SurfSet Fitness

SurfSet Fitness is a workout system built around a surfboard-style balance board that simulates riding a wave, turning core stability and balance training into a studio class format. It was created by Mike Hartwick, a former pro hockey player, along with Sarah Ponn, who saw a chance to bottle the full-body challenge of surfing into an indoor fitness experience anyone could try.

The founders asked for 150,000 dollars for 10 percent. The demo was lively, with the unstable board making the workout look genuinely difficult, and Mark Cuban saw a scalable boutique fitness concept. He ended up investing more than the original ask, putting in 300,000 dollars for a 30 percent stake to fund a faster build-out of studios and instructor training.

SurfSet caught attention because boutique fitness was booming and the surf theme gave it a distinct hook in a sea of spin and bootcamp brands. The equipment was the product, but the real opportunity was a class format and instructor certification network that studios everywhere could license, which is what made it attractive to a Shark thinking about scale.

Backing from Cuban helped SurfSet expand from an equipment maker into a recognized boutique fitness brand with a global instructor certification network and partnerships with several large consumer companies. Surf-style classes spread to studios in many countries, and the brand became a familiar name in the balance-training corner of the fitness world.

The picture today is mixed. Records indicate the original company stopped operating around 2021 and that Hartwick left around the same time, but the SurfSet brand and its classes live on through independently run, licensed studios. So while the founding company appears to have wound down, SurfSet workouts are still taught at studios operating under the brand as of recent years.