This bachelor thesis treats the product development process in general and the product development of a surf leash in particular. The thesis mainly concerns the product development of the surf leash cord and assembly.

The product development process was initiated in South Africa, where problems with the surf leashes provided on today’s market was experienced. They get worn out to quick and it is expensive to replace a complete surf leash, as it is not possible to replace a broken part individually.

The product development project aimed to obtain a well-defined final concept with an associated technical requirement specification for the surf leash, within the given time frame. To do so, the product development process was divided into four different phases, project plan, market requirement specification, concept selection and technical requirement specification.

During the project plan phase, a plan for the product development process was created. Necessary methods and tools were selected for respective phase and a time schedule was created.

The market requirement specification is mainly based on a market survey which was performed. The market survey contributed with valuable information, which has been used throughout the complete product development process to increase the costumer value in an efficient way.

The concept selection is based on the outcome of the idea generation process, which were generated with regard to the requirements and desires in the market requirement specification. Various matrices were used to narrow the range of possible solution and to find the optimal concept for the cord and assembly.

The concept selection phase resulted in a cord with a core of an elastic material with a protective cover in a material with less elasticity. This is made to protect the inner core from getting stretched-out and not return to its original length, the outer cover can also be constructed to make the cord less prone to tangle. The assembly consists of a male connector with a small trace which is connected to a receiver with a double pin lock mechanism. This creates a module-based, rotational free assembly which is easy to attach and detach. Thus, the surf leash can be optimized after personal preferences and allows for a broken part to be replaced individually.

The technical requirement specification is based on available information and can be used as a basis for future work with layout- and detail construction.