SurfLend

The idea for SurfLend came to me back in Australia. When you travel there, you want to surf as many beaches as possible, but dragging your own board along in a car or on a plane is a pain. At the same time, lots of people have boards sitting in the garage that nobody is using right now. So why not just share them?

What is SurfLend?

SurfLend brings together people who have a surfboard and people who need one. Board owners list their board and set a price per day or week, or lend it for free. Payment in the app is not active yet. If you're looking for a board, you find one nearby or post a request that owners with a matching board can answer. SurfLend is still in development. You can try the current version in the browser on test.surf-lend.com; it is also built as an app for Android and iOS.

How it works

1. Choose a search area: The app searches around your current location or a place you look up, within 5 to 100 km. The list, the map and the suggestions all use the same area.
2. Find a board: Every board shows price, type, length, distance and when it's available. If you only want free boards, you can filter for them. Under “For you” the app suggests boards and says why: close by, free, well rated or matching one of your requests.
3. Request: Pick the dates, add a short message, done. The other way round, owners can offer a board directly to an open request.
4. Close the deal: Once the other side accepts, the deal is on. Payment in the app is not active yet; later, boards with a price will be paid at this point. Then come handover and return, and finally both rate each other.

Every deal has its own page showing its progress: requested, accepted, picked up, returned. Once payment is active, a “paid” step will come between “accepted” and “picked up”. Which buttons you see there depends on who you are and where the deal stands. You only see the other person's phone number while the handover is running, not before and not after.

For surf shops too

Surf shops can join in. A shop has an address, opening hours, photos and its own boards, and the app shows whether it's open right now, for example “closed, opens Sat 08:00”. Shop owners can invite staff by email, who then look after the shop's boards and deals.

How it's built

• An Angular app that runs in the browser and ships as a native app for Android and iOS with Capacitor.
• A NestJS backend with an SQLite database via Prisma.
• Sign-in with Firebase (Google and Apple), push notifications with Firebase Cloud Messaging.
• Payment with Stripe Connect: the money goes straight to the person lending the board. This feature is prepared but not active yet.
• Maps with Leaflet and OpenStreetMap, address search through Nominatim.

Try it

SurfLend is still in development. You can try the current version on test.surf-lend.com. The screenshots above come from a test environment with sample data around Santa Monica. Next up are payment in the app and more languages.