matt vecere from surfnews here again, i’ve been doing research in to the sweatshop issue. it’s a common accusation of boards being made overseas, particularly china and thailand. i haven’t been able to find any factual basis for either side of the argument. can anyone help?
Only pics I’ve ever seen were of the cobra plant…and to be honest, it looked like a better work environment than most shaping/glassing shops I’ve seen over here.
Let the fireworks commence.
From what I’ve been able to learn about the wages the workers get a Cobra, (I have my info for a top inside source whom I will never reveal) they take home about 15 times what the standard wages is there and they get room, board and medical coverage on top of that. The wages may be very paltry compared to the wages paid to labor stateside but this is a far different economy than the one there.
And the world goes round and round
Mahalo, Rich
I think Surftech told one of the mags $250.00 a month. Just under $9.00 a day. If American laborers want to have jobs when they are all gone because of trade deficits, they are going to have to take less money than min. wage. Right where giant multi national corporations want the common American laborer to be. Wait and see. Read your American history in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s coming back boys and girls like a march. Played to the tune of the star spangled banner. Our polititians both democrat and Republican have sold this country out and you have Americans thanking them for it because we have become dumb, fat and apathetic.
I don’t give it 25 years before we are flying the U.N. flag right under the American flag at the white house.
This is a global consumer driven market economy. People want the best products at the lowest possible prices.
stopped in ron jons in cocoa this afternoon to see just what their inventory consisted of… jeez,i always knew their label was from china but gordon and smith from SOMOLIA? and tons of them. same at cocoa beach surf company. they had the one jim phillips someone spoke of before,and a couple of other brands that were familier. comparing the phillips board next to the imports the diff is obvious! its beyond me why the phillips is still there AND on sale. i wanted to buy it just so it would be with someone who appreciates it! the thing is the enevitable. one or two generations from now these “other” boards will be the standard from which all boards are judged. THEY LOOK AND FEEL LIKE A PLASTIC TOY! its like when someone from my REAL job retires. within a couple of weeks they are forgotten even though weve known them for years. this is just the way it is…we all eventually become dinosaurs! lets just enjoy our day in the sun because it doesn,t last forever.
Sorry troy but thats horsehockey. The American consumer is what is driving many overseas markets. Americans could really care less about their own jobs in their desire to get the cheapest price and it’s going to cost them in the future. We will give up our soverignty to an anti American United Nations. When our government destroyed our educational system in 1964 pretty much every American generation of kids since then has become less capable of any critical thought. You must look beyond the so called global economy. American is one of the few countries which can exist on it’s own without the aid of any other nation. By allowing giant multi national corps. to move their money overseas and avoid paying taxes and cutting American jobs: It will cause our economy to suffer down the road, and be more, not less dependent on other countries.
Surftechs and chinese boards are NOT the best product at the cheapest price. They are simply hyped that way. If the surfboard builders were to band together and put the jinx on this crap they could end it, instead of trying to be the first to benifit from it. Rich Harbour figured it out.
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Sorry troy but thats horsehockey. The American consumer is what is driving many overseas markets. Americans could really care less about their own jobs in their desire to get the cheapest price and it’s going to cost them in the future. We will give up our soverignty to an anti American United Nations. When our government destroyed our educational system in 1964 pretty much every American generation of kids since then has become less capable of any critical thought. You must look beyond the so called global economy. American is one of the few countries which can exist on it’s own without the aid of any other nation. By allowing giant multi national corps. to move their money overseas and avoid paying taxes and cutting American jobs: It will cause our economy to suffer down the road, and be more, not less dependent on other countries.
Surftechs and chinese boards are NOT the best product at the cheapest price. They are simply hyped that way. If the surfboard builders were to band together and put the jinx on this crap they could end it, instead of trying to be the first to benifit from it. Rich Harbour figured it out.
Thing is we are in a global economy right now. There is absoloutely nothing we in the surf industry can do about it. We just dont have the economic power to lobby anyone. I have heard that certain big name surf company is looking into moving production overseas. I dont know if there is any truth behind the rumor but if it is true then its only the beginning.
