Corticeira Amorim and Mercedes-Benz Portugal team up again to start the development of new cork surfboards for the Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara. The goal is to develop new tow-in surfboards in the short term, specifically designed to meet the unique characteristics of Portugal's Nazaré waves.
Mercedes-Benz's MBoard Project was launched in 2013 with a view to designing high efficiency surfboards making use of Portuguese raw materials and technology, thus enabling Garrett McNamara to face the most extreme surfing conditions that exist in Nazaré.
In this context, at Garrett McNamara own request, a project in partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Corticeira Amorim was started in the last quarter of 2014 with the goal of developing the first cork surfboard. The testing phase was successfully completed and all of the conditions are now in place for the development of new types of cork surfboards that fully meet the main requirements of this equipment, particularly in terms of resistance and flexibility.
The first phase of the project achieved such spectacular success that Garrett McNamara expects to use only cork surfboards in the future. The development of new types of surfboards best suited for international projects is already underway.
It is worth remembering that McNamara currently holds the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed, securing its place in the Guinness Book of Records. Garrett used surfboards designed by Mercedes-Benz in 2013 to surf the giant waves in Nazaré at 62.4 km/hour.
