The Quiver Lets Surfers Rent their Sticks in Airbnb-Like Service Across the Globe
Tis the sea, son! Hauling your surfboard from beach to beach is a thing of the past thanks to The Quiver, a new platform that lets surfers rent out their boards to anyone in 20 countries and growing. The Airbnb-like service connects board owners to everyday surfers throughout the world, creating an online community and marketplace that monetizes board sharing in a unique peer-to-peer model. With a few clicks on the site, riders can browse through hundreds of boards to rent and reserve their perfect stick in a matter of minutes. The Quiver also allows anyone to list their own boards.
Among the thousands of boards listed you’ll find well known board brands and local surfboard shapers alike. Some of the surfboard brands include Album, Campbell Brothers, Channel Islands, Lost, and Pyzel among others. The site also includes links to some of the most popular surfing destinations where boards are readily available.
“We’re a two-sided marketplace connecting surfers with surfboards on demand,” says The Quiver CEO Joe Wilson, a life-long surfer who has ridden waves for more than 20 years. “Using The Quiver, everyday surfers can make money renting out their boards to others. The Quiver marketplace puts the available and inactive surfboard supply back to work allowing anyone with boards to start making money renting them out. Our mission is to make surfboards more accessible and to bring people together.”
The Quiver’s easy navigation and communal atmosphere is a virtual community for surfers, who can also meet fellow riders and share tips and recommendations. In a COVID world, surfing has gained new popularity for its singular experience, allowing people to enjoy the waves by themselves or with small groups of friends.
“In times of uncertainty and change, being out in the ocean is beneficial in so many ways,” says Wilson. “Surfing has always been a socially distant sport. In fact, when you find waves without anyone else in the water, it can be the most memorable and best sessions. The beauty of surfing is that all you need is a board.”
The inspiration behind The Quiver is an experience every surfer has faced: traveling with cumbersome boards that are often damaged in transport. Additionally, it has become increasingly expensive to fly with excessive airline baggage fees.
“I’ve arrived at a destination with a bag of broken boards, which cost more to transport than the price of my own seat,” says Wilson. “I always thought this process was flawed.”
Wilson and co-founder Rob Bonvetti saw an opportunity and began creating a community of surfers eager to catch a new wave: a chance to make money off their boards, which are accumulated over the years and many go unused. The Quiver also allows riders to demo new boards, testing different shapes, constructions and fin setups among other features.
“We have thousands of boards listed with an even larger community of others that are renting them,” Wilson says. “Like other sharing economy marketplaces, we’ve heard stories of like-minded surfers connecting all over the globe and friendships starting with a Quiver rental. This is what really gets us excited and motivates us to build the best and most trusted online community for surfboards. We plan to grow thoughtfully by sticking to this mission and our core values. We also plan to bring even more value to the community by including more local surfboard shapers and surf shops on the marketplace too.”
