Alright, picture yourself in a surf shop. 

 

It smells like a mix of wax and neoprene (if you're in a good one). There's some music playing, and a few heads milling about. Of course, you quickly gravitate to the rack overflowing with bright new boards. 

 

You pick up a new shortboard model from a popular brand. It looks like it's about your size. The dimensions read as follows: 

 

5’11 x 18 7/8 x 2 3/8 with 27.8 liters of volume. 

 

Hmmm. Maybe a touch too small. The next one up in that model is: 

 

6’0” x 19 1/8 x 2 7/16 with 29.3 liters of volume.  

 

 

What's wrong here? Well, a lot of things. Let's go scorched earth for a moment. 

 

Think about those dimensions. 

 

They start with one measurement in feet. Then they switch to another in inches. That's already a problem. If it instead labeled the board as 72 inches tall vs. roughly 19 inches wide, it would give you a much better idea of the interplay between those two crucial dimensions.

 

And then there's the fractions. But then there's a decimal point. And then there's the jump from the imperial system to the metric system with liters.

 

If the goal is to educate customers about surfboards, is this really the best we can do?

 

To answer the question we posed in the title: Modern surfing originated in Hawaii. Then, it grew popular — and commercialized — in California. And now, it's truly global. But the influence of those early days in California left their mark. The imperial system is still the standard for surfboard measurements and wave heights in most places, even where the metric system is used for literally everything else.

 

But there's a bigger problem here.

 

 

Volume is the single most important measurement in a surfboard. Yes, it's not everything you need to know about a board. That point has been labored. But let's be realistic. If you're trying to compare boards or find the right size for yourself, you won't find a more useful tool than volume.

 

And yet most major surfboard companies scale their boards inch-by-inch in height, resulting in awkward volume jumps. Scaling up one inch of height might result in .8 liters more; the next inch is 1.3 liters more.

 

Given the power of modern board design software and machines, there is no reason to do it this way. Volume-first scaling would help surfers decide and find the best boards possible.

 

That's one of the many reasons we wanted to shake things up with a new approach to surfboard building — one that puts you in the driver's seat.

 

Design a board here.