People
Miki Langenbach (Currently Gold Coast, Australia. Originally from Freiburg, Germany):
Engineering wizard and materials master, Miki has spent countless
hours perfecting the art of machining surfboards. With a
background in sailboarding and decades of machine building
experience, his current craft is what Surfing Magazine has called
"The Holy Grail of Surfboard Machines."
Miki is constantly testing,
optimizing, and sometimes just playing with new designs he cooks
up in his active brain. Those who have worked with him are
generally amazed at his constant flow of new ideas, even if some
seem to come from left field. They also become accustomed to
hear things like, "Come here and look at this!" when it's a new
track system that is close to frictionless or a new board holding
mechanism that leaves no distortion in the board once removed.
Due to his genius, hard work, and persistence, board riders can
benefit from his contribution to the advancement of the field of
surfboard design.
Professor Ralph Freese (Kailua, Hawaii):
Ralph Freese has been a professor in Mathematics at the University
of Hawaii at Manoa for over 30 years. He is extremely respected in
his field, Lattice Theory. He also harbors world class computer
programming skills.
He has solved several long-outstanding problems, including one of
importance to computer theory. He is routinely invited to give
addresses at international conferences. He was recently awarded
The Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research, a very prestigious
award.
If you're curious about the field of Lattice Theory, you can check
out his website.
Jimmy Freese (Kailua, Hawaii):
Chemical engineer, computer programmer and surfer, Jimmy brings a variety of expertise to the development of the machine and computer technology. With an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Jimmy has extensive knowledge about surfboard materials, manufacture and construction, hydrodynamic forces and computer modeling. He spends countless hours debugging the software, from both code bugs and usability bugs along with finding the perfect fit between the software, the cutting machine capability and design from a shaper's perspective. He has been critical in bringing the Australian team and the Hawaii team together.
