The last debate you expected to find at the heart of a design story was a surfing one, but here we are. For years, the surf community has been at odds over something surprisingly technical: should surfboards be measured in volume, using litres? It sounds like a niche argument, but for shapers and surfers, the stakes are genuinely real. Leave it to an Australian brewery to turn that argument into one of the most interesting design objects of the year.<\/p>\n
Gage Roads Brew Co. partnered with legendary board shaper Chris Garrett of Phantom Surfboards to create the Beerboard, a custom single-fin surfboard built with a sealed internal chamber capable of holding 10 litres of Gage Roads Summer Ale Single Fin. Yes, it actually surfs. And yes, it actually pours beer. That\u2019s the whole glorious point.<\/p>\n
Designer: Chris Garrett with Gage Roads Brew Co<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The concept itself is brilliantly simple, but the execution was anything but. The engineering challenge of making a surfboard capable of storing pressurised beer without leaking, or worse, imploding mid-session, required serious work. Garrett\u2019s decades of experience as a shaper came into play here in ways that go well beyond surface aesthetics. He\u2019s been crafting boards since 1979, and Phantom Surfboards has been his life\u2019s work since 1984. Designing the Beerboard meant rethinking the interior construction entirely, embedding a food-safe chamber that could handle pressurisation while preserving the board\u2019s hydrodynamics. The build process reportedly came with a few explosions along the way, which is either alarming or just the most Australian development story imaginable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The board draws inspiration from the iconic Greenough Spoon, a shape dating back to the 1960s. Choosing that reference wasn\u2019t accidental. The Spoon was itself a radical rethink of what a surfboard could be, and the Beerboard follows directly in that spirit. It doesn\u2019t look like a novelty item. It looks like a real board, clean and purposeful, and that restraint is exactly where the design succeeds. A gimmick slapped together for a social media moment would have felt cheap. This doesn\u2019t feel cheap at all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Once the board was finished, Gage Roads called in Olympic surfing medalist and part-owner Jack Robinson alongside legendary free surfer Brendan \u201cMargo\u201d Margieson for sea trials. The fact that professional surfers actually took it into the ocean, rode it, and then presumably poured a cold one from it afterward is a key part of why the Beerboard registers as more than a marketing stunt. It works, both as a surfboard and as a beer dispenser. That functional integrity is what elevates the whole project.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Is the Beerboard a practical product? Not remotely. You\u2019re not about to wax this thing down and paddle out for your morning session while worrying about keeping your lager cold. But practicality is the wrong lens here entirely. The most interesting design objects rarely exist to solve a purely utilitarian problem. They exist to reframe one. The Beerboard reframes the entire surfboard volume debate by making it physical and playful, by literally filling a surfboard with the very unit of measurement causing all the fuss. It\u2019s design as commentary, and it genuinely lands.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It also matters who made this. Chris Garrett isn\u2019t an ad agency prop designer. He\u2019s a craftsman with nearly 50 years in the industry, someone whose boards have been trusted by some of the world\u2019s top surfers across decades. Bringing his expertise to a project like this gives the Beerboard a credibility it wouldn\u2019t have had otherwise. It\u2019s the difference between a concept and a creation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen plenty of branded design collaborations that felt hollow or performative, where the \u201cdesign\u201d was really just a logo slapped on a limited-edition container. The Beerboard isn\u2019t that. It required genuine engineering, real craft expertise, and the confidence to commit fully to a ridiculous idea until it became a remarkable one. That, I think, is what good design actually looks like. Sometimes it just happens to come with a tap.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post Gage Roads Just Turned a Surfboard Into a Beer Tap<\/a> first appeared on Yanko Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last debate you expected to find at the heart of a design story was a surfing one, but here we are. For years, the surf community has been at odds over something surprisingly technical: should surfboards be measured in volume, using litres? It sounds like a niche argument, but for shapers and surfers, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n