Mapleton native to appear on
Friday’s ABC-TV’s ‘Shark Tank’
MAPLETON — Mapleton native Don Sandusky will appear on ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank” this Friday night for a chance to turn a company he helped build into a national success story.
© (ABC/Kelsey McNeal)
ENTERING THE SHARK TANK — Mapleton native Don Sandusky, far right, will appear on ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank” this Friday night at 9 p.m. Sandusky, son of Susanne and Terry Sandusky, and managing partner of Hamboards, will help pitch the company’s unique street surfing Hamboards to the “Shark Tank” panel. Joining Sandusky on the set are, from left: Gus Hamborg, and Hamboard founder Peter Hamborg. Hamboards are street-ready longboards that capture the essence of surfing. The “sharks,” self-made multi-millionaire and billionaire tycoons, offer ambitious entrepreneurs the chance to secure business deals that could make them millionaires.
Sandusky, son of Susanne and Terry Sandusky, and managing partner of Hamboards, will pitch their company’s unique street surfing Hamboards to the “Shark Tank” panel alongside Hamboards’ inventor and developer Peter Hamborg and his son, Gus, of Huntington Beach, Calif. The “sharks,” self-made multi-millionaire and billionaire tycoons, offer ambitious entrepreneurs the chance to secure business deals that could make them millionaires. 
The episode will air on ABC-TV Friday, Oct. 11 at 9 p.m.
Hamboards are street-ready longboards that capture the essence of surfing. Their motto is “Ride the Pave.” Founded in 2003 on the kitchen table of Pete Hamborg, 52, and his family, Hamboards only recently expanded into large-scale retail in 2012, and are already being sold worldwide at upscale surf shops and online.
Sandusky contacted the producers of “Shark Tank” seeking to include the Hamboards team as part of the lineup of entrepreneurs for the 2013 season. They were selected following interviews and an extensive application and vetting. The Hamboards segment was taped in July and the pitch was selected to air on the “Shark Tank” episode this month. In the interim, the team is required by the show to keep the results of the appearance confidential.
Sandusky attended Mapleton Elementary School, Skyway Middle School, and graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1985. After a year at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, he transferred to the University of Maine, where he earned a BSME in 1990. The next year he was selected by NASA to work on components of the International Space Station.
Sponsored by NASA, he received his Ph. D. in applied polymer science from the College of William and Mary in 1995. Sandusky decided on a more entrepreneurial track after 10 years working his way up through the management ranks at DuPont in Wilmington, Del., and became intrigued by the invention and initial success of Hamboards by his West Coast cousin, Peter Hamborg. Sandusky currently manages the business efforts of the brand.
For more information, visit www.Hamboards.com. There are also a number of videos of Hamboards in action on YouTube.
