Board security on road trips?

[puget sound]

How do you keep a 14' board secure (theft-wise) on road trips? My family is planning to drive from Washington to California, staying in motels, and I thought I might bring the board with us. What do you do with the board at night? Leave it in the parking lot with Kanulock type straps? Squeeze it into a room?

I'm sure this is a newbie question, I'm just having visions of Oakland parking lots and missing boards...

[stoneaxe]

I've done both...depends on where I am. A nice area...well lit..locked on the racks....sketchy area....bring it in....really sketchy...lean it against the door....

[Night Wing]

If I have to travel to some of my favorite places for sup surfing and plan to stay the night, I have a few motels where I stay for the night and I ask for a room on the first floor which has a door to the outside parking lot.

I do this since I bring my board into the room for the night so I know my board will not get stolen. Leaving a board on top of a vehicle overnight is just asking for it to be stolen.

Even with Kanulocks, a portable Dremel tool will cut through a Kanulock like a hot knife through butter and it will only take a few seconds of time.

[PonoBill]

I've left my board on my rig lots of times, but I've lost one (longboard) and seen signs of attempted theft several times. Mostly damage to the strap part of the ancient cable/strap locks I use. I'm lazy, so bringing the boards into the room is generally out. In a city I give the valet a hefty tip and ask him to put the rig where my boards won't be fucked with. Generally, the result is I come out in the morning and my truck is parked right in the entrance where they usually put fancy-schmancy cars. Out in the burbs and beach towns in a cheap motel, I park right in front of the room and back in to make access a little more complicated. Toss on an extra locking strap or two, and sleep badly, worrying about my stuff.

[stoneaxe]

Are there any alarm systems that you could put on a board...move it and it sends an alarm to your phone? Seems like it would be worth having. Put it on the board, turn on with phone app.

[Tom]

There are motion sensor bike locks that make noise, not sure about apps. Check out the bike shops and they may be able to help.

[Dusk Patrol]

^ There are aftermarket motion activated alarms for motorcycles (see Nulock Keyless) with phone connectivity but cabled and audio alarm.

This is a pet issue of mine, why board makers will not, as a matter of course, add lockability to their boards. I like SIC and Blue Planet handles for that reason.  Starboard used to put holes in the nose of some SUP and windsurf models (for school fleets I think, to run cables through). Why not their more expensive boards? Or some lockable feature. Hobie has its pin handle. Surftech started with that years ago, then got away from it.

In practice I use a Blue planet board as a travel board, and run a KanuLock strap through the handle and through the car, and use its mate  plus a normal strap around the board. This lets me park and leave the car in relative peace.       

[JEG]

I use lockrack.

[Area 10]

If I can get it in a room, I will.

But otherwise I use locking straps plus a Northcore “Lockjaw” which is a cast iron device that goes in the fin box and you can secure a padlock through it. I then use some heavy duty chain to attach this to the roof rack. If a thief really wants your kit there’s no way to stop them. They can always cut your rack off, for instance. But most thieves are lazy (otherwise they wouldn’t need to be thieving, right?), so if you make it a real job to take your board (especially a noisy one) they will probably move on.

[sup_surf_giant]

I traveled to Santa Cruz for the Paddle Fest in 2013 and rented a 14' Laird for the distance race. We had the 2nd floor motel room that had a staircase with two 180° turns and a 90° into the room.

Happy to report, that although my wife was with me on that trip, and did help me move it into the room, so as not to be screwed with....we are still married, although barely.

I finished that race...I plan to finish the this marriage till the end. 

[surfinJ]

DocksLocks. They lock into the leash plug. An option is the fin box. 

With a cable linking them I’ve secured three boards this way.
They would have to seriously damage the tail of the board to get them.
Could happen but I sleep better knowing they are a bit secure.

[2Rivers]

How do you keep a 14' board secure (theft-wise) on road trips? My family is planning to drive from Washington to California, staying in motels, and I thought I might bring the board with us.

After traveling around the Bay Area and the Valley in Nor Cal with my 14' board, I realized that even with Kanulocks and being diligent on where I parked after sessions or overnight, it was just too much hassle and headache. I then made the decision that whenever traveling overnight/days or when I needed to be away/out-of-sight from my auto for some extended time (e.g. Beer:30 &/or food), having an inflatable 14' is the better way to go. Just deflate, pack it away, done! Granted the re-inflation process is a bitch, but well worth the trade-off imo.

No more hardboards unless it's day trips only. It's not the cheapest option having two boards, but imo, it's much better than dealing with a 14' hardboard constantly. The only exception would be if I was attending a race or paddling event where the performance of a hardboard would be critical to me.

[SUP616]

I road tripped from Michigan to Florida with my daughter last year.  Locking straps and well lit parking lot of decent hotels worked out pretty well.  I also added 2 SIC boards and 2 carbon paddles to my homeowners policy for $80/6 months....$0 deductible and full replacement cost.  Made me feel better that if anything happened to them, I could just purchase new ones.

Dave 

[DavidJohn]

https://www.curvesurf.com.au/products/surfboard-lock-sup-lock-longboard-fin-lock-sup-surfboard-security-lockjaw-australia

[kayadogg]

I use lockrack.

This. I’ve used pretty much every type of locking rack system and locking straps. Not only does LockRack offer much more security than straps, it’s hands-down the easiest and fastest racking system I’ve ever used. We just went away for the weekend and brought 5 boards, 4 of which fit inside our van. The 5th has been on top, in a LockRack, since Friday morning and it’s still there. Highly recommend these. Just like anything, if someone really wants your board and is determined, they’ll find a way but this makes it much, much more difficult.