Is the Search for the Foldable Surfboard Over?

Back in the 2000s, the Tracks Magazine office in Sydney attracted a weird litany of nutty surf entrepreneurs. Like the world’s lowest rent version of Shark Tank, our non-work would be interrupted daily by dudes (and it was always dudes) spruiking wax made by wasps, wetsuits made from hemp, removal fins (they’ll never catch on we said), balance boards (we’d drag in Colin from accounts to try them and watch him go arse over apex), and every other invention destined never to see the light. 

One of the most pitched inventions, however, was the foldable/retractable/collapsible surfboard. That made sense. Making travelling with a surfboard easier has been a Holy Grail since we invented a sport whose only piece of equipment was 10 feet long and weighed 80 pounds. In 1964, the aerospace engineer Karl Pope patented the three-piece Travelboard, followed later by the Bisect, 9’6” board that broke into two pieces. All models failed commercially, as did the 1968 Multiboard, designed by Herman Bank. He was a rocket scientist, but it was the shortboard revolution that was said to have led to a lack of vertical thrust for his invention. 

And they kept coming. The Walden tri-fold, industrial designer Thomas Meyerhoffer and his 2PRT, a modular surfboard that splits in two just above the fins. That didn’t take off, and this was a guy who worked for Porsche and helped design the original iMac. A decade ago, French-based Notox Surfboards had a customised and expensive model available. Now back in the Tracks office, the parade of backyard enthusiasts would unveil sectional surfboards, usually packed in a bodyboard or "half" bag with a variety of tube or Dowling inserts, and bolts or clamps to keep the sections in place when surfing.