Surfing By Remote A Reality

By Marcus Braid on September 5, 2015 in News

It’s not often you see a remote controlled surfboard in operation at the beach.

However, Clovelly’s Sean Carroll is working hard behind the scenes to ensure such devices become a mainstay of the Eastern Beaches.

“I’ve been making and testing remote controlled surfboards that are controlled from the beach, preferably by someone who can surf,” Mr Carroll said. “They’re high powered, so they get up to about 40 kilometres per hour on the water, and they’re very acrobatical.

Mr Carroll, the designer and engineer of the boards, first formulated the idea while working as a lifeguard at Tamarama Beach in 1997.

“I got very excited on the idea, because I’d been down the coast on the weekend. When I got back, all the guys said, ‘This guy’s got a remote controlled surf board and you are going to lose it when you see one’,” Mr Carroll said.

Mr Carroll, a plumber by trade, worked in Japan where they manufactured the remote controlled surfers, and he bought two of them. Soon after a Wollongong man registered a $100,000 patent on the concept, but ended up severely ripped off.

“The only other way was for me to make my own,” Mr Carroll said. “Materials wise, I can create one for $100. That would be a little bit smaller than the models I’ve got now.

The surfboards are complete with replica figures of surfers such as Andy Irons and Owen Wright.

“To shape the man is probably one of the hardest things,” Mr Carroll said. “It must have taken around 200 hours of practice to get that right.

“Musician Kid Mac and [big wave surfer] Mark Mathews contacted me last week. Mark Mathews wants to use it for big waves, because I’ve been mounting a camera on it. He’s trying to work out how to mount his GoPro 3D on it, and how well the board holds up in really large waves.”

The boards cost anywhere from $2,000 for the top of the range 37-inch model, to $300 for the 12-inch model. For more information, email surfrise@live.com.au.