Just got my copy of Transworld Business (a surf/skate/snow “industry” mag i get since i have a skateboard company) and there is an article in there attacking the garage shaper.
Here are a few quotes.
Rick Wright of Rick’s Action Sports in New York: “The major consideration that I have with them is that there are no enviornmental standards whatsoever that those people follow. They’re destroying our enviornment…creating an inferior product and keeping the surf shops from being able to stay in business.” “The industry of surfboard building should not put up with people building surfboards [in their backyards] and competing with them. Why should Channel Islands have to compete with a guy who doesn’t have to worry about fire insurance; doesn’t have the EDD, EPA, or OSHA breathing down his neck? They’re not paying taxes. All the way around, the guy in the backyard is the bad guy.”
But don’t the innovations come from the garage? Let’s as Matt Biolos, who "scoffs at the idea that innovation is still occuring in the garage. “Name one guy who’s changing surfing from their garage. When I started out, I wasn’t reinventing the wheel.”
The only guys to say anything positive in the article are Rusty and TDK. Rusty says “I think the small guy, the backyard guy, is the heart and soul of this industry. And that’s one of my biggest gripes about what’s going on with the Asian imports. I think it would be a lot healthier for shops to adopt a local shaper and look to them for their entry-level and low-end boards.” Todd “tdk” Kamin says, “The backyarders are the guardians of our heritage.” and continues to say lots of other positive things about the indy shaper. He also says, “low margin isn’t because of the backyarder, it’s because of the lack of good business sense…we’re struggling to build a bigger board department in our store [Pride] but it’s hard to build a good board department without the help of good, quality board builders. Ahe top brands have their margins so low they can’t be good, quality wholesalers.”
But don’t the innovations come from the garage? Let’s as Matt Biolos, who "scoffs at the idea that innovation is still occuring in the garage. “Name one guy who’s changing surfing from their garage. When I started out, I wasn’t reinventing the wheel.”
obviously Matt isnt a swaylocker …
when backyarders everywhere start turning up with lightweight strong composite boards ,the guys building disposable 4 oz each side urethane chips wont know whats hit them …
thats good Matt , just coz you didnt re-invent the wheel doesnt mean others cant …
so were the enemy ??
enemy of what ??
the mentality that you can keep producing cheap disposable crap , market it in glossy adds and keep getting away with it !!!
the backyarders bring everyone in the glam of glossy hollywood back to reality…
the backyarders are keeping it honest , keep the backyarder and you hold back the greedy corporate mentality from taking over , and dictating the terms …
Partially agree with some of it. I think if you are selling boards, even if it’s just a few boards to fund your hobby - then you are in the board business and therefore should abide by the same rules others in the board business abide by.
The bit about no innovation coming out of the garage is lthe bit I don’t agee with. I think the internet - read Swaylocks has changed the innovation landscape completely. Here’s why:
A. Garage guys now have access to the same knowledge the pros have. Spend enough time trawling the archives in Swaylocks and you’ll find enough knowlege and experience to build pretty much anything and know it’ll work.
B. Garage guys now have access to resources and an amazing network of specialists. I got my last board off Miki’s Aps3000 machine and finished it in another another Swaylocker’s- Josh (Speedneedle) shaping room. Josh’s glasser glassed the board for me and did a great job. Hooked up with these guys through Swaylocks.
C.Through Swaylocks, garage guys can collabourate on R&D - someone can post an idea or technique and have 5 or 6 guys test it all around the globe simultaneously and provide feedback within a couple of weeks. Check the thred about Halcyon’s “mental” templates.
D. Garage guys have the time to innovate.
E. Many garage guys are naturally innovative - they are driven not by a desire to make cheap boards but by a thirst for knowlege.
F.Garage guys have experience in other industries they can draw on - composite engineering, hydrodynamics,CAD/CAM. Innovation comes out of sythesis.
My view on this is that 98% of us do it for LOVE not MONEY.
I’m not into competing with anyone but myself, to improve with experience, to learn more, and for me and my family to surf on something I made with so much love and attention.
In my opinion, most garage shapers are making boards as a hobby and not a business. Where do you think most of the shaping superstars started out from? I would find it really hard to believe that some of us could put Channel Island or Rusty or any number of others, out of business. Their advertising and royaltys alone could support me for a long long time. Its this sort of thinking and these sort of comments that have left board building such a secret for so long. I build and shape for personal satisfaction and the challenge. As far as hurting the surf shop, take a look at what products most shops sell the more of, boards or clothing?
