. Paddle boards should float while the rider stands on them. That was the problem.

I’m a big guy, so the board had to displace at least 140 liters of water. That’s easy if you make a long, straight board. But those don’t turn well. And they tend to stab into the waves when you drop down the face.

That’s not ideal.

If you made a bell curve of riders’ ability vs their size, I sit well outside the main. To get what I wanted, I had to work with a shaper. And we made the Husky (yes, named for the infamous line of clothing at Sears department store).

The coolest part was making the board. It had to be the perfect blend of light weight and strength. If it weren’t light enough, it wouldn’t float. And if it didn’t have strength, it would break on the first wave.

It’s the same problem battery makers face today. And we both solved the problem in similar ways.

We cut the foam into the perfect shape. Its tail and nose tipped up, so that when the wave got steep, the board didn’t dive in. On a flat surface, the board would rock from front to back, due to those curves.

Then we covered it with fiberglass and carbon fiber. We cut the cloth and shaped it to provide strength. Then we coated it in epoxy resin. The last stage, was to make the fibers mold to the shape of the board.

That’s not as simple as it sounds. The board was all curves. The fiber had to wrap around it to provide continuous coverage. Without that, the board would have natural weak spots.

To do that, we used vacuum. After we saturated all the fiber with resin, we wrapped the board in a giant plastic bag. Then we connected a tube from the bag to a vacuum pump. The pump pulled the fibers tight to the board’s curves. It also pulled all the air out of the fiber.

In the end, the Husky was a fantastic board. It was fast, maneuverable, and fun. Today, it’s retired. It hangs in my garage. I have not ridden it in years. And I haven’t thought about its construction, all those many years ago.

That is, until I watched this video on structural batteries.

One of the vicious circles of battery life is that the heavier something is, the more energy it needs, and the larger the battery must be…which makes it heavier…which means it needs a larger battery…and so on.

That’s why manufacturers want to build batteries into the structures, rather than use bolt-on batteries. It can save weight and be more efficient. That’s ideal.

It turns out that the same process we used to wrap the surfboard is the key to these structural batteries. Except the fiber and the resin are critical components of the battery itself. Carbon fibers function as electrodes. Special solid-polymer electrolytes blend with epoxy to make the conductive pathway for the battery’s flow.

They use the vacuum molding technique to eliminate bubbles and form the shapes of the structural members. Just like we molded the fiberglass around the foam of the surfboard.

The result (or so the researchers hope) will be much lighter cars and aircraft. And who knows, maybe some old gray surfboard shaper consulted on the project!

For the Good,

The Mangrove Investor Team

Numbers You Need to Know

12th Century

The earliest evidence of surfing history can be traced back to 12th century Polynesia. Cave paintings have been found which clearly illustrate ancient versions of surfing. (Collections of Waikiki)

1946

In 1946 Santa Monica lifeguard and surfboard shaper Pete Peterson (the father of lifeguarding’s Peterson tube) made the first hollow moulded plastic surfboard, with a redwood stringer and sealed with fibreglass tape. (Surf Simple)

93 Feet

German big wave surfer Sebastian Steudtner has surfed the possibly biggest wave ever measured at 28.57 meters (93.73ft) in Nazaré, Portugal. (Surfer Magazine)

What’s New in Sustainable Investing

The Role Of Sustainable Investing In Modern Financial Portfolios

We’ve all heard the buzzwords and seen the headlines: Sustainable investing is on the rise. But what does it really mean for your investment portfolio? (Forbes))

Public Policy Drives Sustainable Investing Markets in 2025

The election of US President Donald Trump in January 2025 changed the political landscape for renewable energy dramatically. Around 300 clean energy projects in the US are now under review as the new administration prioritizes fossil fuels, while grants worth billions have been canceled. (Morningstar)

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