I agree that the surftec/asian boards are not the best BUT how long before they are? Their marketing a more durable board which is true and one of their main selling points. We’re not doing anything they cant copy. I heard you mention “hype” but that is what drives everything in the surf indusrty. Remember the retail stores/consumers decide what they want to buy and their buying quite a few surftecs not to mention the margins are better with surftec. As far as Asian boards I dont think its gonna be long before they C&C scan the latest Merrick/Rusty/Stewart and put it on the rack at your local surfshop. Just my 2cents and only my opinion 
so when rome fell it was not over night.The fall lasted for years, more like a slide…the children of warriors developed a concience for the actions of the empire in the hands of their forefathers …empire building was no longer the height of exualtation…pride overtook ambition by no fault of the people concerned…recreation displaced work…it just happened…was it the tide ? was it the abundance of food ? or was it just the time of man,we may not know who we are but life’s for living [sorry joanie]…and living life is what we are doing…Industrial design students from ohio? who got the bug watched the video did the deed in a dorm room… NO need to worry about surfie tech university and thailand and china and the unidentifiable american consumer… the tide of humanity is in flux and names, titles , refrences , justifications ,or prices. All we need to do is our best work and check the surf and get satisfying glides in hopes that this training will help our spontaneous adaptability for the coming changes in our chosen slice of this twenty first century life…some day the sociologists and anthropologists will study this and that and the left beind artifacts of this subculture , all these boards will be the focus of speculations beyond comprehension…laugh and enjoy the ride we are not in control no matter what we do and neither is the unnameable corperate big brother ,the c&c scan of the merric c&c scan or the rusty c&c scan or the Stewart C&C scan will spiral down into a pit of litigous bile in the digestive tract of the global economy bless them for they know not what they do…mean while the guys with dyed hair and roledex rubber things on their finger tips posing for magazine articles pretending they surf and don’t …
The true of heart are at the beach musing about a new board with friends who care to try to understand that there is life beyond ... and that beyond is the reality worth our time and concious ... ambrose... boards should be made in sweet shops
bravo ambrose… the most conclusive words of substance i have read on the whole board business saga! bravo again!
if you don’t like em’ don’t buy em. simple as that. keep making your own or buying from guys who do. personally i won’t even buy a board from a “shaper” ie. someone who doesn’t glass/sand/polish himself but that is just me. i have been surfing for 3/4 of my life, and working in surfshops and factories for a good portion of that time. About 5 years ago i decided to give up surf mags, surf vids and surf shops. i can’t express to you all how much this helped rekindle my love with surfing. how many joggers do you know who read jogging mags and jogging vids? now for me surfing is like going for a jog. i get up, i do it, i feel great and then get on with my day. i don’t feel like i have to surf like this or that or i have to have some look or whatever. i bought a few cases of wax, don’t wear any surfing related clothing and buy my leashes online, no more surf shops!!! basically i am suggesting that you do what you need to do so “it” doesn’t bother you any more. nothing ever stays the same but you don’t have to help it change so quickly…
ps. my girlfriend and i were given a surftech yater long board as a gift (not going to turn donw a free board :)) we ride the shit out of it, 3 years old and it has no pressure dings and only 1 small ding from when it was dropped on a rock. i just picked up a vac pump and have been tinkering with eps and epoxy for the last year and since my garage doesn’t have ac i guess you could call it a sweetshop…
I usually don’t get involved in these opinionated discussions, but here goes (and my rant about corporate greed/stupidity): I have to agree with Solo’s views and his predictions on the future, as dark as they may be. I was discussing something similar with my 16-year-old son today, and told him that probably within his lifetime, he would see no goods manufactured in the US (except maybe in a couple southern states). Everything will be from India, China, other far east countries. China cannot afford to have a true free society because they risk losing their growing status as the manufacturer of the world’s goods at the lowest possible prices. Sure, we rationalize that the standard of life is all relative, but all of the Chinese nationals I’ve met want to get to the US and become rich. A dream that is impossible in their country, and their leaders will insure that it stays that way (for the survival and progress of the country they say). Will they ever make boards that rival domestic types? Not on their own. Somebody who knows this business will have to show them. That person is no better than any US corporation who sells out people’s futures for a 2% better bottom line next year. Corporate types will say “it’s for the survival and progress of the company”; which is the same thing we hear from those geezer communists running China. By the time there are Surftechs that have the same quality and longetivy as a Cooperfish, only a select few who still have jobs will be able to afford to buy them. The rest of us will be eating soylent green watching them.
Thing is we are in a global economy right now. There is absoloutely nothing we in the surf industry can do about it. We just dont have the economic power to lobby anyone. I have heard that certain big name surf company is looking into moving production overseas. I dont know if there is any truth behind the rumor but if it is true then its only the beginning.
There is something that could be done about at least the surfboard end of it. The majority of surfers who buy into the surf industry are mindless sheep anyway.
Boardbuilders could put the word on surftechs instead of letting greed and the hope of a big payday (which aint gonna happen for the vast majority) keep them supporting Surtech etc. Sheep follow a goat with the loudest bell. If most of the hot surfers and respected shapers put crap on these things and actually educated their consumer, the sheep would move off quickly. These boards exist because shapers have given them credibility. ONce shapers did that, retailers jumped on the bandwagon. NOtice how quick retail surfshop owners who could not shape one lap began putting their names on surfboard models form china and boardworks, pretending to be shapers.
