Returning Surfboards to Costco? A Tale of a Broken Board…

Returning Broken Surfboards to Costco?

By Chris Nomad

22 June 2012

So, the other day one of our bros sends us some photos of a return at Costco he’s supposed to handle. After arriving at the front of the store he eyes the following…

When these boards started showing up and first came on the market many surfer’s baulked at the idea of $100.00 board made in China. Discussions of poor quality and taking the food out of the mouths of our favorite shapers flooded the Internet forums and blogs (never mind actually showing up in the lineup with one).

However, many fans of these low priced ‘kook’ sticks came out in numbers as well, making claims of being a terrific piece of equipment for the keikis and those just starting to surf. Just to prove how much fun one could have at such a low price many surfers took to creating video gems of cheap thrills and embracing the Costco surf-craze…

How about using a longboard Wavestorm to skim a kickflip???

Or even get all your bros together and take over a spot!

Not to mention test piloting the Costco skimboards:

We will save the Costco standup paddleboard reviews for another day, but the $200 price tag has it’s place in the market that’s for sure. I, myself, had more than a few outings when I could have used one to explore some amazing river-ways and canals.

But nothing solidified the WaveStorm and Costco’s entrance into the surfboard market more than Jamie O’Brien’s documented Pipe session on his $100 foam special:

And that’s where we come to the end of our little tale. How did such a high performance piece of art got broken clean in half? How would our honest surfer explain how such destruction could come to be? And, finally, just what would our bro at Costco’s decision be on the return itself?

Costco Employee, “Um…so what happened?”
Customer, “I was surfing and I hit this crazy wave”
Costco Employee, “Hmmm, I see. Return approved!”

And after seeing JOB taking on Pipeline and Backdoor, one can see just how this could be…

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Chris Nomad: Passionate Nomad: Born in Venice, lived in Hawaii 7 years, surf Santa Cruz 25+ years. Professional Writer, Artist, Environmentalist, Entrepreneur, Noob Photog. You can find him on