New Online Platform Shares SUP, Surf and Kite With The World

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Traveling abroad on a SUP, surf or kiting holiday can be an expensive luxury - airlines aren't scared to charge an arm and a leg for boards and equipment. Unfotunately, if you don't have the long bucks to fork out for excess baggage, you're left to rent equipment from a surf shop at your destination or borrowing from kind-hearted locals. Admittedly, it's not ideal - especially for people who are quite particular about using their own boards - but until airlines start playing fair, it's the best alternative out there. This familiar dilemma is exactly what spurred Richard Klomp and Rob Silva onto creating a new online, community platform, called 'Shurfing'. It's basically a global community of paddlers, surfers and kite boarders who are willing to rent their equipment out to visiting brothers and sisters. To find out more about this interesting new venture, we spoke with Richard.    

What is 'Shurfing' all about and how the idea came along?

Max Brouwer leaping into Lake Tahoe | Image: Duke Brouwer

Three years ago I lived in Australia and went on a camping trip to New Zealand with my girlfriend.  The prices for taking my board where unbelievable high, so I decided to go without my gear and just search surfshops on location as we go. This saved me a lot of carrying, however while cruising through New Zealand I had such a hard time to rent gear. Most surfshops didn't rent out. I only managed to get a board most of the time, but mainly due to the hospitality of the staff who were so kind to rent out their own gear to a fellow surfer. However, while driving along the coast I saw many surfers going crazy on the water - how frustrating! More of those holiday trips occured and back in the Netherlands I started talking to surfers on the beach who all encountered the same problem.

It would be great if everyone worldwide who owns surf gear would rent it out to fellow surfers - that will create millions and millions of rental locations! That's when I contacted my kiting buddy Rob Silva from Boston. He encountered the same problem and together we decided last July to start up Shurfing, sharing surfing. Rob is taking care of the development of the platform and I am trying to get as many locations worldwide as possible. This way we all can save on crazy airline fees and stop carrying our own stuff like crazy from continent to continent.

Portugal firing | Image: Alvaro Franco 

How do people get started using the platform?

Just go to www.shurfing.com, sign up, add your gear, name your price and start sharing.
Oh and don't forget to like our facebook page and tell a few of your friends on the beach, we all benefit.

Rio sunset | Image: Estevam Ribeiro

How can people find their right 'match' for equipment?

Once you signed up (which we don't like to take long as being a user ourself) you can search for SUP/kitesurfing/windsurfing or wavesurfing, fill out the city or country and a keyword like "board" or "8m kite" and hit search. A map will show where the nearest gear is available and shows which users have what gear available.

Barney DelSordo finding some shade in Costa Rica | Image: Jorgelina Argamunt

How do people charge and what are the rates for using equipment like?

Users can ask for their gear what they believe is worth it, we use the easy economic model of price determination in a market. Supply and Demand!

If you find that your alligator leather SUP board is worth 500 bucks an hour, be our guest but we recon not a lot of people will use your board.
Thats why we believe the market will decide after a while how much your board is worth it to rent for an hour, a day or a week.

The South East Coast of France | Image: Besqueut Yann

What are the benefits of using Shurfing?

Apart from saving money on airline fees, stop carrying your heavy gear worldwide and just being AWEsome by joining Shurfing there is more to it. We from Shurfing want to get rid of the Lonely Planet experience and get the Shurfing experience into play. How cool would it be once you rented a SUP board from a fellow surfer who took you to the best spots on the other side of the world, that he/she points you in the right direction to the best local restaurant which isn't in the lonely planet? That's the future... share it, see it, s(h)urf it!

Alex Manne, POV on Lake Onterio, Toronto

What else is planned for 2014? 

We started our platform on the 1st of January and are developing every day, facebook sign up, radius search and insurance options will be possible in the near future for our users. In a few months we are taking a look to our website to make it even more accessible. Just daydream with me for a sec, you are sitting at the beach having a coffee. All of a sudden you notice that there is some swell coming in. You feel like supping immediatelly, but how can you get it NOW? We will serve you "Shurfing a la carte" and implement the platform into a mobile app with GPS search on location and mobile payment options from user to user. In addition to that we encourage to get as much feedback as possible from our users because it is everyones platform. You have an idea for the platform or just want to tell us to stop drinking beer and work harder dont hesitate to send them in through our website.

Got the travel bug? Check out these other related articles:

Best Stand Up Paddle Photos From Around The World

Stand Up Paddle in the Grand Canyon 

© Copyrighted & Exclusive SupConnect.com Content.