You guys that shape have made your bed by not fighting this thing. A shaper friend of mine says it will not effect him and for now he is probably right. The future will not be nearly so bright in a few years. I think you will have more retail surf shop owner kuks with their names on boards and they will try and phase out the shapers who have paid their dues and given them an industry to exist off of. If they do not phase them out they will buy the use of their names to continue the BS.
Feral,
Diversity? Sounds like a bad line from the president of the U.N… Homogeneous societies have been far more stable throughout history than Diverse ones. I wil take homogentiy over diversity any day and let you socialist continue to try and pass off that diversity will save us from ourselves.
Who actually makes a living wage though? The skilled craftsman who makes custom boards in this country or the southeast asian pop-out factory worker? I still don’t understand how you can shape, glass, and sand a board and sell it for under $600. I think American laborers have been priced out of the job market. Mostly because the average consumer cares little about craftmanship and quality. The surfboard industry is unique because its not just a matter of cheaper labor. It’s a completely different process and product. What other sporting equipment is custom made to the consumer’s specs? None. At least not for anyone other than the pros. You find the model that best fits you and deal with it. I do know runners who read running magazines, but as of yet, I have not met or heard of any who makes his/her own shoes, or has them custom made. It’s a completely assinine business model. At least at the current prices for custom boards. And I think in part, the fact that Surftechs and Cobras aren’t priced like toys, leads consumers to assume they’re a better product. More expensive is better to the uninformed consumer.
The only saving grace is that a surf board isn’t just another peice of sporting equipment. Do you here runners ever talk about a magic pair of shoes? Have you ever gotten static because you brought your “pop out” tennis racket to the club? The only problem is that custom boards aren’t priced in accordance with the skill and craftsmanship put into them. There is a market for custom boards at the upper end of the scale. And I think people are willing to pay higher prices, if only because it makes them look like less of a kook. How many fat asses do you know who shell out tons of money to shave a few ounces off their road bike. It may not improve their performance but all their other cycling friends will drool over it.
very good mogwai-i ride a road bike and my favorite for the past year has been my old lugged, steel frame,7 sp. bianchi with bar end shifters. talk about basic. i have friends who will spend $100+ to shave 20 GRAMS off their bikes weight.(i will say wheels do make a differance…rotational weight). yet their all mostly overweight,myself included,and if they would just push away from the table imanginr the cash they would save.but yes, their friends drool over it. in a posting a week or two ago, i was talking about hawaiian print deck patches, elaborate airbrush,etc. the boards i shape for me are always a clear finish,the ones i put on the market have the items we call eyecandy. todays consumer is about appearance and making an impression on everyone,not about his natural athletic abilities,his intellegence or wisdom,its about leveling the playing field so he can appear to be someone he,s not. and if that sounds like a pysco problem…thats correct. why are so many americans on anti-depressants.my recent girlfriend is an example-250 pairs of shoes,nearly all italian leather, and still buying more on a weekly basis. what the hell is going on in this country???
Solosurfer, as someone who has had ‘the word’ put on me by foam board manufacturers in my own country, I must report that I dislike any kind of ‘ganging up’ behaviour. It is just ugly, and it doesn’t work either.
Roy
Roy-san - don’t get all worked up over it because the world won’t change over night. Besides, Solo’s got his heals dug in, and his helmet on. Keep up the good work…
how’s the winter going? Hot as shit here…
Hello epac, we’ve got rain, rain, and more rain. The water pump has broken down too, so we are carrying water. A spate of earthquakes happened here this week. Lots of waves though!
Roy
I am not nearly as dug in with my helment on as I may appear. The only thing I really want to see about surftechs and the like, is for the public to be given ALL the facts. I think they should clearly have somewhere on the board that cannot be removed where they are made, just like all of the other imported stuff does. Then let the chips fall where they may. All I am doing is lamenting the fall and demise of the handshaper. The writing is on the wall and he next 10 years or less will tell the tale. I am definitely not talking about ganging up. I hate that type of crap and it exist with the big surf shops that keep small shops from getting lines. I also hate seeing America give up it’s manifacturing to other countries.
I will personally never be a huge fan of popouts unless they make more headway than they have with regards to the ride, paint and etc. I love wooden surfboards by the way, though I don’t own one.
Sorry if I am coming off a bit too harsh. NOt my intention. Just a pet issue.
Thanks mate, I get your drift. Roy
PS Gath is good