About SurfPoint

Why it exists

Past about three weeks, renting costs more than buying a used board and selling it again before you fly. So that is what most people do, and it is a good plan. Then you go looking.

There is nowhere to look. There is Facebook Marketplace, four or five buy-and-sell groups, a couple of WhatsApp groups somebody added you to at a warung, and the rack at the back of a shop. None of it is searchable. Groups sort by whatever got bumped last, so a board reposted this morning sits above a better one from last week. Scrolling is not the same thing as looking for something.

What the listings say is “6'0 fish, good condition, 3.5jt”. No width, no thickness, and almost never volume, which is the one number that decides whether the board floats you. Nothing says what is wrong with it either, so you find the soft patch yourself, standing over the board in a car park, ninety minutes from where you are staying.

And the posts never come down. Half the boards you message about went weeks ago.

Then it happens to you from the other side. On the way out you are the seller: posting into the same soup, bumping it every day, answering four people who ask whether it is still available and then go quiet, and finally selling to a rental shop for a third of what the board is worth because your flight is on Thursday.

I got tired of that. This is the search that was missing.

What it does

Nothing in any of those places can be asked for a 29 L board between 5'8" and 6'2", in Canggu, under four million rupiah, available before Friday. That is the question SurfPoint answers.

Every listing carries length, width, thickness and volume, a condition grade, what is actually wrong with the board, where it is, and how long it is there for. Then you message the seller and we step aside.

Volume is the first filter, because it decides whether a board paddles for you and it is the number nobody writes down. Where the seller does not know it, we work it out from the model and the size run, and label it as derived so you know which it is. How volume is worked out.

What it is not

We do not sell boards, hold money or take a cut. There is no checkout and no fee on either side. Tap the contact button and you get a WhatsApp thread with a person. Everything after that is yours: you meet, you look at the board, you pay them directly.

There are no ratings or seller scores. A five-star average built from a handful of holiday transactions would only teach you to trust a number instead of the board in front of you. What we can do is print the specs, show every ding the seller declared, and mark anything unconfirmed as unconfirmed.

We are not in the transaction, so we cannot vouch for anyone. Meet in daylight, in a public place, and check the board before any money changes hands. What to check before you pay.

Who it is for

You are here for two to eight weeks. You buy a board when you land and sell it before you fly, which is two deals with two strangers, both under time pressure, with nobody local to ask.

You are buying close to blind. You cannot demo the board, you probably cannot tell a repaired ding from a soft one, and the number that decides whether it floats you is the one nobody writes down. So every close call here goes your way. The specs are on the card instead of three taps in, and a board that sold stays up saying so rather than wasting the next person’s evening.

Local surfers and expats use the same search, and shops clearing stock list on it for nothing. When a call is close, it still goes the traveller’s way.

Why a search layer and not a marketplace

A marketplace with twenty boards on it is broken. Nobody lists because nobody buys, nobody buys because nothing is listed, and the only fix is a year of inventory. A search with twenty boards is just early, and it is allowed to point at a shop, a phone number, or a board that is listed somewhere else entirely. Some of the boards on here were copied off Facebook Marketplace by hand, and the listing says so before you message anyone.

Taking payment would also change what we owe you. The moment money moves through us we need a refund policy, a dispute process, and a reason for you to trust our judgement about a stranger’s board. I would rather do one narrow thing properly: tell you the board is 29.5 L, that the crack on the rail is repaired and the seller says so, and that they fly home in nine days.

How a board gets on here

The seller photographs the board and describes it out loud, in their own words. We transcribe that, read the photos, and propose the specs. Nothing proposed is published until the seller confirms it, field by field, and anything they skip appears to you as unconfirmed rather than being quietly filled in.

Their description stays on the page exactly as they said it. It is the part a careful buyer actually reads, it is the part no algorithm writes well, and rewriting it would remove the one piece of the listing that came from a person.

Bali, and only Bali

One island for the first six months. The board model database, the area pages, the distances and the filters are built for this place specifically. Ten regions at once would produce ten thin catalogues and nothing anyone could search. Every area we cover.

Who runs it

Me. I am Andri Werren, I build websites in Bern for a living, and SurfPoint runs under my company, GEWE GmbH. The register number and the address are on the imprint. No surf brand, shop or rental fleet owns any part of it.

Nobody pays to appear in the results, and there is no advertising. Boards are ordered by how well they match what you asked for, never by who is selling them. If that ever changes, it will say so here first.

Tell me when it is wrong

A wrong volume sends someone across the island to meet the wrong board, so bad specs are worse than no listing at all. If you find some, or a board that has already sold, say so. I fix those by hand, usually the same week.

The contact form reaches me. So does hello@surfpoint.io, if you would rather use your own mail app. Neither is kept anywhere but that inbox.