Vendée: They designed an innovative, modular surfboard
Collaboration Innovante entre Newave Surfboards et Paramétrique pour une Planche de Surf Démontable et Éco-Conçue
The demountable surfboard project by the company Newave Surfboards has benefited from recent improvements thanks to the collaboration of another company from Les Sables-d'Olonne, Paramétrique.
Par Franck HermelPublié le 29 Nov 23 à 8:23
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The two students' idea has steadily gained traction. It is now becoming a reality. Ewen Mahevas and Hadrien Nauroy, the founders of Newave Surfboards, will soon be able to offer their famous modular surfboard to the public.
A pre-sale will open in December, and a launch party is planned for November 30, 2023.
The concept? A surfboard that can be disassembled into three pieces. Ideal for solving storage problems, but also transportation issues. Until now, the length of the board has been a hindrance for surfers traveling by two-wheeler, taking public transportation, or driving a car that's too small. The Newave board solves all of these problems.
Its design took a crucial step forward with the company moving into new premises within the Olonne-sur-Mer business incubator.
With a new neighbor who would play his part in the development of the board: Parametric.
A wonderful encounter
Paramétrique is the new name Junying Wang and Maxence Loisson de Guinaumont have given to the company they recently founded in Les Sables-d’Olonne. Originally called Trashhaus, their company is a design consultancy whose mission is to find solutions that minimize a product's environmental impact. This eco-design approach allows them to assess the viability of a project and then optimize it to reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible. What materials should be chosen? What uses? What lifespan? These are just some of the many questions that arise from a multitude of perspectives (see sidebar).
The heads of Paramétrique and Newave were a perfect match. “We had heard about this collapsible surfboard, and as luck would have it, we became neighbors,” says Maxence Loisson de Guinaumont.
Optimisation
The meeting between the two companies quickly led to a fruitful partnership. “We found Newave’s project interesting, but we also saw that there was a way to make the board assembly and disassembly process even simpler,” explain the two partners at Paramétrique.
“This collaboration allowed us to work on improving the ergonomics of the assembly,” confirms Ewan Mahevas.
“The idea is to make this board as easy to use as possible. It’s designed for beginners as well as experienced surfers. And it must offer the same performance as a traditional board.”
Various Projects
Paramétrique continues its collaborations with other companies to design more responsible products. The company is currently working on recycled toys with the brand Lonaeh. It is also developing prototypes of a wide variety of objects, such as a beach mat made of natural materials that can easily be converted into a beach tent. The company is also working on a new amplifier model designed to avoid the drawbacks of more traditional amplifiers. "Designed as a single unit, they become unusable if a function malfunctions. Our project is a model composed of different elements, one for each function, making it repairable and giving it a longer lifespan." These are just a few examples of the diverse aspects that can make an object less environmentally impactful.
Marketing
All this comes at a slightly higher price than a standard surfboard, around €990 for the entry-level model. Newave is now entering a crucial phase: commercialization. Pre-orders will be available starting in December for delivery in April.
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