Surfboard anti-theft chip has many hidden benefits

To combat surfboard theft, Peter Lascelles, owner of Beachbeat Surfboards in Cornwall, began adding the Surfboard Tracker device to his boards just over a year ago.

Since then, other labels, including Local Motion and Viking have begun adding the chips to their boards, and the tracker was a hot topic at the last meeting of the 400-member Shapers Society of Brazil.

Additional benefits for the retailer include brand authentication and inventory control.

Also, board retailers can also use data in the chips to reach their customers with tailored marketing information, rather than flood them with useless junk mail.

Because data about the board is contained on the tracker, the benefits to the board owner are astounding, as Global Surf News explains:

When a surfer registers his or her board he receives a personal message from the shaper giving the precise size and dimensions and everything else there is to know. This information can be transferred to other shapers to produce boards under license and keep tabs on what has been produced, fantastic for managing licensed shapers.

Shapers using SBT can reproduce surfboards just by advising the shaper of the SBT implant number and picking up the information from the system, great for travelling surfers who use the system to advise shapers what boards requires in advance of a competition or surf trip.

All this adds less than one percent to the total price of the board.

Here is a recent BBC News report about the system.