It sounds too good to be true — working while bodyboarding. But a University of Hawai'i researcher and a small team of photochemistry scientists and volunteer boogie boarders has been riding the waves for months while conducting solar chemistry research.

Along the way, they've made some waves of their own, getting solar chemistry to work for the first time by using the ocean as a coolant. The experiment also led to the discovery of variants of Vitamin A that can be used in perfumes, according to head researcher and UH chemistry professor Robert Liu.

The key to the research is a customized boogie board that carries chemicals in test tubes that are heated by the sun and cooled by the ocean as riders catch waves.

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