The Swell Surf Foot | Zach Samalonis

The Project

The Swell Surf Foot is a prosthetic foot designed to mitigate the challenges amputees face when visiting the beach to surf. While many current prosthetics work well on dry land, their quality and flexibility lack the preferred performance during a surfing session.

Year

Senior Year – Capstone 2020
Completed with Yuhan Zhang

Awards

IDSA IDEA: Student Gold Winner

Core77 Design Awards: Sports and Recreation Student Winner

Fast Company Innovation By Design: Student Finalist

Reinventing Surfing for Amputees

Surfing is freedom. So why is it that current prosthetics hold adaptive surfers back?

During our senior year, we explored this question with the adaptive surfing community. We designed The Swell Surf Foot, a low-cost waterproof prosthetic foot with increased ankle mobility to enable correct surfing mechanics.

Designed with amputees for amputees, Swell addresses the largest pain points that amputee surfers face when they venture into the ocean. Swell lets surfers do what they do best — shred some waves.

Since graduation, Swell has won an IDEA Gold Award, placed 1st in the Core77 Design Excellence Awards, and was a finalist for the Fast Company Innovation for Design Awards.

Wipe Out!

When it comes to water, amputees are at a disadvantage

Recreational or ‘cosmetic’ legs aren’t covered by insurance, even if it provides a significant increase to the person’s quality of life. This leads to a lot of home-brewed solutions. The current solution amputee surfers turn to typically is using an old leg, tape, and rubber sleeves.

"Being in the water is the only time I truly feel limited. I can run and bike and walk, but when it comes to the beach it's hard."

— Redmond Ramos, Left BK Amputee Surfer

COWABUNGA!

A SWELL start to a better surfing experience

While the COVID-19 Pandemic prevented us from testing Swell in the ocean before graduation, following graduation we continued development on Swell. Continuing the project post-graduation allowed us to tweak and streamline the “at-home” manufacturing process for the prototypes we produced.

By mid-summer, we sent out multiple models to various surfers who helped us earlier in the project. The feedback was great and one was even used in competition!

"It doesn’t compare [to my other foot]. Swell is like night and day compared to any of my traditional prosthetic foot. It is lighter, flexible, has grip, looks cooler."

— Ty Ducket, Left AK Amputee Surfer

JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY

Dare To AskDare to Answer

Swell has been featured as part of Jefferson’s new (2022) ad campaign, Dare to Ask, Dare to Answer. Filming took place in the winter of 2021, where we were reunited with Lance Vargas, the local amputee who helped us throughout the project.