Josh
do you know how much the big 6’8" Alternator will handle as far as weight?
Be nice if the Firewire website could be updated to indicate the weight range and performance range of each style like they do at Merrick’s site or others. Even Surftech and Global just updated their websites.
Seems to be the trend to help users understand what these boards are designed for. The fin guys have been doing this for a long time now.
Epac I agree there’s alot of stuff coming down the line…
This Nano resin stuff from Oceanit is going off the richtor here since the front page article. They are on the morning news, public radio etc etc all pushing fo some investors I guess and to promote Hawaii as the next Nano-Valley especially with the big nano conference coming to town. Be interesting if Fiberglass Hawaii volunteers some RandD dollars to come up with a new product.
I see the Marketing wars are about to kick in with the buzz Firewire is trying to generate. GSI, Burton, and the others aren’t going to stand by and watch the upstart steal their thunder. Just watch.
The siginificant rising cost of oil if we step into a dance with both Iran and North Korea at the same time will put some pressure on the petrol-dependant recreation industry. The anticipated Birdflu pandemic will also have a significant impact (state/fed imposed quarranteens(sp?)) to anything done out doors. National and local planning has already started over the past couple of years. Just finished my emergency evaluation this week (how important to the economy am I if this happens)
Industry Sidenote.
Also there’s something in the air I don’t think anyone has seen what’s going to have an impact in an almost underground way…
And that’s going to be widely available cheap consumer access to APS3000/CNC machine cutting services for the homebuilder. Guys like CarveNalu are going to be on every block pretty soon. I’m checking it out as well as others who have discovered the capabilities of the APS3000 software.
And when the cost of a 90% completed shaped shortboard drops to $50-$75 or less or if Marko get’s the technology to the point where they can mold an EPS blank designed by a computer program on demand kind of how the APS3000 can cut them out, the idea of a cheap design-your-own kit built surfboards using UV resin or UV cured Epoxy with Heat/UV curing ovens will be the one anomoly in this outreach that no one sees coming their way.
Ever heard of “pottery barn” or “build a bear” stores?
Believe me, someone is going to figure this out pretty soon and a build your own custom board in a day store is going to be put in a some mall and franchises will start popping up everywhere (Actually Greg Loehr predicted this in a story he wrote here years ago). Board designs will be catalogued, stored and shared (just like online music/movies) for easy reproduction/alterations just like you could do today at a scanning service if you are a professional. The pieces are ou there alrready and the cost of the technology is dropping exponentially. Prepreg/heat activated laminates, computer printed marge format graphics, CNC machine cut cores and robotic builds. Just look at what happened with the film development outlets once the technology was priced right. 24 dry cleaners are a better model with a central cutter and access over the internet to place submit your design and graphis choice.
Surftech will not be needed and it’ll be the nightmare of every professional board maker out there. Intellectual property rights suits will soon follow but proof will be difficult without the capital of the movie or music industry.
It’s coming sooner than you think…
And guess who started all this…
Robert August with…
http://www.surfboardsbyyou.cjb.net/
The there’s CMP
http://surfgear.cc/glass-your-board.html
In the Northwest…
http://www.perfectwave.com/shaping.html
And now the impact of the APS3000:
http://www.ewaliko.com/psnw.html
http://foam.akubird.com/
http://home.comcast.net/~scottshine/pro.html
http://www.surfboardkits.com
The ultimate Just-in-Time delivery solution to inventory management and the fuel costs of shipping containers of product across the oceans…
Just an observation but it’s coming…