Surf Neutral is founded by a Belgium team of the passionate surfer and IT manager Lesley Zonnekein and Klaas Neirinck, a proper code wizard. They created Surf Neutral after Lesley lived in Jeffreys Bay for nearly one year during a sabbatical gap. As he travelled with his wife and two daughters, he arrived in this magical place but was left with one issue... There was not a single hand-shaped longboard in the shop that he could lay his hands on. As he likes his board custom made it was not easy to pinpoint all shapers in a town like Jeffreys Bay. Strange.
After a couple of months, he managed to find all the local shapers in town to discuss surfboards. He asked every single time: Why did it take that long for me to find you? Their answers were classic, no man, I don't want to spend time on building a website, and I don't want to spend my funds on IT-related stuff and admin. I want to shape, surf and spend time on the beach or with my family. I do want to be out there on the internet, but I want to keep my story, identity, and numbers and don't forget I do not want to spend ages in virtual land.
As a surfer, Lesley took all their comments and went home to think about how he could help them while keeping it fun for the surfers. He used his nearly 20 years of experience in the IT industry and came up with a new idea to connect shaper board and surfer, and so Surf Neutral was born.
Surf Neutral is a platform that has one mission. Keep the soul of a surfboard alive and connect the surfer with the shaper to find his perfect surfboard (So that's two of them). We believe that shapers put a piece of their soul into the surfboard, but it fades over time. We did not want that to happen and created a platform where interaction between the shaper, the surfer and his surfboard only grows.
Using Surf Neutral as a shaper will keep track of all surfboards made, registered/uploaded and transferred. The platform builds the shapers portfolio and facilitates getting the surfer in contact with the shaper. Surfers can look for many parameters to ensure a great fit is made between Surfer and Shaper before buying a surfboard.
Surf Neutral made it very straightforward for shapers to keep track of their orders in the factory, add models, and add boards.
We connect all using unique QR codes that CAN be glassed into surfboards. Once the surfboards are made, pictures of the code (if available) and the board should be uploaded. Surf Neutral makes the connection so a board scan reveals all the information.
We believe in giving back to the ocean as surfers, and only as a true surfing community, we can do so by supporting your Local shapers that are exposing themselves on Surf Neutral. Surf Neutral enables the shaper to RENT OUT some of his stock boards. This could be a DEMO POOL for the shaper that can be rented by any Surfer. As such surfers can try boards or models prior to buying them.
We are constantly building cool new features on the platform which will benefit the whole community, so if you wanna be part of this and stay informed about this great journey Sign Up and start connecting!
The Surf Neutral Team