Lest you think Sage, Orvis, Winston et al have a corner on coming up with what seems to me an endless parade of "latest, greatest, must have, can't live without fly rod innovations"...well think again.
The fly rod pictured above (note the weird handle) is the brain-child of Norwegian Robert Selfors who says "I found the recipe in the laws of physics."
Selfors explains the principles of his invention with a quick course in fly fishing physics:
• A fly rod is charged with energy by the flexing it undergoes in the casting action.
• The more the rod can be flexed, the more energy it can store.
• The greatest energy storage potential is in the lowest part of the rod. With conventional handles, some of this potential energy remains unused, because existing handles are built up from cork attached using glue, which reduces flexibility.
• In other words, the part of the rod whose flexibility is of greatest importance for energy storage is too rigid.
Selfors says, “I spent many long evenings designing a hollow handle. It has a hollow cavity in which the rod “blank” can move freely. This has been the core design concept throughout subsequent development work.”
On the drawing board for several years now with the help of Sintef, Scandinavia's largest scientific research organization--and Permafrost Industrial Design Studio in Oslo, Selfor's idea is soon to become a reality. The first 500 rods have been manufactured and were scheduled to hit the streets by end of the year but...the handles were deemed to be too slippery when wet demanding a solution which will apparently delay the unveiling until later when the 2014 fishing shows open.
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