TECH: Connect fetes innovation, design

Surfboard among nine entrants that wow judges

By BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Friday, December 12, 2008 6:09 PM PST ∞

Take a surfboard and redesign it to be environmentally friendly and high-performance. You've got a classic Southern California product. And you've also got a winner for innovation.

The surfboard, Direct Drive, propelled San Diego-based Firewire Surfboards to victory, along with eight other entrants, in the 21st annual Most Innovative New Products Awards, given Friday by the technology entrepreneurship group Connect.

Direct Drive is shaped from a five-layer "blank" made like a composite, said Mike Milliken, the company's national sales manager.

"It gets its structure from a carbon rod that allows the board to flex and be lighter and stronger," Milliken said.

The surfboard retails for $750.

Direct Drive won in the new category of Action and Sport Technologies, established to reflect the county's large base of tech-based sports equipment makers such as Callaway Golf.

The two finalist runners-up were Zoot Sports, a high-tech footwear maker in Vista, and American Wave Machines, a maker of artificial surf devices, in Solana Beach.

As a high-cost area to do business, San Diego County relies on creativity and technology to power its economy. Connect's awards are meant to celebrate that innovation and spur more activity.

A crowd of about 800 people gathered Friday at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines to honor the winners.

Camille Sobrian, Connect's chief operating officer, said the quantity of entrants was a hopeful sign that local entrepreneurs were continuing to create and develop new products and businesses even as the region and the national grapple with recession.

"We were worried with the economy that we'd have a hard time filling the room, and it was the opposite," Sobrian said. "People realized that they've got to be out networking and building relationships and keeping up with what's going on in slow times."

Connect, a regional entrepreneurship group, honored the following innovators Friday.

Most Innovative New Product Winners

-- Aerospace and Security Technologies: Tie between Avaak Inc. of Sorrento Valley and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of Rancho Bernardo. Avaak won for its Vue wireless video system. General Atomics won for its Sky Warrior Block Zero Unmanned Aircraft System, used by the Army.

-- Medical Products: Ablation Frontiers of Carlsbad, for its Catheter Ablation System to treat atrial fibrillation.

-- Action and Sport Technologies: Firewire Surfboards of San Diego for its Direct Drive high-performance surfboard.

-- Clean Technology: Reaction Design of Sorrento Valley, for its Energico software that helps design low-emission power generation and transportation engines.

-- Diagnostic and Research Tools: Silicon Kinetics of Sorrento Valley for SKi Pro, molecular analysis software for drug development and manufacturing.

-- Software and Information Technology: Photometria, in University City, for Taaz.com, a fashion and beauty "makeover" Web site.

-- Wireless Communications: Mushroom Networks, based in Sorrento Valley, for PortaBella, a wireless broadband device.

-- Hardware and General Technology: Semtek Corp., of Camarillo, for its Cipher Mode security system for credit card fraud.

The William W. Otterson Award was given to MedStation, an ATM-like device to dispense drugs in hospitals. It was developed by San Diego based Pyxis, now a division of Cardinal Health.

Individual winners

-- Joe Panetta, CEO of Biocom, a local life science trade group, who won the distinguished contribution award for life sciences.

-- Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry, husband and wife entrepreneurs, who won the distinguished contribution award for technology.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com. Read his business and biotech blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com.