POD began in 1988 with a piece of timber, a workshop, and a question that has driven every product since. What does the human body actually need in the water, and how do you build something worthy of it?

Shane Vassallo founded POD in Sydney after years of bodysurfing, bodyboarding, and swimming in the ocean that sits at the bottom of his street. The first handboards were prototypes. Timber blanks shaped by hand, tested in the water, reshaped, and tested again. The concave bottom, the keel control, the strap position that mirrors where the hand naturally sits on a wave face - none of that came from a design brief. It came from the water.

That process has not changed. Every product in the POD range begins with the same questions Shane asked in 1988. Would I buy this? Will it last? What are the weak points? How can I improve on what is taken for granted? Have I met every functional criterion? Is there anything missing?

POD does not divide its range into budget and performance lines. There is one standard. The best we can engineer, offered at a fair price. If a product does not improve the user experience through mechanical truth, it does not carry the POD name.

Protect Our Destiny is not a slogan. It is a design standard. The logo has not changed. The values have not changed. The work continues.

The articles below document the history, the thinking, and the decisions behind the brand. Read them in any order. Start wherever the water takes you.