if a customer , a great surfer , of many years experience , and with a good knowledge of what works for him [yes , they ARE out there !] walks into your shop / shaping bay , with dimensions and info on the board he wants you to make …
do you follow it to the letter , trusting his knowledge , experience , and judgement ?
or
do you decide
" I’ll just add this … do that … " [ ie: " tweak it " a bit , to something that YOU think will " work better " for him ?]
Some years back I ordered a custom shape from a guy who is notoriously difficult to contact. I did it because two friends were doing an order and they asked if I wanted in on the deal. It sounded almost too good to be true because the price for an 8 footer was $50 a foot. I spoke directly to the shaper on two occasions and was very specific about what I wanted. The board took forever to finally show up (4 months) and when it did it was not what I ordered. nose was 1-1/4" wider than spec’d and about 1/2" too thick. Glass job was not as spec’d, either. If I had been paying full retail I would have raised a stink. The board works well, but it still isn’t what I wanted. Why bother with custom orders if the customer doesn’t get what was agreed upon? Granted, some requests are pretty silly and just not doable. But when the customer has been surfing for 40 years, has built a number of boards himself, and is asking for pretty basic things I think the shaper should be more exact with the final product.
…the other day a new customer but a guy that I see in the line up very often, ordered a board from me but preferred to use the local surf shop to do it due to they accepted his other board…
We talked about the design, etc then I gave him a CD full of photos to check color ideas (paint, pigments, etc), however an hour ago I called him and asked about whats he choose…he said that he wants a color with a big bolt in another color…(seems that he never checked the cd; also we talked a lot about the style of my color work, etc) so I just said NO, I do not do a lightning bolt in my boards.
Not only I earn less money with this board but the color work do not match the criteria for my product; so he decided other color work.
I follow the same rule in graphic design - the customer is always right about what they want… but if they were right about what that should look like they wouldn’t hire me. The shaper/designer is always right about how to achieve what the customer wants. We have the experience and know-how so we need to help guide them on their path to not having a piece of shit waste of money. I’ve often had to reign in clients to say that one idea or another is either doesn’t follow “design flow”, will increase cost significantly, or simply cannot be done for one reason or another - I’ve even had to come to a point where I say that I’m no longer willing to put my name on something - depending on the why that may dictate whether or not they get their deposit back (ie if we agree on a design for your bakery sign and I put hours into it, and then you decide you want me to add a giant penis to your logo… well, sorry - that would severely hurt my reputation as a designer, it’s not what we originally talked about, and if you don’t want to stick to the original plan, you’re either paying for a whole new design or you’re losing your deposit and finding another designer)
That said, when a customer says they want a board that does great in small waves, but they only want it to be about 16" wide… well, it’s pretty obvious they’re going to be dissapointed one way or the other - better it be that you gave them a board that works that doesn’t look like what they had in mind than a board that has 13 concaves, 8 stringers, fins on the deck and a fish-tail for a nose - I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to sign the bottom of that beast
it depends if you consider yourself a business man or an artist.
as a business professional I have not found the surfboard industry to be conducted as a business since day one unless you are buying stock as a builder or store.
basics of any transaction between a consumer and a real business in any major purchase you make
detailed contractual agreement disclosing terms and liabilities
insurance/warrantees on goods and services purchased
“A” rating in the BB
too bad this type of transaction only occurs between businesses within the industry and not with customers.
Have ordered dozens and dozens of custom boards over the decades, from at least 25 shapers.
Rarely did I feel as if I was conducting a business transaction.
Late deliveries, ridiculously late deliveries, total misses on the design order, glass schedules different then ordered. The two most memorable - one shaper, a ‘friend’ I’d known for many years, after giving him a deposit so he could order the blank, shaped himself a board with the blank and then take off to the tropics for 4 months. A well known north shore shaper took my 1/2 down deposit, promising the board in 4 weeks (start of the winter surf season), got it 6 months later and only after appealing to his daughter, who ran the shop, to either get it done or return my $.
Most consistently professional shapers I’ve ordered boards from - Steve Colletta and Art Coyler. Easy to work with, want to make you the best board possible, when they say 4 weeks, its four weeks, and just what you ordered.
Icc, you said it perfectly. About six years ago, I started shaping my own, only because I couldn’t find a shaper anywhere who would do what he promised when he took my money.