FlowRider

Brand name for a 1990-patented wave machine developed by San Diego surfer/designer Tom Lochtefeld, with help from Carl Ekstrom and Jeff Clark. The FlowRider shoots a thin sheet of water over a hard rubber hump, which directs the water up and over into a stationary wave with a riding surface, as described in a 1999 Los Angeles Times article, "about as big as a two-car garage." The first FlowRider o...