Stab Magazine | Is Buying A Surfboard Online About To Get A Whole Lot Better?

Live Now: Chapter 11 Mini-Documentary With Dane Reynolds

955 Views

Is Buying A Surfboard Online About To Get A Whole Lot Better?

New tech to help you avoid those pesky surf shop lines.

hardware // Mar 4, 2020
Words by stab
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Shopping online for a surfboard is no way to, well, shop for a surfboard. There’s no fondling of the rails. No balancing under the arm. No shop rat that thinks he knows more about what you’re looking for than you do.

Worst of all, you don’t get a free bar of wax when you buy it.

Alas, there is now a new technology that appears capable of improving the online experience and helping you pick out your next sled without leaving confines of your couch.

Huntington Beach shaper Jeff ‘Doc’ Lausch, who whittles under the label Surf Prescriptions, has been working with a company called Augmented Island Studios to make surfboard shopping as easy as pulling out your phone. Swipe down to keep reading…

Based in Portland, Oregon, Augmented Island Studios describes itself as a “creative AR/VR development studio…which serves the retail, entertainment, industrial, publishing, food and beverage and creative industries.” The CEO of the company, Enrique Sánchez-Rivera, is a former Surf Prescriptions licensee.

Using Google and Apple WebAR tech (still not sure what that means), Doc and Augmented Island Studios have bent the matrix to offer a full virtual reality, 3D view of the board you’re shopping for, without the use of those expensive head sets (all you need is your phone). 

Strictly for mobile devices, the prospective board buyer goes to SurfPrescriptions.com, selects the board they want to look at, and using their camera’s phone, a 3D rendering comes up right in front of you. You can walk around the board, check the rails, check the bottom contours. You can pretty much do everything but touch it. You don’t have to download an app or anything, it’s pretty much as easy as clicking and waiting for the image to load. 

The video shows Doc holding up one of his boards in front of Huntington Surf and Sport and it is pretty dang impressive. There’s another shot of a board hovering in a backyard patio…as if the user was bragging to his bros about the new stick he’s got on the way. There’s even a dog in it! Dog’s love surfboards.

I played around with the technology at home. I was skeptical at first, but the more I got used to using it the more the real-world applications became apparent. I actually had a lot of fun with it. I could easily see other big board brands like Firewire, Channel Islands or HaydenShapes picking up on this tech.

I’ll always relish the feel of resin and getting foam dust up my nose when I go in to order a board, but for those that do their surfboard shopping online, Doc and Augmented Island Studios are definitely onto something. It beats a few static photos of a board and offers a more accurate representation of what may actually show up in the mail. 

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

Watch: João Chianca Had A Remarkable Hawaii Season Before His Injury

Plus an update on his condition.

Mar 28, 2024

Pittar’d And Feathered

Do the WSL judges deserve the internet's wrath? We asked the man of the hour.

Mar 28, 2024

Robbo, Pickles, And Tyler Wright Become The Underdogs Breakfast At Uninspiring Winkipop

The foreboding blade sharpens and inconsistent judging prevails on Day Two in Torquay.

Mar 27, 2024

“I Don’t Always Win Heats, But When I Do, I Try To Beat John John”

Slater shines and the axe begins its descent on Day 01 at Bells.

Mar 26, 2024

Back Against The Wall: The Ramzi Boukhiam Redemption

Morocco's first CT surfer on speaking six languages, having no coach, and snatching Fil Toledo's…

Mar 25, 2024

Will Kirra, Babies or JJF Stop a GOAT Winning at Bells?

Bluesky BOAG advice from a Superman specialist and former Trials winner.

Mar 25, 2024

Bells Preview: The WSL’s Victorian Sword Dancing Equinox Ritual

Will a Brazilian crack the Top 10 at Bells?

Mar 25, 2024

69 Shin Bones Later + the Anticlimactic State of Big Wave Record-Breaking

Lucas Chumbo might have surfed the biggest wave ever this year. But how will we…

Mar 23, 2024

Watch: ‘Fresh and Fried’ Ft the Quik Kids

How taxing is it to tackle the Gold Coast’s Triple Crown in a single day,…

Mar 23, 2024

The Popular Vote: The People’s Stab In The Dark With Kolohe Andino Champion

Which board looked best — to you —under Kolohe's talons?

Mar 22, 2024

Six Key Learnings From Portugal

Three CT events in, what do we know? 

Mar 21, 2024

‘Zipper’ Is Going On Tour, Here’s Where You Can Watch It  

Dates, times + locations for the Venice, Encinitas, Sydney + Byron premieres.  

Mar 20, 2024

Dane Reynolds On His Future, His Past, And Chapter 11’s Raison D’être

Our 9-minute plunge into the collective psyche of Ventura's pillar(s).

Mar 20, 2024

From ‘Blue Ribbon Cross Country Runner’ to Vogue – How Steph Again Is Back With A Rip Curl Remix

Everything we know about the she-GOATs sponsorship boomerang.

Mar 18, 2024

Stab Interview: Darren Handley Explains Why You Can’t Buy The Winning Stab In The Dark Model

And his decades-long standoff with Slater.

Mar 17, 2024

Griff Embraces Portugal’s Eternal Time Loop To Vanquish Medina + Ewing, Defay Delays The Inevitable

A redeeming closing act at Supertubos.

Mar 16, 2024

The Secret Behind Lungi Slabb’s Inconceivable Greenmount Funnel

Six broken boards, one leaking forehead, and five days of Superbank mysticism.

Mar 16, 2024

Cheat Codes: A Million Miles Worth Of Travel Advice From Coco Ho

Hard-earned wisdom from more than 2,000 hours in the troposphere.

Mar 15, 2024
Advertisement