I'll jump in.....
People can say what they want. It's the internet and words on a screen don't make boards or go surfing.
Most pro boardmakers started in their backyard or garage. I'm one. Over the years I've seen more shoddy work out of garages than factories. Factories just do more volume, and yes they sometimes do shoddy work too.
Silly, I think you are the one who said this is a garage builders forum. It's not. Read the title, it's a surfboard design forum. Open to everyone. I don't think Mike started this site with garage builders in mind, it was with surfboard designers and builders in mind, all of them. Anyone who's keen to improve their boardmaking skills.
The big ego pro's who lurk here silently, and we know they do, generally hate to share their secrets, and they are also secretly on the lookout for the next big idea. Sometimes it's out of the box and they hate to miss out. That's why so many big manufacturers have their own version of the same model. Most are scared to take the big plunge into something new. Ego is a very fragile thing and reputations are on the line.
Brand critisism, underlying in this thread, isn't really the direction this should be taking. Construction, workmanship and design critisism is okay, as long as everyone interested gets a better understanding of the issue. Maybe even a CI lurker is learning from this. If they are not, in this case they should be.
As for speed sanding, in my experience speed sanding usually ends up with undersanding not oversanding. Oversanding is just too much work and too much dust. If you are speeding and oversanding perhaps you need to slow down and learn to do it a bit better, then pick the speed up again, with quality.
Or get the lamination better in the first place so the sanding is reduced.
Clear resin on white surfboards. Unless you do it yourself, nobody really knows what the quality is after it's finished.
