Infinity’s Dave Boehne talks technology innovation, kooks of the day and the future of SUP, surf & foil design

Have you seen Blurr? You may have caught a glimpse of Infinity SUP boss, Dave Boehne, shredding the perfectly engineered, flawless waves at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch. Relentlessly innovating, designing and shaping, with a new YouTube channel and a foil dedicated Instagram page launched, the Speed Freaks squad is not slowing down! TotalSUP caught up with the visionary Founder to talk about the future of SUP, surf & foil design and Infinity’s 50 years of shred.

Hi Dave! What are you currently working on?

SUP design…

Hi! We have seen an increase in demand for a segment we are calling “Performance Touring” which are touring boards with high end design with a mid-range construction. People want quality purpose built boards in a more budget friendly price range. We’ve had great success with pre-orders of our new board the “E-Ticket’ which fits this category perfectly. Excited to see it on the water soon. Of course the R&D never ends on developing the next fastest race boards as well. Designs are getting even narrower with new found stability elements which of course translates to speed for those that are looking for peak performance.

SUP surf design…

I’ve been making asymmetric SUP’s for quite some time now, but it seems the interest and peoples willingness to try one is increasing so I am looking to offer the first in production here soon. As well as the Longboard SUP category is excellent for us so we will be expanding on this category with some new exciting construction as well!

 

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A post shared by Infinity SUP Co. ™ (@infinity_sup) on Feb 14, 2019 at 9:20am PST

Foil design…

We are developing foil board designs and I’ve designed a few wings as well but really leaving that up to the experts for now. With my boards, I take a minimal approach meaning, I try to take away as much “board” as I can, so the rider can surf the foil. My Tombstone board is a small compact double concave design that has a wider tail with 270 degrees of angled rail in the tail. The wider tail catches waves very quickly which allows to quicker pop ups and aides in late take offs all while never coming into contact with the wave when executing tight turns and cutbacks.

 

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A post shared by Dave Boehne (@thebrownblurr) on Sep 12, 2019 at 10:20am PDT

I also make a model called “Spy vs Spy” which is a twin tip theory with a nice curve to the outline so the nose and tail are more pulled in. This board does not catch waves quite as well but makes up for it for advanced riders looking for an extremely minimal design for the most critical turns and high-speed transitions. You can follow along on Instagram @infinity_foil for our foil dedicated content.

 

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A post shared by Infinity Foilboards (@infinity_foil) on Dec 13, 2019 at 11:26am PST

Could you tell us more about the asymmetric Shape3D?

It’s a fun feature shape 3D released a while back. It allows you to design asymmetric designs in CAD. It’s really fun as you can now design surf fins and even foil wings! My latest project I’ve been working on is a new paddle blade design that utilizes the same inverse vee concept on my race boards. I got a few 3D printed and the tests of the new blade were going great until I snapped it off and lost it to the bottom of the sea, haha.

 

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A post shared by Dave Boehne (@thebrownblurr) on Feb 5, 2020 at 9:39am PST

Technology innovation more than ever redefines every area of our activity. What is in your opinion the impact of technology and software capabilities on modern and future SUP and surf design?

There will always be a place for hand shaped and handcrafted boards and designs but CAD is here and is the future. In the surf world there is still a lot of people that frown on CAD design. It’s funny because CAD takes just as much knowledge – if not more and know how to be a good designer.

What do you think about open-source design for low-cost DIY board shaping?

Never before has it been so easy to be a “shaper” with all of the resources available. It’s a good thing in which it breeds creativity and entrepreneurship BUT it sure makes it much harder to earn an honest living building boards. I had a guy come up to me at the beach one day and asked me to check out the board he made for himself. I said sure and walked over to his car. He had three boards laying out on the ground with his little logo on them and said “Check it out! This one is your Blurr, this is your RNB but I put a different tail on it, and this is your B Line I just had scanned what do you think! Cool huh?” I just looked at the guy baffled. Definitely the Kook of the Day, haha.

We’ve got a glimpse of some cool throwback merch about to launch based on Infinity’s logo from the 70s. Could you share a sneak peek of that drop?

Yes! We just wanted to celebrate such an achievement to honour my parents and the brand as a whole so we made a few timeless designs and will have merch available on the website soon infinitysurf.com it would have been ready by now but 2020 decided to be a Kook of the Day as well.

What’s in store for Infinity in the coming months?

We are basically waiting on our new delayed product to arrive and working behind the scenes to hopefully come out better than ever after this whole worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. We are doing our best to operate daily under the restrictions but it’s tough. Definitely looking forward to seeing everyone out at the events soon! We truly hope every one is doing their best to stay healthy and safe and hope to see everyone on the water soon.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and congratulations on the 50 years of Infinity stoke!

The updated quiver is expected to land June 2020. To find out more and pre-order your 2020 Infinity SUP, visit www.infinity-sup.com