Surfboards are joining the wave of products being produced by hi-tech 3D printers.
Bondi-based Disrupt Surfing is developing prototypes of a 3D-printed surfboard, hoping eventually to enable surfers to design and maybe personally make their own totally-customised board.
"People are used to going into shops and buying surfboards that are mass produced," says Disrupt chief executive Gary Elphick.
"Those boards may be made for someone else's skill level and taste.
"We think you need to be able to customise the boards to a person's exact skill and personal preference in design."
3D technology is already being used to make everything from jet engines, car parts, body parts, shoes, firearms and mining equipment.
The process of constructing a three-dimensional object involves the production of minute successive layers of material under computer control.
A 3D printer then acts as a type of industrial robot that heats the material and distributes it through nozzles like a cake icer.
Disrupt hopes it can have a 3D-printed surfboard ready to hit the beach within two years.
Traditionally, acquiring a custom-made board would require a customer to visit a surfboard shaper and explain their level of ability and aims.
The shaper would draw something up and make the board out of a foam block and finish it with fibreglass, but the end product may not be exactly what the client wants.
More recently, surfers have been able to design their boards on computers and then send the file to a cutting centre where a machine cuts back a foam block to the shape desired by the customer.
Mr Elphick says 3D printing can take the process further by incorporating even lighter, more economically-friendly materials instead of the traditional foam and chemicals.
It is even hoped that the board can be fully recycled if it breaks.
The problem at the moment, says Mr Elphick, is to find a material that is light enough, has structural integrity, is waterproof, is sustainable and can be used in a 3D printer.
Disrupt recently teamed up with a bespoke 3D-printing solutions firm in China in the hope it can find the right material for 3D boards.
"From a prototype perspective, I don't think we're too far off: six to 12 months," Mr Elphick said.
"For a commercially available thing, we're probably looking at 18 months to 24 months."
Various materials have been tried, including a hybrid cork-like material printed in a honeycomb pattern, and nylon.
At the moment, a 3D-printed board it is costly to make, but it is expected to be quite cheap once it is commercialised.
"If we can make the machine and the materials work, there's no reason why we can't have people all over the world with the right machinery and right materials and then have people take their own files to it and have something printed right there and then," Mr Elphick said.
"It's a lofty goal, but we're pretty excited by it."
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