How-to: A better method to transport a surfboard on a bike without a rack (Patent NA25396 :P)

The problem

I live in San Francisco, and our city beach is exactly 4.7 miles away from my apartment in Haight (yay!). It’s a beautiful bike ride, but it’s slightly further than I can bike with my board under my arm (boo). I either have to rely on my friend Jake (who has a car), or take the N-Line on Muni which is unreliable (especially on weekends) (boo!).

Or a bike rack? Why not a bike rack you say? 4 reasons:

1. I have a road bike, which isn’t build to hold a board rack.
2. Bike racks cost money.
3. I only surf about 2 days a week and don’t want to ride around for the rest of the week with a huge surf rack appendix jutting out of it.
4. A side-mounted surfboard isn’t great for your balance and acts like a sail when cycling through Golden Gate Park.

A possible solution

So today I made numerous experiments trying to build my own bike trailer out of rolling suitcases, lash my surfboard onto my frame, but eventually came up with a way simpler solution: simply lash it to a backpack. I’ll leave share it here hoping you can use it for your surf commute. This will only work with shortboards under 6 feet, I’d say – but your mileage may vary. This one’s 5’8”. A 7’ still work.

Added benefits of going to surf on a bike is a great warm-up, no parking hassle at the beach, and fresh air.

I nickname it the Turtle. What do you think? Kook of the day, innovation, or seen this a million times? Let me know via email below.