Samsung is stamping their mark all over pro surfing. It’s a weird marriage, to be sure. But someone’s got to foot the bill for pro surfing’s ’round-the-world dalliances, don’t they? If you watch pro surfing, you can’t really complain about it… not that that stops anyone.
Samsung’s newest foray into surfing is almost surely going to get shit on, because for some reason, surfers hate technology. It’s a Samsung Galaxy Surfboard, and it looks as though it came straight out of the movie Tron. The board was created by Samsung and the Leo Burnett agency for Gabby Medina. Apparently, it took a year and a half to finish–way worse than the three months your local shaper took to carve out your last board.
The operation is pretty simple: shove a Samsung Galaxy in the side, and the screen on the deck lights up to display Twitter messages and wave information. Coaches can write messages to athletes with important information, like “catch the good waves,” and “do a turn.” Despite what everyone’s going to say about the thing, it’s perfect for pro surfing. Think about it: in nearly every other sport, it’s possible for coaches to talk to athletes. Surfing, though, involves a guy on a cliff frantically waving his arms one way or another, pointing out to sea, and looking exasperated. The surfer, meanwhile, sits there waving their arms and pointing at their wrist, then just paddles around and catches waves on their own, looking slightly confused about what the coach wants.
“Even during practice, surfers spend hours out at sea, while their coaches are on the shore,” said Marcelo Reis, the co-president of Leo Burnett Tailor Made. “These distances are obstacles to the athletes’ evolution and motivation. With the help of Samsung’s technology, we created the Galaxy Surfboard, a board that will connect Medina with his coach and fans while he’s out in the water, in real time.”
The worst day in the world, though, will be when anyone can get their hands on one of these and they start showing up in lineups, because the darn kids these days can’t go one minute without their phones and their terrible music and they’re all just so RUDE. Netflix for long lulls, Twitter for very important updates. #surfsupdewds.
