A WELSH designer has come up with an ingenious tracking device to help stop surfboards being stolen or counterfeited.

Andrew Smith, from the city of Newport, came up with the idea for a unique chip linked to an international database after thieves took his board on holiday in France.

Now his invention has won the backing of the International Surfing Association, and is being sold to manufacturers in Australia, Brazil, the US and Europe.

The individually-numbered chip, which is embedded in the surfboard, contains details of the board’s specifications and its owner, helping to prove its authenticity and deter theft.

This is the equivalent of a football manufacturer gaining the support of governing-body Fifa, says Mr Smith, and is something which he hopes will cement the success of his business.

“About two years ago my wife and I and my three kids went down to south-west France for a holiday and we stopped off in Bordeaux and I had all my surf boards stolen, mine and my kids’ – everything.

“I was smarting because my experience with insurance companies was pretty poor and my experience with the French police was worse and I wanted to do something about it.

“Some times you get your hands on a precious board that you really value and you want to protect it.”

New boards can cost anything up to £1,000, while some antique boards can change hands for more than £12,000.

With a background in IT and telecommunications Mr Smith, who has been surfing since he was 12, was familiar with databases and well placed to set up a system for tracking surf boards.

The trick was to find a way of making each one unique and so he came up with the idea of a chip which is built into the board during the manufacturing process.

Later it can be read by means of scanning, and a registration card will be provided to the buyer who can then register their details online.

The system has a number of benefits for both surfer and manufacturer, according to Mr Smith.

Not only is it a theft deterrent, but it also enables fakes to be more easily identified.

“The board carries a kitemark saying that it is electronically protected and you can use a scanner to buzz the chip and identify the board,” he said.

“If you went into the board to take the chip out you would seriously damage it.

“A customer can register his board and if he loses that board he can report it to the database as lost or stolen. If someone else has stolen it that person could possibly walk into a shop and say they want to sell it but the retailer will recognise the kitemark and ask for the registration card.

“So anybody that’s walking about with a stolen board is automatically going to find it more difficult to sell.

“It opens up a whole market with insurance companies because any item like a surf board is very difficult to insure because they don’t have any identification.

“So what we do is provide identification of ownership which makes them insurable.”

He added, “Then it became apparent that companies’s labels, their brands, were being ripped off. Boards were being manufactured and sold as ‘made in Australia’ when they had actually been made in China or somewhere. So we had an opportunity with branding because the serial numbers of the board is hidden in the chip but they’re unique and can’t be copied. The customer knows the board is absolutely 100% authentic.”

As well as surf boards the tracker system can be used in other extreme sports boards including snowboards, windsurfers and kite surfers. Second-hand boards can be re-registered to allow legitimate resale while still preventing stolen boards from being circulated.