With the closing of Diamond Glassing in San Diego who are the San Diego Boad builders useing?
Glassing is an art. Watching a good glasser at work is like watching a good skier negotiating a steep powder run through the glades. IMO, it’s a mesmerizing experience.
When Channin retired and Bing took over I tagged along, but eventually Matt had to cut loose outside work.
I moved my glassing to Diamond, the quality was not the same and the lag time was between 2-3 months, it fucking cut my throat.
Greg Martz at Watermans Guild called me and said they would like to do my glassing, top notch quality, but soon the lag time was killing me again, I had brought this up before it became a problem and was assured all was fine, but it too turned into months.
Customers said they couldn’t wait 3 months for a board.
I took a few hurry ups to Debbie Gordon, a 10 day to 2 weeks, but a few steps down in what I need for quality.
Now I have partnered with Josh Hall on his limited amount he takes in and the top quality I wind up with.
Unless you have in house glassing, you are always at the mercy of the glass shop.
Diamond had no management, WG superior work, but everyone wants them, G&S fast but needs improvement.
The meat of the industry has moved on to Moonlight
Jim has hit the nail on the head. Said it exactly as it is!
I would imagine that moonlight has quite a long wait time as well. Quality is there tho.
If your serious, in house is where it’s at.
If glass shops are willing to give Jim the shaft on delivery, I’d imagine no man is safe.
I wasn’t singled out, traditionally glass shop have let the crew manage themselves. Surfs up and I was as guilty as anyone else to blow off work.
But the owner at Diamond seldom went beyond the office, I told him "boss is double sob spelled backwards " sometimes you just have to be the boss and put a boot in someone’s ass.
This is the biggest downturn I have seen in my 56 years of building surfboards.
Diamond, OSI in SD county and the Huntington area has had 5 glass shop close up, they put all their eggs in the CI basket.
Every fucking car on the freeway has a blue rubber wave storm on the roof.
I am part of a niche builders group, extreme quality, every board totally custom from the ground up.
There is apparently only so many customers that can step up to the plate and spend what it costs and the prices should be about double if the same amount of labor and detail was performed in any other business
Getting people to work always seems to be the crux of the surfboard problem. Every production shop I’ve ever been in has yhe same complaints. - the ones who have it dialed often keep the volume small and that makes it hard to get in the door.
Glad you have found a home for your glass work.
As you said - it doesn’t help that boards are highly undervalued for the skills it takes to make them.
You can make twice the money with half the skills in other industries.
What shop [shop] up here in HB has closed? A lot of guys are slow but I can’t think of anyone who closed.
…the brands like …lost and CI are moving their incomes to other countries. They are trying to make money that way. Via the machine, of course.
Hi Jim, why not do you use Moonlight? Or is just other glassers now that is like moonlight “enhanced”?
Thanks
Lots of shops are not happy with all the new models that the mass producers keep pitching. For every new model they have to bring a few boards in in a range of sizes. If the board doesn’t sell they have to sell at a much lower price in the mean time the mass production companies have 3 new must have in you shop models. They may or may not be the best thing to hit the waves since The Duke and his Brothers started surfing.
Some time ago Mike Daniels wrote something about the big manufactures running out of names for all their new model boards.
Mr and Mrs Stingray show up at Bird’s Surf Shed a few times a month… Cool place…Right now there’s some really nice Jim Phillips boards. Awesome stringer work and great glass jobs. Go buy one! The time is now.