Innovation: Where the Geeks Meet the Cleats

San Diego County is not only a technological hub, but also a center of the action sports industry. You can find out how the two are related on Tuesday when San Diego Sports Innovators presents the Science of Sports.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park. Their message is that when you want to invent a new sporting product, it helps to be a geek.

“How do waves work? What design elements go into shaping a surfboard? How does air pressure affect your mountainboard ride? What are the mechanics behind an ideal jump shot?” the sports innovators group asks on its invitation to the event.

Among those appearing will be basketball legend-turned-entrepreneur Bill Walton, executive chairman of San Diego Sports Innovators.

Other local entrepreneurs to appear include Tony Finn, who in the mid-1980s popularized wakeboarding, a cross between water skiing and surfing.

Finn marketed a wakeboard called the Skurfer that included footstraps. This seemingly small addition greatly expanded the rider’s range of motion, making possible stunts previously impossible.

Today, Finn and another wakeboarding pioneer, Jimmy Redmon, co-own Encinitas-based Liquid Force. The company sells wakeboards, accessories and clothes through dealers and online at www.liquidforce.com.

Also appearing will be Solana Beach’s American Wave Machines, a maker of artificial surf devices that are typically found in amusement parks. The devices were inspired by the stationary waves that naturally form in the Waimea River in Hawaii.

Bruce McFarland, president and founder of the 11-year-old company, set out to duplicate that river wave phenomenon, and to improve upon it. That required research into the fluid mechanics of ocean waves and materials research. Fortuitously, McFarland had studied fluid mechanics and mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara.

However, Wave Loch, a La Jolla-based competitor, has said that its patents were infringed upon by McFarland, which McFarland denied. The yearslong legal battle is ongoing —- which goes to show that sports innovators need another resource besides geeks: lawyers.

Visit www.connect.org for more information on the event.

To read more, check out: http://www.nctimes.com/business/columnists/fikes/article_dc7f36d9-2bbc-59bc-aed6-e1ad65531c9b.html