Hamboards

Hamboards makes oversized longboards shaped and proportioned like surfboards so you can carve down the street as if you were riding a wave. The boards flex and turn in a surf-style motion, and the company also makes paddles so riders can mimic stand-up paddleboarding on land. The brand is a Huntington Beach family business founded by Pete Hamborg, who built the first big board to teach his sons to surf on days when the ocean was flat.

The Hamborg family came in asking 100,000 dollars for a 15 percent stake, with a fun, energetic pitch that matched the surf culture of the product. The boards are eye-catching and the demonstration was lively, but the sharks pushed on margins and the high cost of making such large boards. Robert Herjavec connected with the lifestyle brand and made an offer, ultimately investing for a larger equity share than the family first proposed.

Hamboards stood out for its pure California surf identity and the genuine family story behind it. These were not mass-market skateboards but handmade, premium boards built around a feeling, and that authenticity is what drew Robert in. The segment leaned into lifestyle and passion as much as numbers, which made it memorable among the sports pitches.

Sales rose sharply after the episode, reportedly topping a million dollars in the first year, as the exposure introduced the surf-style boards to a national audience. With Robert's help the company worked on costs and distribution, getting the boards into a network of skate and surf shops around the country rather than relying only on direct sales.

Hamboards is still in business in 2026, continuing to sell its surf-style longboards and land paddles out of Huntington Beach. The company has kept its premium, lifestyle-driven positioning rather than chasing the cheap mass market, and the boards remain available through its own website and specialty retailers that serve surf and skate culture.