Still struggling to find that ‘magic board’ you hear so much about in surfing folklore? BoardLine, a new science-based app is here to help you! Offering the benefit of experience from the world’s best pro surfers, the free calculator is able to scale up (or down) the volume of pro surfer signature models to your precise build/surfing ability.

Whether you push signature pro models or not in a exciting new world where anything goes today as far as shapes, gaining some basic knowledge and understanding of the kind of board volumes you’re surfing should help loads towards building the perfect quiver. For more on the science side of things see below.

Welcome to BoardLine®, the first universal, science-based, collaborative and free surfboard calculator. BoardLine® provides surfers with the app the surf industry has always struggled to find, to improve surfing by adapting equipment to surfers’ needs and level. This tool offers the benefit from the pro surfers’ experience as well as from sound Science to calculate the ideal dimensions for a chosen pro model surfboard. BoardLine® is available on Apple Store and Google Play.

Science & empirical evidence
To put it in a very simple manner, your board is constantly counteracting the weight of the surfer by pushing upwards against it : this is called Archimede’s buoyancy force. This force is entirely defined by the volume of the board and is directly proportional to it.

So if you want to mirror a chosen pro’s set-up, you need to adapt the volume of your board so that it counteracts your weight the exact same way the volume of the pro’s board counteract their weight. The weight is the major parameter: for any given type of board (e.g. a performance shortboard), if we combine the weights and volumes of a large number of pros, then the volume-to-weight ratio is found to be very close to constant (cf. chart below). It’s as if all pro surfers “tend” to a universal truth, just with their own experience of surfing.

Benefit from pro surfer’s experience
How to choose the right board dimensions has been a question the surf industry has struggled to answer for years. We have reached the conclusion that one thing is certain: pro surfer must be taken as a reference, because they have tested more boards and combinations of dimensions than any normal surfer could hope to. And they have the skills to evaluate the boards and work with their shaper to improve the models. Advanced surfers can feel very small variations in the volume, dimensions or shape of their boards. From their experience, they have gained a great level of equipment performance. There is therefore nowhere better to start than from the pro’s experience.

BoardLine® scaling methodology
BoardLine® is all about providing you the right tools to improve your surfing. From a given pro model, BoardLine® scales it, conserving all its proportions and shapes, so your weight and the board’s volume come in at the same ratio as for the pro surfers. Dimensions obtained using your weight are then tweaked depending on your BoardLine® Factor, which includes your surfing frequency and technical ability. For example, if you are a less frequent surfer with medium technique, you should have a little bit more thickness at the stringer to allow easier paddling and more forgiveness.

If you surf frequently, are fit and have a good technical level, and if you wish to improve your surfing skills, BoardLine® suggests you ride the same dimensions as the corresponding pro would ride if he were your weight. That way, you have the best possible equipment geared towards optimizing your progression.

App features
Mobile: BoardLine® is available on all your mobile devices. Surfers can use it everywhere, while traveling, in a surf shop or at home. Science-based: This tool is based on simple yet powerful science. It has been developed by a water science engineer, with a Ph.D. in fluid dynamics. Free: This app is 100% free. The whole surf community can benefit from this powerful tool for free. Collaborative: With BoardLine®, pro surfers, shapers and users can contribute to expand and update the surfboard database. Universal: BoardLine® works for a wide range of brands, shapers and models. More than 14 brands, 129 models and 43 surfers are already referenced. And more to come very soon!