Now shipping Australia-wide from Ocean Grove, Victoria
Now shipping Australia-wide from Ocean Grove, Victoria
Patented · New for 2026
SharkGuard is a patented technology in which multiple rare-earth magnets are built into the surfboard or bodyboard during manufacture, projecting a magnetic field down into the water around the board.
6′ Rubix, bottom up. The stripe is the slick itself.
Sharks have a unique electrosensory organ system that is sensitive to magnetic fields.
A strong magnetic field projected into the water overwhelms that system. It is a distressing, uncomfortable sensation for the shark, which in many cases drives it away.
Magnetic deterrents have been sold as accessories (bracelets and the like) for around fifteen years and have proven effective. Until now they had never been built directly into the manufacturing process of a surfboard or bodyboard.
No batteries. No recharging. No maintenance. No harm to the shark.
Four magnets in the Magic Carpet bodyboard. Six in every surfboard.
The stripe
Every Rock-It board also carries a visual deterrent: the zebra-striped “sea camo” slick bottom. In 2013, University of Western Australia neurobiologist Nathan Hart and entrepreneur Hamish Jolly presented research indicating that a zebra stripe pattern deters sharks. The pattern disperses the shark’s ability to identify the object and mimics non-food items in its environment. There are no guarantees, but if something could be safer, why not do it?
Field tests with baited boards, filmed. A SharkGuard board and an identical control board without it, in the same water on the same day.
A swarm of bull sharks, well known as the most aggressive species, did not take a suspended piece of bait (bonito) off a SharkGuard board for over ten minutes while the water around it was chummed. We then placed a similarly baited control board without SharkGuard and the bait was taken immediately.
After multiple passes in which the SharkGuard board kept its bait, we chummed heavily to create a feeding frenzy and hung a whole bloody fish below the board. With the control board the fish was taken immediately. With the SharkGuard board we kept chumming for about five minutes before a large bull shark eventually took the bait. The field clearly deters these sharks, but a sufficiently motivated animal can overcome it.
A Rock-It bodyboard with SharkGuard was suspended in shallow water with a piece of bonito hung on a fishing line below it. A blacktip approached the bait and took off quickly once it sensed the magnetic field from the board.
