The Tesla Surfboard Five Years Later

These are ten grand now

News

By RC Staff

03 April 2023

Key Points

The Tesla surfboard was CEO Elon Musk’s latest foray into non-car products in July 2018
200 boards were produced and sold first come, first serve through Tesla’s website. They retailed for $1,500 and began to resell for around $3,000 immediately after
As Tesla gained in adoption and notoriety, so did the resale prices for boards. The Tesla surfboard now resells for $10,000 or more

Item

Sports

Tesla Carbon Fiber Surfboard

Features Tesla branding, and the same matte and gloss finished used on Tesla’s vehicles. One key feature is the ability for the surfboard to fit comfortably inside any Tesla vehicle. Limited edition of 200.

Only a month after the Boring Co.’s Not-a-Flamethrowers sold out, Elon Musk would introduce the world’s first Tesla Surfboard. Ultra-limited, unique, and pretty darn expensive, the boards sold out in under 24 hours. While mostly treated as a curiosity by the surfing community, Tesla fans were eager to get their hands on one, and they began to resell. Tesla surfboards now resell for nearly ten thousand dollars four years after their release. Yet, despite their success, many were hesitant to buy them at retail.

What is the Tesla Surfboard?

It is not clear where the idea behind the Tesla surfboard came from. The company has a distinct Southern Californian identity, with much of its infrastructure based in San Jose up until recently. So perhaps beaches and waves were on the minds of its engineers frequently. Or maybe Elon came to the office one day with a drawing of a surfboard and demanded they bring it to life.

In any case, the Tesla surfboard draws deliberate parallels in its design with other Tesla products. It is crafted with real carbon fiber, fiberglass, and a glass finish that mimics the paint from a Model S. All 200 boards were the same red and black colorway.

The red bottom features a large Tesla logo, while the deck is produced entirely from carbon fiber, with a small Tesla badge at the nose. Using carbon fiber as a deck material was criticized by experienced surfers, as the material gets hot in the sun.

How much does the Tesla Surfboard cost?

The Tesla surfboard went up for sale at $1,500 each, limited to 200 total. Tesla’s online store updated late at night on the 27th to add the boards. With such limited production and the unique aspect of the board, it seemed obvious they would sell out.

Tesla’s online store was pretty troublesome during the release. The surfboards product page frequently cycled between displaying them as out of stock and available to purchase. The page was unavailable for a significant portion of the day on the 28th. Users reported they could not purchase boards even with them showing as in stock.

These issues likely led to the relatively prolonged time it took for boards to sell out and possibly turning off potential buyers who either became disinterested or believed the boards had sold out. In any case, by the end of the day, July 28th, the boards were gone.

Buyers received an email after a successful purchase informing them that boards were to ship sometime in October, three months after purchase. The shop page clarified that they made the boards with each order, but the lead time still needed to be determined.

Did the Tesla Surfboard resell?

Tesla surfboards would begin to resell immediately after they sold out from Tesla’s site. Initially, they feared that interest in the boards would be somewhat low after the slow sellout, but it seems that was due to the technical issues on Tesla’s web store.

They were initially around $2,500 to $4,000. While there were sales in the weeks following the release, many waited to buy from a reseller. By mid-October, most surfboard buyers had received an email from Tesla informing them when they would receive their board and began to list them for sale.

Sales were pretty steady for the rest of 2018, with most resellers preferring to move their boards as soon as they received them, earning an easy $1,000-$2,000 in profit. Shipping was expensive, considering both the size and quality of the boards, usually costing around $200.

Some sellers kept their boards listed for significantly higher prices. Upon receiving their Tesla surfboard, some resellers would go on to list them for $10,000 and not budge from that price. At first, it seemed like they were being unreasonable until prices started to rise.

Since there were only 200 boards, those who chose to hold them could command the market. As cheaper boards dried up and sold off, a Tesla surfboard’s resale price gradually ticked to around $5,000-$6,000 by 2020.

Going into 2022, the typical price for a Tesla surfboard reached $10,000. A sale in August 2021 was at $11,000. In 2018, people did not expect the Tesla surfboard to resell for these prices, but it should have been obvious.

Surfers and Tesla critics were quick to dogpile the board, calling it overpriced and underfunctional, but most people who bought one of these boards would not be using it as their main surfboard (or even ever using it). Rather, they make for a great display piece for a Tesla superfan, of which there are many, especially with money to burn.

And 200 total made? That should have been an obvious sign of what was about to happen. Instead, the Boring Co. produced 20,000 Not-a-Flamethrowers, which were somehow less useful than the Tesla surfboards, and those continue to resell for thousands.

Uncertainty in the future and technical issues likely kept these boards out of the hands of many prospective buyers. Sometimes that is how it goes in the reselling game, but we hope that next time they remember the golden rule: Always count on Tesla fans to buy dumb stuff.

Are you tired of missing out on opportunities like these? Maybe it’s time to join the RC Elite community. The Tesla Surfboard was posted in the group in 2018, and several members managed to buy one.

Special thanks to our RC members for helping produce this article, as well as providing the photos.