Flowriding
boardsport in which athletes ride on boards atop stationary artificial waves over surfaces engineered to replicate the shape of ocean waves
Flowriding is a late 20th century alternative boardsport incorporating elements of surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding.
The FlowRider and the FlowBarrel are artificial waves that are called "sheet waves". In order to create a sheet wave, water is pumped up and over a surface which is engineered to replicate the shape of an ocean wave. The result is a stationary wave in which a rider can mimic the movements of other board sports, such as moving up and down the wave, carving, and jumping. Since the wave does not move forward, the movement of the rider is derived from the water flowing over the stationary surface.
History
Although the first artificial waves in a pool were developed back in the 19th century by King Ludwig of Bavaria, they required a completely different technology from that of flow riding. The activity of flow riding is closely associated with “FlowRider”, a technology created by Tom Lochtefeld, founder of Wave Loch that shoots more than 410,000 L (108,000 US gal) of water per second, with a speed of 32 km/h to 48 km/h on a padded, inclined surface. At full capacity, 410,000 L (108,000 US gal) of water per minute can amount to waves as high as 1.8 m (6 ft). With this technology, flow riders, those who lie, kneel or stand on a board, attempt to balance on these artificial waves, called sheet waves, and more professional riders seek to perform tricks.
In 1987, Lochtefeld was inspired to create this technology when he observed waters seemingly flowing up a wave in La Jolla.
The public source identifies “Flowriding” as boardsport in which athletes ride on boards atop stationary artificial waves over surfaces engineered to replicate the shape of ocean waves. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Flowriding, boardsport and athletes.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flowriding” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.