I went to Santa Barbara today with the family for a little vacation. As we were walking around we saw the Channel Islands shop and went in. As my wife looked at the clothes, and the kids looked at all the pros boards on the ceiling, I looked at the boards. Now the last time I was there and did this, was 4 years ago. It happened to be around our 10 year anniversary, so I kept hinting to my wife about getting a board. After a week she said go get one, as long as I do not take her, I love looking at differant kind of boards, so she Knew I would be there for a while. What a deal, boy do I love her. Back to today. These frickin boards started at 800.00, and went up from there. There were some that were over 1000.00. Is this because of good old Grubby. If so is it just a farce, and they all now that there will be plenty of blanks in a month or so, and they are taking advantage of the situation. Like the x-box 360 this year or the tickle me Elmo a few years ago. You know that there will be x-boxes up the wazzoo in a week or so. I paid 400.00 for my Channel Islands 4 years ago, and shit a brick then, I can not imagine paying these prices now. By the way the board is the best board I have had to date, worth every penny. I just can not imagine these prices are justifiable. Any thoughts or ideas ?
You’re trying to buy from the most expensive, non discount, price gouging shop possible to shop at.
CI’s up here average $550.
My fav MBM 6’10"er for $540.
Over 40 others around that range.
All clear, some glossed, some speedfinished.
Maybe next up you should drive your RollRoyce up to Oneill’s in SantaCruz.
dont buy anything
the prices will drop to 130.00
like the guy said
the instructions will be in chinese but
sooooo wwwhhhhhat
at 550for a six ten them 10 footers should be woit a tousan
buy on the cheap good idea.leave the expensive stuff for the CRAZY rich
or the guys that really know more or
wait til march when the winter guns go on sale
I personally am so cheap I make my own damn crappy boards and love em!
buy a pro sponsor 's digitally mastered superboard …
pay the price they ask and say
THIS IS THE BEST BOARD I EVER>>>…
ive heard that enough to seperate the echo from the real thing
the best board I ever,and I got it on sale?
jive.
pay the man
pay the clerk
pay the adds
pay the pro
pay the delivery
pay the truck driver
pay all those involved in your convience of having fun
you wanna gripe?
gripe about resin in yoour fingernails
getting the itch
grinding finboxes when the surf is all time
want the illsuory best pay the illusory price
I would never consider riding an channel Island surfboard
I owned one for three years and never rode it
and the guys that rented it were stoked out of their mind
I aquired it when a guy traded the brand new 9’er
for a 5’10 t&c 72 round pin single fin
I sold it for too much money and told the guy not to buy it
because it had a symptom of dimise
he bought it anyway and thought it was great…
make your own in a few weeks when all the materials are free!!!
pack all them usuerous double dealing cheap greedy mother packers
and let some chick that dont know no history buy the overpriced junk to impress their husbands or boyfriends.
down with the support of american industry
I’m with you.
no steel
no shipyards
no auto mfg
no Industry at all
we all should be living like kings
exporting the only cool products,
…bombs…
…ambrose…
weep for our industrious grandfathers
supply v demand
demand hasnt changed but supply has
PS
take the title of your post, replace the word “board” with the word “gasoline”
…nothing’s changed
Here’s a Clark 9-1Y blank for sale on ebay:
Starting @ $300, no bids, and only 3 hours left [14:13 GMT]. It’s a panic right now. Everyone needs to recycle that old beat down 9’9 long board into a 8’ egg or something else. Evidently there is room in the PU blank market for another player. My guess, an Aussie PU blank manufacturer will end up making a ton of AUS$ off Clark’s fold.
More blanks:
I suppose if you had an old blank sitting around for a few years and it looks like you’ll never get to it [and I’ve got a lot of projects like that around the house], it may be a good time to sell.
Surfboards are a handmade item, one of the last handcrafted items that you can pow-wow with the builder on how you want it. All of the materials involved in building it have increased 10 fold since 1964, but the end price HAS NOT kept pace, increasing only 4 times the 1964 price, what’s wrong here? Like Grubby said, “surfers are the biggest idiots I have ever seen and board builder aren’t any smarter, I can lead them around by the nose like a bunch of sheep” Baaaaaahhhhhhh
SO TRUE GENIUS!
As I’ve stated in other threads, the problem is not the industry, its the consumers/surfers themselves…
cheap bastards!
the 25+ crowd might have some clue…
Surfboards are a handmade item, one of the last handcrafted items that you can pow-wow with the builder on how you want it. All of the materials involved in building it have increased 10 fold since 1964, but the end price HAS NOT kept pace, increasing only 4 times the 1964 price, what’s wrong here? Like Grubby said, “surfers are the biggest idiots I have ever seen and board builder aren’t any smarter, I can lead them around by the nose like a bunch of sheep” Baaaaaahhhhhhh
Good one Jim. I like your old term the best…Bubble headed Twappies. Good to see you back.
