Tony Jones of Coral Reef Wetsuits has created a solar surfboard which is anticipated to go on sale soon after its approval in June this year. The patent-pending solar surfboards include 6-9 foot surfboards and 10-12 foot paddle boards.
The boards are equipped with a three, five or eight watt photovoltaic (PV) panel, depending on the model, and all come with a battery pack for energy storage. The solar panel, weighing 5 ounces, is placed on the bottom of the board and stores energy for charging your iPod, cell phone and other small electrical devices when on land.
Tony Jones (right) with the solar surf board. Source: Coral Reef
"I've been using it for nine months, had accidents and everything, and it works great," said Jones, who finds his solar surfboard most useful while touring the world.
Intel's surfboard. Source: Travelizmo
Tony Jones's board is possibly more practical than the board introduced by Intel in 2004, in conjunction with Jools Matthew of Jetstream Surfboards. The board contains Tablet PC, a video camera, solar panel, and WiFi Internet access so that the user can surf the web whilst surfing the waves.
Top image source: Port Robinson
For more read : Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2009-2019
