Balsa,
Have you ever considered making your tail block with your holes and star being wood or a solid material and the wood becoming the resin. It is a multiple pour process but it looks very cool. We do floating dice and bullets and marbles with this technique.
That board is very nice.
Awesome looking tail block idea, i would love to see it!!.
Tell us more OTAY, a quick rundown for the backyarders please?? this sounds cool, and i reckon would look even cooler.
sick work balsa, thats amazing for a 1st, looking forward to more
Balsa, your kidding right. 1000 euros = 1450 US. Skilled manual labor in the US, something like a woodworker, tile setter, lawn mower, assistant manager of mc Donalds etc gets about $20.00 per hr, or let’s say $200.00 per day, no lunch, no taxes just work. So your looking at a weeks worth of work on that board. Surfboard nuts to bolts guys “should” be getting at least that, or more…but they don’t.
Let me guess, you charging the guy $250 euros or $360 US. So your getting about $5.00 per hour, or $60 per day.
Only in the surf industry, labor of love.
Looking good too!
Balsa, you truly underestimate the value of your work. 1000€ is cheap for such a board and I hope Stephane understands that he really gets a good deal. Your neighbour (Daniel’s) charges 1300€ as a starting price for a custom longboard with resin tint and pinline (and this is with a basic stringer and no fancy tail block). Surftech popouts sell for over 1000€ …
Oh, and I too would prefer the figure 8 beauty with a simple volan glass (or a one drop tint) and maybe a nice glass on red fin !
Resinhead, not sure about what your post exactly means. What I understand (tell me if I’m wrong) is you say that 1000 Euros for that board is way too much money. If it is, just let me state a few facts:
The blank I made this board out of (Just Foam 9’8" with 1 1/4" balsa/red cedar T-band and two 1/4" red cedar side stringers) I paid exactly 233,05 Euros HT (HT stands for “hors taxe”, you need to add 19,6 % tax, so I actually paid 278,72 Euros for this blank alone…)
A roll of 5.5oz Hexcel 471 fiberglass cloth goes for 288 Euros HT, you actually pay 344,44 Euros for that.
I buy Simar 249A resin by 22.5 Kgs cans, each can costs 100,35 Euros HT, you actually pay 120,01 Euros.
It’s safe to say that glassing such a board costs me something like 60 Euros (resin + glass). Add to that many miscellaneous items like tape, styrene, catalyst, pigments, acetone, sandpaper, sanding pads, mask cartridges (or full disposable masks), cutter blades, what else? Let’s say about 20 Euros…
Power, water, insurance, social security, printing of rice papers and stickers logos, various taxes (we have something called “taxe professionelle” which you pay BECAUSE YOU WORK, not bad, eh?). I am lucky enough to own my workshop (no rent) but I pay a tax for owning it, so… Gas for the van when going to my retailers to pick up materials and/or delivering boards to customers (gas is about 1,30 Euro per litre, that’s 90 Euros for a full tank as far as I’m concerned.) I could go on and on… All that has to go, for some degree, into the cost of a board.
At the end of the line, I don’t feel like I’m robbing anybody. As PierreB noted above, I know other shapers who charge more than I do.
A Bing or similar brand name board retails for 1200-1500 Euros in shops here. Just look around.
Again, maybe I just misunderstood your post?
I think resinhead was saying you were giving a very low price .
his estimates were for days wages based on other professions.
we all agree you are getting about 1/2 what is a fair market price.
at 1000 euros stephane is getting a wonderful gift.
my wandering mind estimated the appropriate tip
or gratuity should be a hind quarter of beef if he is a rancher
three loads of topsoil if he is a heavy equiptment opperator
a small vintage citroen if he is a mechanic
three cords of firewood if he is a woodsman
100 boardfeet of lumber if he sells lumber
and mebe three days of hard labor if he is just appreciative,
and of course your choice of set waves for all winter
so you can watch from inside
when he catches the best waves of his life over and over…
…ambrose…
if he farms you should not have to shop for vegatables till spring.
Thanks, Ambrose. It looks like I really misunderstood Resinhead’s post… OK, maybe I under-estimate, but YOU over-estimate my work, guys. I’m no Jim Phillips or Bill Thrailkill or…
Hey, Stéphane shot some videos with his phone while I was routing the slots and I was wearing one of your T-shirts…
Just in case anyone is interested (not top quality, sorry…):
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=4d-raJwe2vg
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=qZiFtbxgqMQ
No my friend, I think you are way under compensating your skills. You should be getting 2000 euros.
I’ve seen your boards, you do quality work.
Resinhead, sorry I just completely misunderstood your post. Thanks for your appreciation, too.
Now, there ARE people who would pay 2000 Euros for a board, but not MANY.
Besides, as I already explained to Bill Thrailkill, Deadshaper, Ambrose and probably a few others, people who would pay that usually don’t know much about surfing, shaping or shapers. They would buy a name, not a shape. And only a BIG name, too. Most people buy boards because they are fashionable, they don’t really care about anything else. When I started surfing, owning a Hobie was the thing. Nowadays, kids will ruin themselves for a Merrick (machine-shaped and glassed in Hossegor, France). Just the name changed. Probably the quality, too… At least, those don’t come from China…
The baseline is, I prefer to build a really nice board for someone who cares, and get paid less…
Balsa,
Have you ever considered making your tail block with your holes and star being wood or a solid material and the wood becoming the resin. It is a multiple pour process but it looks very cool. We do floating dice and bullets and marbles with this technique.
That board is very nice.
Otay, thanks for the idea. The more I think about it, the best it looks… I’m just a bit concerned about impact strength. Pure resin is quite brittle and, since I would like to keep it clear, it prohibits the use of glass powder or other strengthening agent in it. Which means that the extreme point of the pintail should be re-inforced in some way, otherwise I can see a big crack coming the first time the board will be hit (against the pavement, for instance) there… What do you think? And what would you do?
make an external frame out of the same thickness redwood. Have redwood or solid star glued to frame. One pour, sand and keep external frame. attach to board and glass over. Use a protec clear tail guard for further protection.
I think Austin surfboards is the master of doing this work.
Balsa:
Your work is super! The board is worth well over 2500 EURO. A job very well done!
Thanks Otay, gonna give it a try (and will post results).
Hi Balsa,
great work. What more can I say? I think almost no matter what you charge for it it would be a great deal. Compare the amount of work that goes into this board to a regular board and try to price it accordingly, it would have to be very expensive. It show very clearly that you are doing this for the love of the craft (and the challenge?) and not for the money.
regards,
Håvard