expo observations

General Discussion
1

I know. Waste of time. Went anyway. I’m always excited to go and feel like I need a shower when I leave. No offense intended to those who need to get the exposure for their products. I don’t like billboards on the highway, but I like knowing who has the cheapest gas, and where the Subways are. ha.

But. Here are a few observations:

  1. I don't think I saw a board manufacturer there who didn't have a parabolic stringer model. Thank you, Mr. Loehr.
  2. I am really sure not a board manufactuer was there who didn't have an epoxy model. Thanks again, Mr. Loehr.
  3. SUP's are taking over. So many big boards. So, well, thanks Mr Hamilton.
  4. Coolest thing I saw was long skate boards with sticks for paddles like the SUPs.
  5. I could not get into Surftech, ONeil, Rip curl, Firewire, or the Reef girls dressing room. They claimed not to have my name on their list. As if.
2

i know one shaper who has neither Epoxy or parabolic boards, and no it is not me.

3

My Expo Observations (in no particular order):

  1. Money talks loudest. I won’t go into details on this one. Consider it a blanket-statement.

  2. Blane Chambers (‘CarveNalu’) is a seriously righteous individual. His boards look great, he’s got cool people workin’ for him, and I wish him the most grooviness and success with Paddle Surf Hawaii. Same goes for the crew at Kialoa Paddles.

  3. As surely as RIPAQUIKBONG will always suck, they’ll always be here. The sooner I accept that, the better off I’ll be.

  4. Too many rip-off artists, and not nearly enough innovators.

  5. The new Resin Research epoxy for use with polyurethane foam is blue-ish. I like blue-ish things.

  6. Ice-9 foam works, and the Florida distributor is pretty cute. Definitely a winning combination.

  7. Monster Energy Drink tastes like someone added ten pixy sticks to a bottle of pond water and gave it a good shake. That is all.

4

Now that I’ve almost completed my decompression from the show, I can offer up my take.

Keep in mind that I didn’t walk the whole building, I might have missed the latest advancement

in swimsuit technology.

You guys would have liked the expo better back when it first started, circa late 70’s. Virtually no clothing industry,

no fluff at all, just a bunch of starving but happy boardbulders and skateboarders getting together in one place

so surf shops could access them all at one time. It was a good idea that rapidly out grew it’s venues (first a hotel

meeting room in Cocoa Beach, then the Melbourne Auditorium, then Tupperware Convention Center) to become

the huge circus it is today.

From the surfboard point of view, this years party made it clear that the buyer or builder has more choices today

than at any time before. That has to be a good thing, although it does lead to confusion and a lot of wild claims

about this or that. But out of all this chaos some advancements will emerge, thats almost certain.

I saw some of the prettiest surfboards I’ve ever seen and some of the ugliest. Rickey Carroll’s mind-blowing 10’6’’

chambered wood/woven rail combo was a masterpiece. I saw some GSI ‘‘fish’’ that offended my design sensibilities

so badly that I couldn’t bear to look at them. I saw a few boards with black rail sprays to mimic the ‘‘carbon’’ look;

now there’s a tech advancement!

Apparently someone was running a contest to see how many curved stringers you could put in blank. I think I saw

the winner.

While it’s true that there’s an awful lot of people in that building that love money more than surfing, there are a ton

of truly wonderful people as well. Seeing them makes putting up with all the bs worthwhile. It is a gathering of the

tribe, after all.

And it was nice to meet you, Mr. Tate. Sorry I didn’t have more time, we were fortunate enough to have a very busy

show. We’ll catch up to you later - hopefully we can get some sort of Florida sways gathering going and have a good

visit then. No clothing companies or selling allowed!

Mike

5

Mike,

That sucks because I thought there was some serious tech going on in the swimsuit department. Just kidding but in reality

I was super stoked on all of the WRV coil boards that you shaped. The shapes on those things were killer. The foil through the tail sections alone was so cool looking. I want to ride one and flex that tail out. Wish I could have chatted but you seemed busy when I was by the booth (but glad to see it, maybe next time). I also greased my way into firewire’s impermeable fortress along with some shop owners and got to play with unglassed boards. They had the new blank with the carbon rod “suspension” system and (blue dow foam?) on the rails. Pretty cool stuff but those guys seem a little too confident if you get what I mean. I had not been to expo for a few years so it was cool to not see a bunch a booths full of poly-boards

6

What were we busy doing when you came by? Did we have our ‘‘WRV Drinking Team’’ cups out?

7

…anybody check out Ricky Carroll’s R&D booth?, I was there helping out with the Hynson crew…Ricky’s a super nice cat, along with his crew. I had a good time…all the other clothing co. stuff is kinda crap…saw alot of cool boards though…

8

Mike, you are a true statesman. thx for the perspective. I’ll PM you about a fish fry. Got an idea. I have one per year, so I’m cashing in my chip early. ha

Yes, the RC board was magnificant. Can you use that word on Sways? We need a picture of that thing up on Sways. Anyone?