Might we be looking at the future of surfboard purchasing? Photo: Disrupt/Facebook
We had an edit meeting a while ago, and one of the ideas that came up is that “supporting your local shaper” is essentially hoping that they never make a great living by making surfboards. Most shapers don’t make much money, except the ones that “sell out” (or whatever you want to call it). It’s kind of bullshit. Anyway, I won’t delve into that idea too much, because it wasn’t mine, and someone else is probably going to put way more thought into it than me. But there’s a new company on the market that might very well change how you buy your surfboards in the very-near future, and it’s found a happy medium between supporting the foam-dust covered guy in the shed and buying a board online from some faceless entity. Fittingly, the company is called Disrupt.
I have very mixed feelings about the “support your local shaper” mentality. On one hand, I have friends that are local shapers. I have, and will continue to, support them. I’ve purchased boards from parking lot shows and garage sales, and I have also purchased boards online from Global Surf Industries. It’s a complicated subject, but I’m basically in the middle of the “support your local shaper” mentality and the “evolve or die” train of thought.
Years ago, as some of you might remember, Firewire came up with an idea called CBD, which stood for Custom Board Design. Basically, you’d go on their website, choose from one of their basic templates, and make slight tweaks here and there–length, width, etc. It was fun. I had one made for me, and it showed up the mail a few weeks later. They had named it “The Alexandro” for some reason, and I loved it. That idea is the same one that Disrupt is implementing, only they’re taking it much further. Right now, you can choose from their catalogue of around 500 shapes and sizes, and it’s only available in Australia. Soon, though, they’re planning on taking their business to the rest of the world, adding shapers from each locale as they go. The shapers are provided CAD files to shape from, they shape the board, and if you choose to have an image on it, Disrupt sends the printed glass to them. Then, of course, they stick in the mail and ship it to your door.
“Retailers love it as they have access to a massive library of boards and access to designers without holding stock,” CEO Gary Elphick told Surfers Village. “Local shapers love it as we’re keeping them full of work, and surfers love it as they get something 100% custom made for them.”
As one might imagine, they’ve had some very interesting design requests. One in particular was a little more interesting than the others. “A designer [wanted] an image of his late mother,” Elphick remembered. “He made a special request to include some of her ashes in the resin. After a few calculations, we ensured the integrity and quality of the product would still be up to our very high standards, and we went ahead with it. Was a great experience, although our head shaper wore an extra pair of gloves.”
Disrupt is on the verge of nailing down a partnership with one of Australia’s largest e-commerce stores, and they’ve been toying with the idea of a brick and mortar shop in Bondi, where they’re based out of. The company is hoping to expand into the U.S. by this summer, and by the looks of things, they might’ve found a way to both support local shapers and make the ever-lazier, ever-more impatient consumer happy.
