Get a Grip on Bodysurfing with Surf-Grip

Living near the beaches in San Diego, it can be hard to walk down the street and not see someone headed to the sand to catch a wave on a surfboard or a bodyboard. But what if you’re a beach-goer who can’t hang 10? Or you have a family of five and are tired of lugging around all the towels, beach chairs, bodyboards and shovels necessary for a day of family fun? Carmel Valley resident Michael Sick has the solution to your beach day woes; it’s called the Surf-Grip.

The Surf-Grip is a unique piece of sport equipment used for bodysurfing. The carefully designed hand grip is made of plastic and foam, and allows bodysurfers to have more buoyancy and velocity. All bodyboarders need to do is catch a wave at the right moment, and Surf-Grip enhances the experience.

Sick first got the idea for the item during his own trips to the beach with his family. Tired of dragging around bulky boards, he sought to create a product that was more portable and would allow people to do more on the beach than get a tan. After experimenting with several prototypes, the earlier of which consisted of Sick’s pool noodles, Sick got Surf-Grip off the ground. Now in his fourth season, Sick has sold just shy of 2,000 Surf-Grips.

“This season has been a bit different for the Surf-Grip, as we’ve had some interesting online orders from places like Utah, West Virginia and Tennessee – states with no coasts but I presume they are folks looking to make a beach vacation and wanted to try something different,” Sick said. “I just shipped an order to Australia and am now focusing my efforts on the Southern hemisphere, Florida and Hawaii.”

The Surf-Grip is available at surf shops throughout San Diego County, including PB Surf Shop and Rusty’s Boardhouse in La Jolla. The company also has retailers in Carlsbad, Ocean Beach and Coronado. Sick hopes that next year the Surf-Grip will be even more visible on the beach scene.

“If you look around the beach, you see just under 300 body boards in the span of a couple blocks,” he said. “So why couldn’t there be 50 Surf-Grips? These are easier to handle, they’re cheaper and they’re a good workout. We plan to expand marketing next season to make this bigger.”

The Surf-Grip currently sells for $14.99, and swimmers can use them one or use two simultaneously, depending on their preference.

“It’s more than a toy,” Sick said. ”It’s really for fitness. A lot of people go to the beach and hardly go in the water. Once you get a few waves on this, there’s adrenaline that really gets going. It’s all about having fun on the beach.”

Watch the Surf-Grip in action in the videos to the right.