How far will wakeboard design go?

I got to thinking today, how far will the design of wakeboards and bindings go until they run out of new ideas for shapes? It seems like sooner or later board designs will start to repeat themselves as well as new ideas for the different features of bindings.

I personally feel that bindings don't have to much more room to grow as we now have many closed toe boots on the market along with various open toed all of which come in different shapes and flex.

As far as boards go, I see them slowing down as well with design. It seems as although shapes change every year they are still almost exactly the same as previous years. Take the Ibex for example, although it is a different board, looking at it it still reminds me of Park's previous boards.

I mainly started thinking about this question due to what equipment looked like when I started wakeboarding roughly 10 years ago. Any thoughts?

I think that shapes may start to repeat themselves for boards, but I think lighter and stronger materials will be the advancements made in the future.

i don't see why in the wakeboarding industry you have to have totally new designs so often that are that different from before... you don't see very different skateboards, and surfboards, and i'm pretty sure snowboards every single season (i don't snowboard but thas just a guess)

the shapes will repeat themselves, boot designs will continue; however the company will continue to search for the lilghtest and most durable materials for both the boards or bindings.

I think with slingshot, we will start seeing innovation taking a new path.

Even if the shapes can't be made better, I am sure the materials will get lighter/stronger. Also, there is always improvement to be made on the boots. Ideas for hinge positions and shock absorbers on the base plate are a few areas that will always be improved on.

I also think that Slingshot will force the industry to rethink how a wakeboard should work. Flex boards are here to stay and are way overdue in my opinion. My Recoil is more fun to ride than any board that I've ever been on.

I think boots are way behind.....in this sport with all the torn acls mcls etc... boots should have some sort of mechanism where the boot will rotate on the board to reduce those torque injuries....but not have the boot come off.(something like on skiis bindings but again not let the boot come off the board)


On the board side ...if the slingshots are so great because of their flex...but no bottom shaping....how good would a board be with a combination of both?

creativity never stops.
when we will end up with the same songs or books?
things may slow down, but sooner or later things will pick up again. new technology always comes. with computers you dont end up with the same thing-at least in mac's world. everything slows down eventually but things could always change...
thats just what i think.

It will always be evolving.

There are still new innovations in water skis or Golf Clubs and they have been around way longer than wakeboards.

Board companies are going to have to do something to take care of riders though. If boards keep getting more and more pop and wakes get bigger and bigger at some point someone is going to have to look out for the riders health.

Well, we still haven't seen a binding that you can pump up with air like some of the basketball shoes did back in the 90's. I could see a wake mfg company coming out with a gimmick like that.

something that i could see happening is kind of a step twords snowboarding, i think that having bindings and the base plates being seperate could be interesting. with diffrent heights or more or less cushioning or something like that. i also agree that materials will start to come out where boards could be as thin as slingshot boards but have no flex like a hyerlite or lf or cwb board. there are also many areas to improve on more responcive boots, ie burtons toe cap, and also bindings that fit like dc's snowboarding boots with the air to make it a completely personal fit. if you sit down and think about it for more than ten minutes there are countless new ideas that people could think of

actually there was a binding you can pump up with air, and it didn't catch on, back in 2003:

http://www.wakeworld.com/boots/getboot2.asp?ProductID=2013

I know creativity is never going to stop and gimmicks are always going to be present

I was just thinking back on the many different shapes and bindings that I have rode and still have and just was amazed at how different each of them is.

My thought also came from snowboarding, as almost any item in snowboarding is the same between every company. Snowboards have standard shapes aside from Lib Tech and some of their edges so in a way it comes down to what brand or graphics you like better.

So really what I was thinking is when will it be when wakeboards and bindings will be pretty standardized between all companies. Yes, there are several styles out there as far as laces, velcro, hinge tech, and overlays go, but are there any other options for bindings?

As far was wakeboard design goes, I think designs are going to slow down and stay pretty similar year to year. Even when new materials are used, the designs themselves will most likely stay similar to what they are to this day I think.

nick,
the diffrent kind of binding are endless theres the ones you stated, then there are ot and ct stiff soft and in the middle o that, tight, looser, and all of the materials on the inside of the bindings effect them as well

If I knew how far wake designs would go, I'd be a millionaire b/c I'd already know what to design so I'd be ahead of the game.

I bet you the wake mfg's have some pretty sweet ideas as far as innovation and new products that, until just recently, have been restricted by technology... they probably have some great concepts but are lacking the resources/materials to bring some of these ideas to market. as technology gets better and materials get cheaper i bet you'll see some pretty cool things that is like nothing ever done before. should be fun to see what these guys come up with.

There is a LOT of room for improvement. Especially with respect to weight issues.

On top of that, if they don't "upgrade" their design every year, who would buy the new gear?

there is not enough choices when it comes to binding width, some people like to have specific stance widths that are between the limited number of slots in the boards provided. I would like to see some innovations in that direction, providing a more customized feel to your board and binding set up.

I'am saying 17 stage rocker next

I'm saying bro prices not pro prices next.


All in good fun Moose!

I second (or third or whatever the number i am in) Slingshot leading the way for flex.

Like all styles, some things make a come back but better. I'll give some examples (some might be a stretch)

1. Multi Fin Skurfurs to single fin to multi-fin again
2. Closed toe (fulltilt made first) to open toe to closed toe. (this might be just an example of something that was relaeased but never cought on to till later, like Bad A$$ bindings with all the groovy graphics on the bindings... but still no company has quite duplicated that.
3. phasers to disrupt landings to flat bottom centers then back to disrupting features,center spines, though not phasers

i'mm sure others might be able to come up with more maybe... with a stretch

I second (or third or whatever the number i am in) Slingshot leading the way for flex.

Like all styles, some things make a come back but better. I'll give some examples (some might be a stretch)

1. Multi Fin Skurfurs to single fin to multi-fin again
2. Closed toe (fulltilt made first) to open toe to closed toe. (this might be just an example of something that was relaeased but never cought on to till later, like Bad A$$ bindings with all the groovy graphics on the bindings... but still no company has quite duplicated that.
3. phasers to disrupt landings to flat bottom centers then back to disrupting features,center spines, though not phasers

i'mm sure others might be able to come up with more maybe... with a stretch

i think someone should put a hydrofoil on a board so that it can raise out of the water like an air chair

kaleb, i believe its already been done it just didn't catch on due to some of the saftey issuese it posed. like you couldnt release out of the bindings on a really badd fall due to being cut up by the foil so blowing knees would be a bigger problem