How To: Three Ways To Use Awayco
A touch more than a simple board hire service. Oh, and they just opened up their Bondi store.
No surfer in their right mind hires a board.
Have you seen the selection a typical hire store offers? They’re not conducive to good surfing and they’ll set you back $20/hour to slide out, bog, and put the nose under.
Awayco has changed that. And while they could be mistaken for a board hire service, but like the ‘3 in 1’ ladder on an infomercial, they’re useful for significantly more.
Instead of offering up a sparse selection of beat up sticks; Awayco provides a diverse and near-new range throughout their flagship and affiliate shops. High-performance thrusters, retro twins, foamies, and the odd mid-length to wobble upon.
It’s a quiver that the cash-strapped surfer dreams of, all available for a better price and quality than any higher-store scattered nearby. We teamed up with Awayco to bring The Electric Acid Surfboard Test to life, with a California tour wrapping up next month in Venice, CA. And with snowboards and skis launching, they’ve got more momentum than Gabs at Pipe.
Here are a couple of ways you can use ’em.
The ‘boardless traveller’
What’s the shittest part about travelling to surf? Well, other than your homebreak firing for the first time in a year while you’re away…
The answer is lugging your board around.
They’re irritating to drag around the airport, near-impossible to squeeze into a cab afterwards, and you look like a proper dickhead once you’re in a landlocked state between surfs.
Awayco eliminates all of that.
They have 40+ locations around the globe ranging from Indo, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the USA and Australia. All of which are decked with a range of suitable high-end boards. In addition, if you’re a ‘Prime’ member you can pre-book boards up to six months in advance and are fully insured for when you inevitably put your knee through a rail.
The ‘in the market for a freshie’
To be frank, this is all of us. Who surfs and isn’t incessantly considering their next purchase?
Aside from your hip-pocket, the main concern with buying a new board is the unknown. You can trial a board from a friend, or convince someone to do a mid-surf swap, but typically you’re buying boards blind – or taking our word for it when we like a particular sled.
Awayco have a solution.
Campbell Parade Bondi near Beach Burrito, it ain’t that hard to find.
Let’s use its new Bondi HQ as an example.
They have a range of Haydenshapes, JS Industries, Sharp Eye’s, McCoy’s and even a flurry of MF, Modom and Drag softies for the impending slop. Which is to say there’s a sled in there that’ll more than satisfy what you’re looking for.
In short, you can try before you buy.
Three or four sessions at under $20 a pop and you’ll know whether the board you’re interested in will keep you pleased for however many months it lasts. Yeah, it’ll cost you a little extra than simply taking the plunge, but the assurance of enjoying your board far outweighs the dread of offloading 800 clams on something you hate.
The rotating quiver
Let’s say you bought two surfboards per year. In today’s market, that’ll cost you upwards of at least $1,500 by the time you’ve added a grip and fins.
On the other hand, most boards at Awayco cost between $10-20 for day hire, and they’re just as good as anything you’d pick off the shelf.
High-performance, low-performance, and no-performance.
If you surfed 100 times in a year, and we assumed your average rental cost per day was $15, then you’re looking at a total surfing cost of $1,500 per annum. Bang on equivalent to the minimum you’re likely outlaying to own two of them.
Now, the two sticks you own will last longer than a year if you only surf 100 times, but you’re limited to those two board. With Awayco, you’ll be able to surf whatever you want, whenever you want. You’ll never actually own a board, but with a Prime membership and early reservations, there’s barely a difference.
If I were still in the habit of paying for boards I know that this idea would be hard to surpass.
There’s a new-ish store open on Bondi’s Campbell Parade right now. Walk in and slide out. Or at least talk to the friendly staff about they’re offering.
Comments
Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.
Already a member? Sign In
Want to join? Sign Up