Craftsman v. businessman v. artist

General Discussion
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Hi everybody – Been thinking about some various threads on quality/craftsmanship, and I have a question I’d love to read thoughts on.

There was a thread about a “best shaper” contest, and I was thinking would it be who is the most efficient, competent craftsperson (I use “person” incase there are any females out there. Are there, and if not why? Wait, that is a different subject.), so would it be who could follow plans/recreate a given shape with the most accuracy, the fastest, and the most flawless finish? Or, would it be one who makes the best riding board? And then, who would be the rider to make that judgment? And what about a person making innovations in design - who may be working for personal pleasure, or for specific people for a specific wave and/or wave riding style?

I would like to sum it up this way: Is the best craftsperson necessarily the best shaper?

Ps. And what about the need for those in “the industry” to make a living? Are there acceptable sacrifices to be made?

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In regards to shaping or board building, my vote would be for the most innovative or impactful.

Outside of that, the ‘best of’ is like ranking who is the best band or the best artist/painter…popularity contest. A small pooling of the recent best is valid recognition but to put one name at the top? Hmmmmmm.

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Ah, now the question is, best shaper for who?

Innovation is great if I want a one-off board for me, but if I have a dozen of 'em in the shop that I need to sell, innovation may not be what I want, rather consistency, efficiency and speed of production come to the fore. I might want something with stuff my average customer can’t figure out or use, but they don’t.

Or, the custom order. If I have some knucklehead come in wanting a 5’8", 19" wide round nose,wingtail stingtail round rail singlefin with 57 channels and nothing on, innovation on the part of the shaper ( mutating it into something that’d work instead of building it to Knucklehead’s specifications) is something I don’t want, 'cos my custom order customer Mister Knucklehead won’t accept it and I’m stuck with it and no way in Hades am I gonna be able to sell it. Talking Knucklehead out of the unworkable design is my job and if I can’t get through his concrete skull then I really don’t need somebody being helpful down the line.

Business sense: that’s a biggie. For instance, you may have a shaper who’s a really skilled cat, does a good board and sneaks in a few tweaks over an industry standard shape that sell real well for me. But every year he takes off three months at the height of my busy season and hasn’t left a bunch of boards behind him already shaped to cover my needs. Sorry, pal, I can’t use ya.

Or the shaper who can do a helluva board, do custom shapes faithful to the order that went in…but his business sense is so bad that he’s always teetering on the edge of going under, orders delayed 'cos he needed to collect enough money owed to him to pay for the blanks and glass and so on for my order.

I carried a brand of board once, great sticks. The guy whose name was on the board shaped every one of 'em, and he could come in Tuesday morning, pink eyed and shaky from a very long weekend in Mexico and pick up his planer…and the first board, the Hangover Special, was as good as the one that he did at mid-day on Thursday when he was really on top of his game. They might not have been especially innovative, but I never got stuck with one 'cos it was badly done, delivery was good, prices were good and consistency was smack on the money.

I’m not selling boards to innovative surfers. I’m selling boards to Jake, who tried his buddy Joe’s board and wants something just like it but four inches longer. I have to deliver that, at a reasonable price in a reasonable time and it’s even better if the shaper is consistent enough that I have one in the rack that Jake can walk out the door with, no custom order needed.

And, a strong word of praise here for the ghost shaper. The guy who comes in, takes his tools out of the box, turns out fifty Brand As that are faithful to the Brand A design, then goes to the Brand B factory and turns out fifty Brand Bs that are just as faithful to the Brand B design. Who can do a longboard, a thruster, a fun shape with equal skill, fast and efficient on piecework rates. It’s relatively easy to play your own music well, but playing somebody else’s tune, even if you don’t like it yourself… that’s skill.

doc…