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Surfing 101

Surfboard Racks

empty green Volkswagen Beetle carrying yellow surfboard on parking lot during daytime

Surfboard Racks

Surfboard racks are essential for getting your board down to the beach. Unless you like holding the board to your car roof with your hand (not recommended!), it’s pretty important to get something sturdy so that your precious surfboards don’t meet an untimely end on the highway pavement.

There are a couple of options for surfboard car and bike racks. (Click on the links to go to more in-depth pages about each type of rack system.)

If you have hard racks–either factory racks or third party racks such as Yakima bars–my best recommendation to you is to get the Boardlocker locking surfboard racks from RV-Inno. I bought these recently and, without trying to sound like an advertisement, these are seriously some great racks. They make attaching your board a breeze, and they lock so wandering thieves can’t run off with your surfboards.

A cheaper option is to use the factory racks that come installed on many sport utility vehicles and trucks and attach some surfboard roof rack pads. Then use some straps to secure your boards. You could go without the rack pads, but you risk dinging or scratching your boards, not to mention smearing wax all over the rack bars.

If your car doesn’t have hard racks, then you need to get some soft surfboard racks. These lay against roof of your car and provide some stability and cushion for your boards.

If you can bike to the beach, the new surfboard bike racks that have grown in popularity recently are very cool. Perfect for kids, as well as those of you trying to help the environment by driving less. Also great for avoiding parking tickets!

Hayley Gordon

Hayley Gordon has been surfing for over 20 years. Riding both shortboards and longboards, she's traveled the world to surf but mainly sticks to her two home locations of San Diego and Long Island.

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david cram
david cram
2 years ago

I’m looking to buy an ebike from Heybike. That’s the newest affordable brand. Their ads are on this site. Are there any shortboard racks that can fit on this brand of bike?

MC Vadeboncoeur
MC Vadeboncoeur
4 years ago

Hi,
I’m looking for a motocycle surfboard rack. I have a Kawasaki Ninja 300, what would fit on it?
What would you recommand? And also, it is important that the shop ships to Canada.

Thank you!
MC

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