SurfCare - Surfboard Protection Plans

How It Works:

It’s simple. Surfcare is the world’s first surfboard protection plan. If your board gets dinged, we’ll fix it for free. If we can’t fix it, we’ll replace it. Buy Surfcare here on any board less than 30 days old and without any pre-existing damage.

With Extended Warranties and Protection Plans being available on almost all other outdoor sporting equipment, why has it not been available on new surfboards until now? Retailers like Target, REI, West Marine, and even your local bike shop have been offering plans to protect your sporting and recreational equipment from accidents and damage for some time now. The Protection Plan industry is worth billions annually, making the surfboard industry a lot less attractive than larger categories like bicycles and camping. However, with surfboard prices on the rise and the industry continuing to grow due to multiple factors, now is the time to provide protection plans on surfboards for daily use.

Surfboard protection plans can and should be beneficial to both the customers and the business owners who offer it. Ideally, the seller sets the correct expectations with customers so they know what they’re covered for in the situation they need to get their board fixed or replaced.

The benefits to the Surfer are clear; if their board gets damaged, it’s repaired by Surfcare for free. If the board breaks, it gets replaced by Surfcare for 25% of the purchase price. For the business owner the benefits are three-fold. If a shop offers protection plans on their boards that the competing shop down the street does not yet carry, customers are more likely to purchase from the shop providing the additional benefit of a protection plan. Protection plans encourage repeat sales. Through trust and the repair/replacement of damaged boards, customers become more loyal shop visitors. Additionally, protection plans bring in extra revenue, increasing the average order sales amount on each board purchased, bringing in that much needed extra income to the retailer.

With surf retail becoming an increasingly competitive space and even more so around the condensing margins of epoxy and fiberglass boards; as mentioned earlier, protection plans need to benefit both the seller and the buyer. Customers know that if there’s trouble with the products, they can turn to Surfcare for support. Because we make our plans simple to understand, the claims process is easy for all involved.

Since most surfers; veteran and new alike, expect to ding their board at some point during its lifetime, purely due to its fragile exterior of epoxy and PU resin. Not normally factored in by all surfers are the buckles due to intense surf and unexpected rail dings at overcrowded spots like Malibu’s first point. With the recent extra time and money, millions of surfers across the country find themselves with unexpected income. As a result of unemployment and the federal stimulus program, boards have been flying off the shelves. Most retailers are selling 25% to 50% more surfboards than normal. This is causing traditionally crowded line-ups to overflow, creating even more risk of dinging your new board managing an almost unmanageable obstacle course.