A Legal Kind of Waterboarding

After Black Monday and the demise of Clark Foam, the surfboard industry looked to be in shambles with the main source of foam blanks gone in a flash. Immediately following the shock and awe, all kinds of new technologies popped up to fill the void. Companies like Salomon and their S-Core boards, Aviso and the carbon fiber boards, Firewire, Placebo, Chinese pop-outs at Costco, EPS foam, Surftech, etc. etc. etc. The dust has settled and now there's another 'board of the future' to hit the market. This time from snowboard manufacturing legends Lib Tech (think Travis Rice and the limits he's pushed recently). Now before you sneer at another snowboard company trying to make waves in the surf industry (see Salomon above), Lib Tech is going a different direction. Instead of just making a more durable board than todays' PU foam and resin, they've got a durable honeycomb design which also helps speed up the production process- Lib Tech claims they can make a board in the morning and you can surf on it after lunch. No more waiting a few weeks for the resin to cure. The decks are also concave (which makes sense since your chest and feet just dent the deck of a regular board) and in theory is easier to turn. And they've also got a unique rubber rail construction to help dampen vibrations. Speaking of the rails- they even have a slight indentation along the rails which helps you grab them during airs, cutbacks, etc. And if that's not enough, they call them 'Waterboards' since surfboards seem so 20th century. And did I tell you their aim is to make them environmentally friendly? The boards should hit stores by summer and prices will be close to $700- which isn't bad considering it will last you 10 years instead of 1 year (no offense Al- I love my Whip regardless of how long it lasts). Who knows if they're a gimmick until they run the gamut this summer season but I for one want to try it out at least for the novelty of it. Gotta start mowing some lawns to afford one of these things!