About Us

 

Surf Splash owner/inventor, Jim Franklin, came from modest means but desired to achieve something greater. He began working on cars at the age of 12 and working summer jobs at 15. He put himself through college. After college, he spent two years as a full-time mechanic before turning his attention to the law. Through his strong work ethic, Jim earned his law degree and spent more than 20 years as a prosecutor, municipal court judge, and practicing attorney in “small town USA”.

In 1996, as he left a Florida beach on a hot, summer afternoon–carrying an assortment of beach accessories–Jim was faced with a problem: how to wash the sand from his legs and feet without having to put his items down. The light bulb went off in Jim’s mind and the concept of Surf Splash was born.

But it was not an easy process. First, Jim wondered if there was already such a product in existence. Since this was before the Internet was greatly developed, Jim had to search the hard way. For two years, he went to beaches in Florida and looked at literally hundreds of hotel beach access points to see what was in use. He found only water hoses and showerheads.

At this point, Jim turned to an engineer friend, Rob Lotufo, to assist him in developing an automatic foot shower. Over seven years, Jim and Rob built numerous prototypes until finally they arrived at the Goldilocks combination of the right pipe, valve, number/type of spray nozzles, etc. It still took a couple more years to get Surf Splash into production.

Jim began selling Surf Splash to beach resorts. He quickly learned his invention did much more than convenience resort guests. Because it dramatically reduced tracked-in sand, Surf Splash saved resorts tens of thousands of dollars on material and labor costs associated with the accumulation of sand. Sand eats away at carpets, linens, pool decks, vacuums and much more. And thanks to the automatic shut off feature of Surf Splash, resorts also saved hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.

In 2007, Jim left his law practice and dedicated his life to Surf Splash. in 2013, he introduced the Surf Splash II, a smaller, portable consumer version of the original. Surf Splash II is great for people who own beach homes, pools (with kids tracking debris), cruisers/yachts, RVs and more. A newly designed version of the Surf Splash II was introduced in June, 2021.

Jim is committed to constantly developing high quality, American made products that are effective, convenient, durable, and economical.