I’m usually not so grumpy on swaylocks,BUT, after 17 months of being jerked around and lied to by phone and e-mail I’ve had it!
My son ordered me a 7’0" speeddialer from Rich Pavel 17 months ago while he was out in San Diego. once the Clark demise settled down we tried to contact him to get a grip on the new timeline—several months of e-mail tales later i actually got to speak to rich on the phone, he said everything was great and the board was in production–hang in there. well, no board for trip to panama, no board for trip to oregon, no board for fall swells.
My son took a shot at trying to get info, he got bounced around and several phone calls saying the board was done and found, it was really kool , bright red , will ride great, and that he would even do shipping cost…final contact said—the trade show was in town and he’d get back to us afterward to finalize, that was it…we left messages at surf shop, send e-mails…At this point in time i consider my $350 deposit gone, stolen, a bad investment…
sorry to vent to you all, it’s just that in 40+ years of surfing, i’ve never been treated like this…
I generally lurk on Sways for all the usual reasons. I ordered a board from Rich a couple of years ago, (a trad twin keel 5’8"fish) which should be pretty simple for someone who has shaped a bazillion of the things. I also used to work at Sunset surfboards in Encinitas, so I knew Peter and Kenny of Moonlight where the board was to be glassed, and I lived in the OB Point Loma area for 20 yrs, but now live in OR.
I have pretty much the same story, except after 15 months had gone by, my step dad passed away and I had to use my disposable income to help my Mom with the aftermath. I called up the shop, and told Rich the problem, and he immediately sent me back my deposit, $400.00. So I think he is a stand up guy when it comes to your deposit, but I don’t for the life of me understand why he doesn’t use a shaping machine to get stock boards at least 90 % done and cut his wait times down.
This year, I spoke with, (emailed actually) Pat Rawson about a fish or maybe a hybrid for a summer trip to Maui. He emailed me back within two days, contacted a local dealer for me, who contacted me and let me know what they had in stock, and let me know that If I wanted a custom order it would take about a month. All in all, a vastly different experience from the one I had with Rich.
Isn’t shaping really nothing more than glorified pattern making? I’ve not heard the guru label applied to pattern makers but their market probably wouldn’t buy into the BS. I wonder what the guys who design and fabricate the patterns for cars, boats and planes would have to say about a more or less symmetrical slab of foam with a few compound curves? LOL
Seriously, I’m sure you and your son are disappointed. That really sucks.
He emailed me back within two days, contacted a local dealer for me, who contacted me and let me know what they had in stock, and let me know that If I wanted a custom order it would take about a month. All in all, a vastly different experience from the one I had
When I used to have to deal with the developing surf industry for product information and samples and photos or magazine articles it became apparent that some businesses are well-run and others aren’t. The surf world seemd to be either/or. The good ones had things handled within a week, sometimes even having VPs call to go over product lines, innovations, trends etc. The bad ones…holy crap. One wetsuit manufacturer that was pretty good sized and international refused to so much as send me a line card lisitng their products, even though somebody for the company had penetrated to the editor level of the non-surf outdoor sports business magazine I was contributing to to drum up interest. Nothing I could say or do would penetrate their thick skulls. In the end I had to argue with the editor to not run any mention of the company. She “compromised” by running their name and numbers in a sidebar but there was no mention of the company in the article.
Needless to say, the wetsuit company is no more. The weird thing is most of the best run companies I dealt with back thern aren’t around now either, victims of stock market boardroom fights or God knows what.
hi all. i’m walrus’ son. i generally lurk around, & once had an account, but i lost the password/username for it & had to re-register. but i felt the need to chime in here.
if, IF rich reads this, i hope that he realizes that he’s lost not 1, but 2 customers from this. the reason that my father decided to order a board from rich is b/c i have had 2 rainbows shaped by him & had raved about them pretty much constantly. i even got the chance to meet rich in person while i was in san diego. at the time, i felt supremely honored to have a chance to speak w/ him.
i don’t want rich to make an effort to pay back the deposit. he told me that the board is finished. i want that board! if it’s finished, why the hold up on shipping? if it’s not finished, why did he lie to me & tell me it was? what purpose could that serve other than to string both my father & i on a little longer? & why wouldn’t rich recognize that doing such a thing would only make us more upset than we already were? i’m about ready to buy a plane ticket & go campout on his doorstep until he brings me the board. it’s $$ i don’t have, but it’s more the principle of the thing now & i’m pissed & a little embarassed. if i had the means, i’d get rid of my current pavel (a 5’10" twin keel) & replace it w/ a shaper who deserves & appreciates my business.
this whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth & some days all i want to do is sell my boards & take up bodysurfing fulltime.
Im a pattern maker by trade (tho now in an office job - work for Ford).
Ive shaped three boards just using my pencil, ruler, surf form and sanding block - a 9’4", a 6"10 pintal and a 5’5" lis fish and shaping took around 2 hours on each but I reckon I could have a board out in under an hour if I used templates and a planer…
that means that in the 17 months youve been waiting I could have shaped 1813 board and be a third of the way through number 1814 if I was sticking to an 8 hour day
PLEASE COME ON LINE AND TELL US THIS IS JUST AN OVERSIGHT AND THIS IS ALL NOT TRUE AND THAT YOU ARE A PERSON OF INTEGRITY AND WORTHY OF BEING CALLED A GURU (OR HAVING SOMEONE STOKED TO MEET YOU)>
ALSO TELL US WHY ONE WOULD GO THROUGH THE PAIN AND EXPENSE FOR ONE OF THOSE GLASSED BLANKS YOU SELL AS “SHAPES” CAUSE IF 90% OF WHAT MAKES THOSE SLABS WORK IS NOT SIMPLY FLOATATION< I WILL EAT SHIT!
FAILING A SUITABLE ANSWER AND APPOLOGY I THINK SWAYLOCKERS SHOULD BURN YOUR EFFIGY>
IF YOU DON"T GIVE THIS GUY A FREE BOARD FOR WHAT YOU HAVE PUT HIM THROUGH, YOU ARE A STIKIN LOWLIFE.
Thanks for chiming in. I think you got my drift. In case anybody missed it, I hold pattern makers in high esteem. To piece chunks of foam, cardboard, plywood, clay, and/or ? together and shape the complex stuff required in the pattern making business, you’ve got to have some shaping skills!
Knocking the corners off a close tolerance blank is child’s play in comparison.
I think Jim Phillips said here once that his grandfather was a tool/pattern maker and was involved in building airplanes. With that kind of background, it’s no wonder he is such a good shaper.
Guys like Roy Stewart, Richard McCormick, Paul Jensen & the rest of the HWS guys… even new “member” Scott Weid, who is piecing together a balsa board from scratch, know what I mean. IMO, they all have the skills to be great shapers.
So, if you don’t mind my asking, what kind of stuff did you shape during your career as a pattern maker?
You are a victim of hype. Who are the people that made this shaper a “guru” ??? SuperSurferShreader.com maybe???
If you lived in So Cal there’s no way you would wait 17 months to be burned by a flakey surf cat. You could just call around to all the shops and find something.
I bet there’s 150 surf shops from L.A. south to Mexico. There’s so many Fish in San Diego county the shops can’t sell them. Did you have a completion date on your order form ? Contact Moonlight Glassing. They always have cool boards for sale.
