I met Jared Koett six years ago in Nicaragua where he was putting in his time as a boat captain for a local surf camp. We exchanged tubes and worldly outlooks and realized we had a very similar vision for the future of surf travel… sustainability! After my strike mission to Nica I parted ways with Jared and he disappeared underground for five years. When he emerged from hiding he was clutching his new fangled solution to surfboard protection and now he needs our support to get this amazing product off the ground and into surf shops world wide. Pretty genius… save your board, save the planet. Surf Resource Network approves.
Just last month, on June 5, 2012, Surf Travel Solutions was formally recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for our new and innovative Bast Board Protection design with the issuance of Patent # 8191712. With our patent secure and others pending, this is the perfect time to ask for your support to stop the widespread practice of single-use petroleum-based packaging waste http://www.ehow.com/info_8101143_environmental-problems-polymers.html that is presently filling our landfills worldwide. With over 1 million surfboards produced annually, and a surf industry constituency that really does care about the environment, NOW is the time to bring a responsible, biodegradable and reusable alternative packaging solution to market.
Where’s it made? The project is primarily executed in San Diego, CA. We have already developed and patented the initial design concept here, produced and tested prototypes in Escondido, CA, and collaborated with key segments of the surf industry in the broader Southern California region. The initial prototype tooling and manufacturing of the molded pulp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molded_pulp kits is expected to be done in China to take advantage of lowering our costs to 40% of what it would cost to get the tooling made domestically. As the business grows, the idea of producing this domestically is possible. We have a wave of support from the surf community that is ready and willing to use our product. We have completed extensive market research and received positive feedback from board manufacturers, retailers (surf shops), and traveling surfers that they want an alternative to the wasteful and time-consuming packaging methods in use today. All we need right now is your financial assistance to develop new tooling so that our designs can be produced out of a recyclable, reusable molded pulp material instead of petroleum-based plastic.
How’s it made? The production of molded pulp tools/parts is subject to similar rules and guidelines associated with thermoforming plastics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoforming. Using our early plastic prototypes (depicted in our Kickstarter photos, video clips, and the link to our website) we will take advantage of our lessons learned to expedite development of new tooling for the molded pulp product, a Type-2 transfer mold process that will be completed within the first 3-4 weeks after reaching our funding goal. One week later, our first sample products will be manufactured in the new molded pulp material so that we can test and validate the new product for form, fit, and function. We expect to be able to provide initial shipments of our Bast Board Protection product to board manufacturers, retailers, and traveling surfers within 90 days. Altogether, the scope of the Kickstarter project to include new tooling development and Bast kits made of molded pulp is estimated to be delivered to board manufacturers, retailers, and traveling surfers on or before Jan.17, 2013.
All financial pledges raised through Kickstarter will be used for engineering design and collaboration with our tool developer, an initial limited production manufacturing run of 400-500 kits, and the travel and shipping costs required to get the product produced and delivered to our customers. Our primary goal is to produce the tooling and complete an initial production run on a single kit design. Any Kickstarter funds raised in excess of our funding goal will be used to create additional models of the nose, tail, and coupler pieces of the Bast Board Protection kits so that we can serve a broader range of board designs. We want to validate all processes and establish transactional truth within our markets before expending any additional resources; therefore our initial product design will target the largest, most popular surfboard model first (shortboards), then migrate to the fish/hybrid, longboard, and even Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) market as we grow our business and proliferate sustainable packaging across the surf industry. The Bast design can also be extended into the kiteboard, wakeboard, windsurf/sailboard, and other potential markets where full perimeter protection in an eco-friendly design is a priority.
You can see a demonstration of our initial prototype product in use by a traveling surfer, Founder and Inventor, Jared Koett at: http://bastboardprotection.com. As you can see, our innovative design makes sense because it speeds up the process of packaging surfboards, thus saving time for traveling surfers, and labor costs for board manufacturers and retailers. Please watch this video that demonstrates our product use in the overall process for surfboard packaging for manufacturers and retailers: http://youtu.be/yOI6XzIChnA. Multiple boards can be packaged and stacked in this fashion. From start to finish, a surfer can pack his board for air travel in less than 1-minute. Surfboard manufacturers and retailers can package a single board ready for shipping in less than 4-minutes. Don’t believe us? Verify the time with this video: http://youtu.be/fJXHcuwV2f0. Not only is Bast fast and effective, the entire packaging and process is environmentally conscious. Bast is 100% biodegradable, the end caps and deck pads shown are made from recycled cardboard, and the stretch wrap is made from low density polyethylene, a very inexpensive Type-4 recyclable material. Migrating Bast from the plastic prototype to an eco-friendly molded pulp material is the final step required to offer manufacturers, retailers, and traveling surfers an alternative to single-use petroleum-based packaging.
We need your help to develop the first environmentally friendly, reusable, recyclable, biodegradable, and sustainable surfboard packaging solution; Bast Board Protection.
Surf Travel Solutions and Mother Earth thank you for your pledge!
