CI Launches Innovative New Website

Santa Barbara, CA, June 05, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Channel Islands Surfboards is widely considered the global leader in surfboard design and manufacturing, dedicated to performance and quality through hard work, innovation, and originality. Over the last 43 years, Channel Islands has grown from a local grass-roots operation to a cutting edge organization, catering to the best surfers in the world. With the goal to shape the future with innovative design and quality, Channel Islands engaged SLTWTR Creative Agency as a partner for digital leadership in bringing the CI brand and product offering into a modern, digital space.

- Next Level Frothing

Early in the project the team identified the goal of near-tactile experience, connecting the consumer to surfboards at a level previously unreached in an online experience. While nothing can duplicate the experience of walking into your local surf shop, the website is designed to give the surfer a parallel confidence in their equipment choice. The more dedicated a surfer becomes, the more knowledgeable they get when it comes to the details of surfboard dimensions. CI is flooded with questions from surfers requesting details like, what is the exact volume in liters of a Fred Rubble at 6’0 x 19 x 2 ½”? What is the tail width of a 6’4 x 19 Black Beauty? The site answers these questions with a toolset that puts the foremost knowledge of surfboard design into the hands of the surfer.
Whether on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device, the new site has a layout that serves in its simplicity. The visuals speak for themselves, have a look.

- Recommended Dims

By creating a profile on the CI website, a surfer inputs their height, weight, and surfing ability (along with optional nickname and mugshot). With this information, the surf- boards on the CI website are then tuned exactly to that surfer. With volume being the most popular measurement in surfboards today, the site automatically adjusts the length, width, and thickness of a board to support the recommended volume for any surfer. The surfer can override the recommendations based on personal preference, but we lay down a baseline.

- RailView

The site is designed to take advantage of the available screen size to display surfboards in all their glory. The rail view addresses the need to see a surfboard as it would lie in the water to gain a true understanding of the shape. The ability to see the current line of Channel Islands surfboards stacked vertically allow surfers to compare rocker flow and measurements. You can switch between rocker and outline view at will, and the views automatically switch when the user changes the orientation of their mobile device.

- Filterable Board Attributes

For surfers to know which board is right for them, the site offers attribute sets for shape, performance, and wave type. So you are an intermediate surfer and you want a nar- row-tailed board to ride at an overhead reef break? No problem.

- Comparison Engine

Part of the surf shop experience is to lay two or more boards down side by side to com- pare the outline. The Comparison Engine captures that experience, and includes most common measurements and design attributes set side by side.

- Custom Board Creation

In early 2014, Channel Islands launched a consumer-facing web-based version of the same software they use to design their surfboards, Shape3D. The advent of “The Board Builder” marked a huge evolutionary moment in surfboards, as surfers became enabled to design their own custom surfboards right on the Channel Islands Website, make adjustments to every dimension, component, and visual aspect to a board. In the development of the new website, the limits of integration and customization were pushed into a next-level customization platform, adaptive to screen size. Part of the surf shop experience is to lay two or more boards down side by side to com- pare the outline. The Comparison Engine captures that experience, and includes most common measurements and design attributes set side by side.

- Quiver

The board building tool offers the option to purchase a surfboard or simply save it to an individual surfers quiver. Once it is saved it can later be edited, shared, or built. Upon purchasing a custom built surfboard, the surfer can then track the production status of the board at Channel Islands factory in Carpinteria, CA. Surfers can see real time when their board is being milled, shaped, and glassed, and share the progress via social net- works along the way. When a surfer shares their quiver, others with undoubtedly com- pare, compete, and customize their own.

- Team Engagement

The evolution of surfboards is being driven by the best surfers in the world. Drawing from athletes like Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds, Nat Young, Lakey Peterson, Adriano de Souza and many more, the website displays a snapshot into what performance equipment looks like. The entire surfing community is able to view the boards that are winning world titles and pushing the limits of what is possible on foam and fiberglass. Drawing from this information we hope all surfers can customize a board that is fine- tuned to their surfing.

- What's Next

Channel Islands and SLTWTR will be launching a surf shop-based version of the board builder later in the year.

- SLTWTR

SLTWTR Creative Agency is a full service creative agency offering Identity Systems, Digital Platforms, and Brand Campaigns that engage today’s consumer to lifestyle-inspired companies such as Channel Islands Surfboards. We partner with brands that inspire us. Our most successful work is in part the result of relationships based on a collaborative empathy for the consumer. Energetic companies that are prepared to take a progressive approach to brand identity and user experience will find untapped inspiration in them- selves when catalyzed by a creative agency that “gets it.”