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Beachbeat launch pioneering new concept
by George Mojo
20/07/2006:// Beachbeat Surfboards, based in St Agnes, has harnessed webcam technology to allow people to see the boards in real time through the company's website www.beachbeatsurfboards.co.uk.
"We've set up a webcam in our shop that streams live footage," explained Beachbeat Surfboard's owner, Peter Chops' Lascelles.
It means that anyone in the world can logon to the site, go to the webcam page and give us them a call. The company will then be able to simultaneously show and tell them about the board.
"What we're trying to recreate is the experience people would have buying in a shop," said Chops.
The webcam concept, which Beachbeat believe to be the only one of its kind in the world, was developed in conjunction with internet company, uknetweb.
"This has been a brilliant project to work on," said uknetweb's managing director, Toby Parkins.
"Its unique, its innovative and its making a real difference to people who want to buy boards online. Chops is probably one of the most respected men in surfing and hešs definitely leading the way with the webcam."
Over the last 30 years Chops, who moved to the UK from Australia in 1974, has been at the cutting edge of surfboard design hand shaping over 20,000 boards for surfers worldwide.
A former Queensland and English surf champion, he's still the reigning champion in the Hossegar Longboard Masters held in France.
He also has the honour of being the first British Surf Association coach in the country before he set up Beachbeat in 1984.
"My aim has always been to provide the best service for surfers. The webcam allows us to interact with customers. We can talk to them and show them the boards. They can even see the colour," added Chops.
"It means that people can fully participate with their purchase on the web rather than with other sites where there's no one to one interaction."
The introduction of the webcam follows the addition of another piece of technology to aid the business.
After 30 years of hand shaping Chops has recently begun using a CAD (Computer Aided Design) system to help create the designs.
"The CAD system allows us to input data about people's height, weight, age, where they surf and how often they surf." he said
"From this we can design a board specific to them. It also means that if anyone breaks their favourite board we can make an exact replica. And it can all be done through the website," he added.
Once the design is complete the files are sent to the company's factory in Newquay for the board to be shaped.
"This saves so much time. In the past it used to take me an hour to shape a board, but now in that time I can design six boards and have them produced," said Chops
"I'm now able to concentrate more on design and development and we also get a consistency that was hard to achieve by hand. Using CAD and the webcam we can give people a full perspective, as well as the best boards wherever they are in the world."
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