Our Ethos

Hello and thanks for clicking on to this page. First and foremost, Bodyboard HQ was born from a passion & is owned & run by Bodyboarders. Dave Heard the owner has been Bodyboarding for over 35 years and selling kit for over 28 of those, a wealth of experience that is unrivalled. It is his belief and of all involved with Bodyboard HQ that the right kit will help push the sport at a grass roots level.

It is so easy to buy the wrong gear. There are many new add to cart websites that will let you purchase anything and offer no advice or back up. Facebook style forums are full of unsolicited advice often from people who have little true experience on kit recommendation. Standard surf shops that simply don't know much about bodyboarding and frankly don't really care! It is hard for people to get good solid advice without crossing a minefield of misinformation or bias towards product that makes bigger profit margins. Dave was sick of the above & shops selling the wrong gear to anyone with money in their pocket, he set up Bodyboard HQ to change this.

Sadly there are still too many sharks still in the surfing industry & the internet has only exaggerated the situation with a host of faceless websites offering no advice at all. We understand that the sport begins with people having fun, the right kit will definitely help that. When you start to get more serious we'll be on hand to guide you through the change of equipment you will require. We do not discriminate, from very young to old, whatever your ability, we want you to have a stack of fun & share our passion.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE

At Bodyboard HQ we will never try to oversell you a product unless we believe that it will make a real difference to your riding or will last longer Too many shops will put you on whatever they are making the biggest margin on or whatever is flavour of the month.

We work on the following principle:-

We will always endeavour to get you on the right gear that will last.. Whatever your budget. Word of mouth recommendation is far more important to us than a fast buck so getting your recommendation right will mean you will have more fun, more waves and the kit will last far longer, we'll even show you how to look after it too.

MAIL ORDER

We will always do our best to get product to you quickly, well packaged and efficiently. It is important to use a good courier service so that get parcels are delivered undamaged & on time,

It actually saves time, less paperwork and far less hassle in the long run. The old adage remains with courier services, Pay peanuts, get monkeys!

WE ALWAYS PREFER TO SPEAK TO OUR CUSTOMERS

Things get pretty busy at Bodyboard HQ and demand for our advice service & products is high. It is far easier to speak in real time over the phone to get advice and to take orders.

You will get far more information on stock availability, pros and cons of equipment, which colours, leash placement, fin sizing, parcel delivery dates and so on, all in one hit, just with one phone call.

Far more efficient than a long winded email exchange. The option is still there for you to buy from our add to cart service if you feel uncomfortable handing financial details over the phone.

ECO

OK, so here we are selling what are essentially oil based products that frankly have a pretty bad track record regarding their carbon footprint. The core materials, the process of manufacture and transport add up to bad reading. At the time of writing I am still unaware of too much in the way of research of new more eco friendly materials. It is a tricky dilemma: make super durable boards so less are produced? The problem with that is boards need flex, stiff boards last longer but they do not perform. Now this all makes me a feel a bit sad.

So what can we do? First, from day one we will try to get you on the best board for you. By this we do not mean the most expensive, we mean the one that is the most appropriate for you and your size. This prevents all the trial and error and bad boards. Use our vast knowledge to cut out all the bad purchases and boards that fall apart quickly. Spend a bit more, buy once and get the best construction you can afford. There are now features that will help the board to stop de-laminating, these are not always obvious by looking at a 2 dimensional image on a web page. The right board will be easier to ride. We want your kit to last for you, to ride it until its un-ridable, then, if you can, recycle it.

Wetsuits are another demon, but what would we do without them, bbbrrrrrr! The more expensive very stretchy suits do not last, all companies now have issues at the top-end. Mid range suits often have a nice blend of strength verses flex and nearly always last longer. Look for suits with limestone washed neoprene. Good zip construction and liquid seal for extra seam strength. If in doubt, call us and we'll advise you more. Most importantly, look after your suit!, rinse it, don't squash it up in a bag for hours on end. When you finally do need a replacement then that's the time to call.

All of our cardboard, paper and plastic is recycled here, we get tons of the stuff but there are ways and means of re using these materials to package goods. We hope you will find a use for these materials too. We have recently subscribed to a greener energy supplier. Using a more environmentally friendly way of producing power is the way we want to go for both our business and personal use. We have gradually reduced all our lighting and power requirements to the least demanding in power use. Better insulation and the eventual use of harvested water will supply our need for toilets etc. It is important to feed back to suppliers on better ways of using sustainable packaging so we liaise with companies on how to achieve this. Packaging is always an uphill struggle. Cellophane is used to encapsulate boards, Wetsuits come in polythene covers. We try to reuse as much as possible to uses as padding when sending goods out.

SECURITY

As you already know we like to speak to our customers here at Bodyboard HQ. This way you are assured you will be getting the right thing and your order is processed well. We ask all of our customers to call us to place their order and we will require all of the necessary Information to process the transaction. These details include: name, e-mail address, delivery address, telephone number, product selections, credit card or other payment information and the 3 digit security code. Once we have processed the order your payment details will immediately be destroyed. We understand your need to know that your personal details are protected so we do not store these on any kind of data base. We fully comply with all applicable UK Data Protection and consumer legislation at this current time.

For all of our online sales we use WorldPay. It was important to us that we use the very best mearchant service available. It is safer for our customers and far more efficient a system too.

EDUCATION

We are constantly working on new initiatives to help progress the sport of Bodyboarding, it is so important to us to put something back, it's our passion after all. Bodyboard HQ has built an excellent reputation but our desire to get it right for the sport remains undeterred. It is important to us to work on promoting Bodyboarding at a grass roots level & we understand that the right equipment from day one will facilitate this. When mum or dad buys little johnny his first board and wetsuit, how do we know he won't have massive amounts of natural talent and be the next British champion? It is our job to get it right from day one.

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