One hundred or more code lines later, I’m really glad to present our Surf Grip Builder. A simple tool that allows our costumers to visualize their Van der Waal set up before they order it.

A first sight looks quite simple. Honestly, I thought that even not being a developer, it would be as easy as pie. So I started to code… and code, and code, and code more. Slowly understanding that wasn’t that easy, and diving into a forgotten world of math and formulas.

Surf is not an easy sport :D and every surfer has his own board, with infinite combinations of dimensions and layout, and on top of that, wants to set up his surfboard differently from the others. One of the advantages of a modular traction pad as Van der Waal, is the capability to adjust to any surfboard layout, size, and surfing style (ie beginner, novice, experienced surfers use different layouts because they place their feet differently, not to name longboard nose riders, tube riders, and so on).

Our old calculator provided surfers info on how many hexagons they should need to cover their surfboards, based on size and kind of surf. But was visually null.

After a lot of research, tests, failures, rebuilds, and headaches, I finally figured out how to develop a tool that could help our Waalers to visualize their surf grip pads set up, the areas they want to cover on 4 types of surfboards: retro (represented by a fish surfboard), shortboard, longboard, and mini malibu.

Check it here

It’s not 100% accurate, but looks cool and works pretty well. Hope you like it!