It sounds strange that Mercedes-Benz has any interest in surfing, but German perfectionism is the only solution for overcoming gigantic waves of Portuguese coast. MBoard project is a collaboration of famous surfer from Hawaii, Garrett McNamara and the company Mercedes-Benz, in order to tame the legendary waves on the Portuguese coast, near Nazaré.
Mercedes-Benz Surfboard
Together with Mercedes-Benz engineers, technicians and designers, McNamara who holds the world record in bigwave surfing has developed a surfboard that is tailor-made not only for this type of wave, but also for his individual surfing style.
All in all, four tailor-made boards were produced by the “MBoard Project”. Mercedes-Benz was responsible for the design and McNamara for the shape and weight of the boards.
Mercedes-Benz Surfboard
The central feature of the cooperation was a search for the ideal material and perfect weight distribution on the board. This was achieved by carbon fibre strengthening in the middle and kevlar workmanship at the ends. The boards are all of different shapes and tailor-made for McNamara’s weight and height. They were built in Portugal. Supervised by Teddy Woll, Head of Mercedes-Benz Aerodynamics, they were subjected to extreme tests in the Sindelfingen wind tunnel.
Mercedes-Benz Surfboard
McNamara tested his boards at the beginning of February 2014 on the waves of Nazaré in Portugal in the storm named “Brigid”, and he was delighted: “Everyone who comes here to surf giant waves says: ‘These boards are no good. We need new boards!’ But this one here was the best board I’ve ever surfed monster waves on.”
