" Hi Robert,Many thanks for your enquiry and interest shown for surfboard production.We are sorry to say we do not have any surfboard production in the UK anymore.All our surfboards are made in the Far East. Due to the competitive industry we could not continue to manufacture products in the UK.All our product range is now produced overseas.We unfortunately do not have any positions available.Many thanks for your interest.Regards"
So, here it goes. Can anyone hear that giant sucking sound that is the void being created when nations lose their industrial base? And, for all the backyarders here, who think this won’t have any effect on you. Where are you going to get foam, if no factories are left for the manufacturers to supply?
Good luck to everyone, and God(or whatever you believe) help us all.
There should be price controls on imports. Jack them up. Other nations do it all the time. The USA does it all the time. If we didn’t they would be cars we could buy for $5K. Why not surfboards?
One of the differences between the situation in Europe and the situation in the U.S. or say, Australia, is: In general, European countries don’t celebrate or reward the individual entrepreneur. Take it from someone who owned his own woodworking / contracting business in the US and then went to live and work in Germany for 3 years.
Tradition, tradition, tradition. They believe in it. They teach it. And they won’t let go of it without a fight.
If you’re a backyard artist or craftsman who wants to make something different or new, you’re looked on as an amusing curiosity. In Germany, at least, if you don’t have an official paper saying you went through the official apprenticeship and school for your profession, you’re just a Hack. Too bad.
In the U.S. and Oz there are plenty of renegades to keep things rolling and interesting. There is another Grubby Clark out there, as well as George Greenough’s and Stan Pleskunas’s. I think surfboards are an art, and most innovation has been done by individuals in the privacy of their own shops.
As long as we reward individual work, it will continue to flourish.
which company was this, i can feel a boycott coming on. i just got a interview for a job at a surfboard factory, thank god some people are still making them round here.
i appreciate you enthusiasm, but i don’t think it would be right to start dropping names in a public forum. lets just say it is a company in devon, that makes more than surfboards - which is the start of the problem if you ask me.
anyway, i posted this to show that it isn’t just the US, and OZ that have this battle. It is global, along with the apathy of the general buying public.
I will say that i have been talking with the guys at beachbeat in cornwall, and they are tops. So, maybe there is hope yet.
I think Greg Loehr has a good answer and it’s not protectionism and it’s not selling out. It’s intelligent and reality based. You offer one product- possibly eastern made, mass produced- for the grom and beginner market…and then a domestic, high end, hi tech, hand crafted product for the discriminating buyer, the advanced or expert surfer. If there is no market for that high end product, blame it on the surfers, not the producers, certainly not the Chinese, Indonesians or Malaysians or whoever.
well that’s just it. i don’t blame the chinese at all. who could? are they not supposed to take work, we all have to eat. but are they treated fairly? do they have health/safety gear? are they paid fairly? doubt it.
when i was a grom/beginner, i worked around the house, and other places to make the money i needed to buy a used board, and rode it until i had enough to buy a new one. what is wrong with that?
what kind of beginner should have a brand bew board anyway? you’re going to destroy the thing. buy a foam board if you don’t want a used board.
what’s wrong with paying a fair amount, in other words waiting a little longer, for a good board?
and where are all the used boards going to go anyway? overseas? in chipfish’s garage? pollution?
you’re right we as surfers are to blame for this. but who gave us throw away boards in the first place? ouch, we did too.
we are all to blame for this sad state of affairs.