Analyze Surfing Tricks and Maneuvers with This Waterproof Tracker

If you enjoy watersports like surfing or kiteboarding, you know that some days are better than others, either due to your skills or environmental conditions. On the other hand, just how good was that last run? Are you really doing more interesting tricks than a month ago? To get an objective measurement on this, you could use a movement tracker like this one from Seb.

The device uses an nRF2832 processor along with an MPU-6050 IMU for measurement. The processor samples the IMU 10 times per second, recording data that can then be analyzed later, sent over Bluetooth to a host computer/phone. Battery life is claimed to be around 14 hours, enough for even the most epic surf sessions, though memory will actually fill up before that point.

According to Seb, the tracker was developed as a way to one day judge professional surfing contests: "The idea is to be able to measure the attitude (angle/orientation of the board) in real-time and then come up with a way to assist 'scoring' ... so if two competitors do the same trick, then there's a scientific way of measuring 'how vertical' a board was during a trick."

The video below goes into the electronics and troubleshooting, including a few incremental programming steps to test out different functions of the design. There’s also a bit of discussion about properly waterproofing the enclosure with an o-ring, which would definitely be useful if you want to create something similar.

The build is tested at the end of the video, with the sensor taped onto a Seb’s kiteboard. Unfortunately, while data survived, and will be analyzed in an upcoming video, the GoPro attached to the board did not. Perhaps the readings will give him some clue as to when exactly the camera went into the sea. Who knows, maybe it’ll even wash up and get returned.