Inside Australia’s Project Building Shark-Repellent Surfboard Fins For Surfers

InnovationScienceInside Australia’s Project Building Shark-Repellent Surfboard Fins For SurfersByMelissa Cristina Márquez,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Márquez is a marine scientist and science communicatorFollow AuthorJun 07, 2026, 06:00am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Surfing has been a part of coastal cultures around the world as long as one can remember. In Honolulu, Hawaii, here are outrigger canoe and surfers on wave, Waikiki Beach. (Diamond Head in background)Bettmann ArchiveIt is early morning on the Australian coast and the ocean looks deceptively… simple. A clean set rolls in, gulls trace lazy arcs overhead and a few surfers sit just beyond the break waiting for the next wave. From the shore, it is hard to imagine the invisible calculations happening beneath the surface. Temperature gradients, baitfish movements, currents shifting like slow conveyor belts of energy. And somewhere in that same water column, sharks are moving through a landscape that has existed long before any of us paddled out. For surfers, this shared space has always carried a mix of awe and unease. Not fear in the simplistic sense, but awareness that the ocean is alive in ways we are still trying to understand. So what happens when we try to design technology that fits into that reality instead of working against it?That is the question a new Australian research project is wanting to answer, developing smart surfboard fins designed to reduce shark encounters while preserving the feel and performance surfers rely on. At first glance, surfboard fins might seem like an unlikely place for high-tech innovation. I mean, they are small, and often overlooked components of a board. Yet anyone who surfs knows they are essential in determining how a board turns, how it holds in a wave face and how responsive it feels underfoot. Change the fin and you chang...