Regardless of your skill, having the right board can make or break your surfing experience. Roy Stuart has created an exquisite surfboard that is guaranteed to make your time on the water transcendental.

Roy Stuart is known for building longboards fit for a king, and a king’s wallet. The latest creation is called the Baron surfboard and it costs $528,000.

Longer, heavier boards tend to make for a sturdier, faster ride on the waves. The Baron is 12 feet long, weighs 45 pounds and is modeled after the pre-colonial “Olo” longboards, reserved for royalty. Stuart’s boards are the most “hydrodynamically advanced boards ever built” thanks to his unique design. Stuart doesn’t make his longboards hollow like most modern boards, but rather he builds them using “parallel profile” construction, which means there are layers of Paulowina wood laminated over a mold. This technique is similar to what you see with layering fiberglass on the hull of a ship and it makes the boards thinner and more flexible than others. One the layering is complete, Stuart hand-shapes the raw board to the exact specifications of the buyer.

Source and Photos: Gizmodo