BSF = THE BULLSHIT FACTOR

Industry Talk
21

You have a reality very different than most here. 

Kokua has some good insight as well as Reverb and some others.

Yorky is and has, the passion and if I was bailing from the bankrupt USA, I’d go apply at his place first!

I should think that it would be smarter to say you’ve done a really super good board by shaping LESS rather than more.

So in that case, the next time…if ever, I spend $200 to stick a shortboard into a little local ‘buyer’s guide’ I’ll say I’ve shaped “a few boards”… oh, you what a number? Ah, this one is #99. In fact, they’re ALL 99 from here on out.

At the end of the day, a good board is a good board is a good board… the proof is in the riding it…don’t forget, one man’s magic, is another man’s poison. So goes the “magic board” myth. 

From my personal experience, I’ve never seen any clear evidence that extensive advertising in Board Buyer’s Guides even work for me. All my customers never refer to a “BBG”… it’s always word of mouth from talking with or trying someone’s board I made them. I just got an order like that from  guy that was out at Topanga with Matt or Andrew Wesson and he asked if he could try the board… next thing I know, I get an email with an order. That’s how I get my biz. If you have a good buzz going around about what you make, that kinda says it all.

I like that method a helluva lot more than spending $$$ in a rag. 

If I want to attract more business, I’d rather do what I’m doing right now: which is to build a ‘library’ of my favorite models that interested prospects can check out for a couple weeks to see if they like the ride. 

Facebook is free. 

You Tube is free.

I never did advertise much, but I think I’m really done with any paid advertising forever… 

22

      Aloha DS,On Kauai it's word of mouth that can make or break a shaper or glasser since it is a small surfing population compared to Oahu or the mainland. I as lucky to have had a good rep and that meant lots of business. There was a guy who used to tell people what a great glasser he was but his boards were just barely so so.Couldn't airbrush and there were so many air bubbles in his rails the boards had extra floatation. I remember seeing a couple of his boards and the shaper was so bummed and he couldn't even get the fins in the FCS plugs and he refused to do glossing,wonder why.I think he ended up going into the repair business for a couple of years then went out of business.Aloha,Kokua

23

Hey, sorry I was just Bull Shiting!

do that many by hand and run the business…No way!

24

Yorky… we know you were bullshitting.

However, if the idiots up on Capitol Hill screw things up much more here, I’ll personally be knocking on your door to help you hit that goal.

Vegimite can’t put a worse taste in my mouth than what these politicians are doing.

 

25

AH    it is the joke factory

 

 

    believe me bruce this place is totaly being f##ked over by the same sort of lunatics

 

 

**    cheers huie
**

26

heres a few words that fit this thread to the tea’’

lost

phantom

nubster’’ lets call that the new yorker

 

 

**cheers huie
**

27

There are a small group of us that are all new.  It has been interesting talking to them about their experiences with shaping, tools, customers.

Its funny how surfers preceive what a good shaper is.  Lately one of the alarming trends weve started to notice is that the ill informed don’t trust the shaper no matter how many boards they’ve done.  They want to know that your design has been “corrected and created” by the shaping machine.  Your function is just the designer and finisher of the machines perfection.  Hows that?  

They will actually shy away from ordering when I inform them that it is made by hand.  As surfers they want to know that a file exists that they can alter later at their descretion.  

While I’m not anti-machine and I can totally see the value of having a file that can be tweaked.  It offers me no pleasure or training. I’d love nothing better than to be so busy that I’m doing preshapes and designing files.  But then again it would become another job and I’m very fortunate that I already have one.

Lately I try to remember 2 things when talking to a frothing surfer.  About 1 in ten actually cough up money for a board and as a toy maker for mostly adults you have to have a thick skin.

28

this bloody interesting

http://www.news.com.au/business/bank-cl … t+news_rss

29

Tea anyone?

30

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Tea anyone?

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lol, scones as well please

31

…so, possibly no more Billabong in a sooner future?

-I guess, better for Quicks and Rip Curl, that are very strong in most markets…

 

-I think the surfboards is a labor of love…not for everyone

Also, that new you posted, shows the way that the perception is not the same to the reality; that s more like a bubble

32

He looks pissed enough to make one think "He hasn't been gettin' any".     She looks like she could use some.  Happy to fly down and put a smile on her face.  Bet she's got a nice smile when she's gettin' it.

33

lol you would, wouldn’t you “Ding a Ling” haven’t you got a wife/girlfriend? or are the the cheating looser type?

I really like you and reveratation, your so predictable, sitting in your little holes. Hey I send my love!

FUC!

34

       Howzit DMP,Sounds like things are changing and even on Kauai where custom hand shaped boards was always the way to go. But there are a lot of new surfers there and who knows where their minds are. Anyways you have a great day job and being able to make boards on the side is just icing on the cake. I can remember watching one of the known shapers on the North Shore finish a machine blank and it took him less than 5 minutes to finish the blank and in my mind that is not shaping by any means and I like the fact that you are still doing hand shapes. Aloha,Kokua

PS I miss all you guys and the rest of my friends

35

Lawyers & Bankers… some of my favorite people. 

Sometimes things are just a bit too rich for me.

Maybe we ‘oldsters’ will end up like when we were ‘youngsters’.

Living in a warm climate in trunks, t shirt and flip flops pulling fruit off trees and fish from the sea.

Not a bad thought at that.

36

 

haaaa’’ thats me.    and if did not have the iterweb i would not even know about those useless cnts

**weather is warming up here and lots a bannanas **

 

  cheers huie

37

Well I've been described as a "loveable loser and a no acount boozer".  Too bad though I was really pullin' for Billabong to hang on and make money thru this tough economic time.  Gordon Merchant is a partner in US Blanks.  Hopefully their troubles won't boil over into Ted Wilson's gig.  They bought Honolua Surf Co. on Maui which had previosly been a Hobie franchise before it became Honolua Surf.  They have opened a few "Outlet" shops in places like Santa Cruz.  Which hurt and cut into local shops like Freeline, Oneills and few others that are now gone.  But I liked the idea that they kept the "Honolua" brand alive and brought it to the Mainland.  Maybe  Gordon had something going with that broad and that's what this is about.

38

CNC = mass production is a funny thing. It takes a machine about twenty minutes to machine a blank plus the time to smooth and blend by hand. Some of the close tolerance Clark blanks could be finished in 40 minutes exclusively by hand?

This leads me to wonder if some shapers who own machines are just older guys who just want to get off two decades plus of an electric planer. Also like atomized said a board can be designed in software from scratch. As in like every board that comes off the machine. As for the end customer, I don't think they'll care if it improves their ride.

39

McDing you kind of lost me?

Matthew Perrin sold his interest in Billabong sometime ago.

What Mr Perrin has done with his life is his down fall. (GREED)

Gordon Merchant is the owner of Billabong and partner of US Blanks.

Billabong is alive and well.

Kind regards,

surfding

 

 

40

haa if theseBIGNAMES’’ keep getting droped on here there will be enough bullshit to fertilise my fruit trees.

 

 

**cheers huie
**