I think at the end of the day we all have to realise that everything can be produced cheaper. But at the end of the day you get what you pay for if you buy a cheap convertable do you think its gonna drive like a ferrari? Its the same with this import board market at the moment the entry level consumer knows nothing about boards and is influenced by price only so for them a cheap import is tops. Until they find it falling apart in next to no time. But if they had have spoken to any shaper they would have been informed that a finely made hand crafted board will last longer than the import. Until the market is mass educated the imports will always keep the cash flow moving in the surf shops its a vicous circle that most have come to terms with. And funnily enough I have heard more than one importer in Oz say that the import market will only boom for a coulpe of years until people realize you just can’t beat the interaction with your local shaper and the quality of the product he can produce.
As for the boards getting more expensive - surfing is one of the cheapest sports around and the price of a new board hasn’t really varied that much in a long time so maybe its time we paid our master craftsmen more for their art and energy… And i’m not a shaper just one who loves a good board…
Cheers
PoorboyOz
No no I already have one, a big 10 year aniversary present. I have a guy who already shapes my boards, Cordell in Newport. I was just wondering if this is all a big farce and there is really plenty of blanks out there. I called Cordell the other day to see how he was doing with all of this and he said was fine and that it should not effect him to much. This question was just my for my own info. Thanks for all the input from everybody. Like I said I already have an Channel Islands, that will probaly be the first and last one I ever own.
…the price of a new board hasn’t really varied that much in a long time so maybe its time we paid our master craftsmen more for their art and energy.
This is true of many activities where the generally accepted technology hasn’t changed. For instance, rock climbing gear has only increased in price at about 1%/year for the past 25 years since Spring Loaded Camming Devices [SCLDs] became commercially available. That was the last major technology breakthrough in rock climbing.
20 years ago I shaped a board using a Clark blank [a Clark 2nd :)], polyester resins and fiberglass; exactly the same materials that I used this past summer.
Maybe EPS/Epoxy technology will now get the funding and attention to advance that technology into a better alternative for the majority of shapers [I’m sure there are many that think that right now]?
As far as paying the craftsman more for their art and energy, that’s all determined by a free market economy. It’s always going to be (price of materials) + (overhead) + (shapers and glassers margins) = final price. There are a lot of kids and newbie adults riding punchout boards from Singapore, et al. Everytime I see someone riding one of these boards I tell them to go and buy a quality used board and I’ll even help them fix the dings. And when I’m told to take a hike, I feel like pinching off a big chunk out of their rail with my hand and telling them that wouldn’t be possible with a ‘real’ board that has a good glass job on top of good foam.
I have boards from the 1980’s that are still going strong. All they need is a little care and ding repair once in a while.
I was starting to see through my dealer network that the honeymoon was nearly over with the imports, this was before Black Monday. Now in the scramble to keep the racks filled, the imports have gained momentum again. I felt from the begining that the import boards were aimed at another market besides mine, the descriminating sophisticated surfer, one who wanted corinthian leather traction pads.
But I have to say, the educated surfer is a rare breed, about 1/2 percent, maybe less that knows a damn thing about a good board. At Channins, I see a variety of famous lables come through the glass shop and because I make so much Goddamn money building boards, I have a night job at another glass shop in Oceanside where I pinline and gloss. This gives me another oportunity to see a completely different range of boards, you know what? almost ALL of then suck. The shapes generally are so tweaked, twists, terrible finishes on the foam, different rails, completely wanked bottoms, high stringers and they just keep on selling. Some of these boards are advertised in the rags as the coming of the best shape you’ve ever seen or ridden. Others are back yard guys, but still with their sheep following, unable to know a good board if it fell on their face and rotated. Yes, I was a gremlin, garage board builder 45 years ago and believe me, I suffered at the hands of my school mates, was rooted hard by the guys at Inter-Island when I brought my shapes in for pro glass jobs.
They ripped my shapes as the amateur that they were, but not much has changed in all those years. The majority of shapes are really poor, even the Joe-Schmo world champ model
And there, Jim, is the root of the matter;
Remember that kid who wanted to be a pro shaper…at 15? He could, in that business and consumer climate. The same for these jokers who have been the flavor of the month and , as you say, their flock of sheep following 'em.
Well, flock them, and their sheep.I see much the same with the small boat biz, lots of hype, bad work, bad designs, and a whole lot of nonsense. But the shakeout comes and… whaddya know, suddenly they’re in Chapter 11.
Most, lets say 90%+ of the jokers in the water, can’t take advantage of a well made surfboard. Or boat, or fishing rod, or shotgun…the list goes on. Though their egos, and this is an ego-driven thing, wants 'em to have the flavor of the month. Another example, look at all the Silly Useless Vehicles tooling around with maximum off-road goodies, driven by people who are as likely to get off the pavement as they are to spontaneously levitate.
But the time is come when it shakes out. The imports are at least as good as the vast majority of bad ‘customs’. Tough luck for them, I guess. But in the long run, like the custom fishing rod business and such, there will be a few who go further into quality, do a better job and can get a premium price for a premium product.
but it’s gonna be ugly for a while…
doc…