San Diego-based Boardal app connects surfers with boards, gear
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — You could say business is going swell for two San Diego surfers who launched an app specifically tailored to help the local surf community find the gear they are looking for.
Will Salvato and Brendan Donovan launched Boardal, a marketplace app for buying, selling and trading surf gear in San Diego.
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Salvato, a La Jolla native and Donovan, an Encinitas native, are longtime surfers themselves and wanted to make it easier for surfers to explore preferred listings from shortboards to longboards and much more.
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“We saw a need as surfers. If you are looking for a board or selling a board you might look on OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or Nextdoor. We wanted to create one place for surfers to buy and sell boards, keep it super easy and categorized,” Salvato said.
“With some of those other marketplaces, you get so many listings, a lot of different tags and you may end up with an air fryer in your surfboard listings, so we allow users to sort by height, sort by brand, fin setup.”
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The two friends turned business partners met as members on their college surf team at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, traveling the state and the world for surf competitions.
Surfers can also sell boards on the Boardal app by creating a listing, naming their price and communicating with customers.
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“There is secure messaging in the app, the price could get negotiated at which point you meet up in person and you make a sale,” Donavan said. “My dad actually made a sale yesterday!”
The app launched in the Apple App Store on March 1 and already has 3,500 downloads. They are focused on growing in the local market with hopes of expanding to other surfing communities across the country. The team is working to launch for Android users soon.
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