I knew lots of backyarders, me included, that became the mainstay boardbuilders in the area where I surfed.
Maybe it was a certain era, but I don’t think so.
Even the surf businesses, where I spent the most years, all originated from backyard beginings because they wanted to surf and support the habit.
I wanted to surf and support the habit.
There will always be the creative minded surfer who wants to design and make a board for themselves, play with materials and techniques, and many will move towards production.
They are the future, we are the future. It will never stop.
It’s sad that even the beloved surf business has it’s share of ignorant people.
I don’t know where Rick Wright and others think it all started. It started with guys like Harrson, Peterson, Woody Brown, John Kelly, Downing, Velzy and others making and experimenting with surfboards in their garages. It is like saying the guys who make custom cars are hurting the automobile industry. The garage builders have the time to try new ideas and plus they get the satisfaction of riding a board they build themselves. I can’t see where a few garage builders are going to up set the industry.
Wait, I think the double tape deck boom box just crushed the music industry…
Okay, back to the point…
I make a few boards a month for friends and local kids who can only afford used boards. And I declare my purchases and pay taxes. And, I’d love for these fools to take a walk through the industrial parks in SD where all the shapers work–I don’t think OSHA or the EPA has ever been there. Last week, an unamed fairly big shaper just showed me how he gets away with dumping his foam dust behind his factory…
Thank you Rusty and tdk!!!
By the way, isn’t Biolos donating money to Simon Anderson for a certain backyard invention?
Actually, the backyard shaper is keeping the surfboard industry alive–we talk the craft every day in the line up, we pay the big bucks for big names, we care about the craftsmanship, etc. It’s the regular old consumer part time “surfer” who’s killing the handmade element–the one who’d rather buy a pop out b/c of the marketing or the wood veneers or whatever.
Next time I see Slater, I’ll apologize for diminishing sales of his sig models with my odd ball garage creations.
Consider the source, magazine is for retailers so it will be biased towards the retail environment. Actually fairly good read if you are into retail.
New York? kind of funny. Yep.
I still think backyard builders should charge more, better for legite builders and the industry. Gordon Clark had in one of his letters a few years back how you could get a better quality glass job from most backyard manufactures than most traditional glass shops. Today most backyard shapers use traditional glass shops. Sad thing is a lot of these shops charge the same amount to a backyard shaper as to the guy filling is glass shop on a consistant basis.
How many “legit” shapers even glass their own boards anyway. Rusty? CI? Lost?
But don’t the innovations come from the garage? Let’s as Matt Biolos, who "scoffs at the idea that innovation is still occuring in the garage. “Name one guy who’s changing surfing from their garage. When I started out, I wasn’t reinventing the wheel.”
He’s right. My innovations started on my patio, then moved to a garage, then to a trailer, then to a three room set up. In my experience the innovation started on the patio. Guess how many shops you can get wood lamination on foam via vacuum bag done on Ohau? Only one…me.
The big guys always want to knock the small guy .why , because they are greedy. How many ghost shapers have a bay under their house and take them to the factory to glass. thats ok cause the big guy gets his cut. A while ago in tracks they said there should be a register for builders and back yarders should n’t be supplied gear. greedy greedy.
I think a black market for surfboard building supplies would be a added source of income for me too. My new motto is "just say no to drugs but say yes to my black market EPS blanks"
backyard shapers do have an innovation that will blow the socks off any big name label. its called the $170 surfboard.
I’m sure that’s what pisses the “pros” off because they are trying to make a living.
I don’t know why anyone would ever chose to “compete” by lowering their price below that charged by others. It’s just an insane thing to do. I mean, I can kind of understand it when one is a retailer who is just buying a widget for one price and reselling it for another and can get his hands on an endless supply of these widgets and so comes to the conclusion that lowering his price so he’s only making $10 per item but selling 100 of them is better than making $20 an item but only selling 30. Sure, that kind of thing makes sense. (at least it makes sense until the only way to lower the price more is to lower your widget cost more so you have to get them from slave labor in china or whatever…)
But when what you are selling is the fruits of your own labor, something that doesn’t come with an endless supply (only 24hrs. in a day…) competing on price is crazy. Compete on quality, or on how soon you can fill the order, or uniqueness of shape, or your groovy artwork, your friendly nature, whatever.
Boards should cost so much more than they do. Shit, people pay their plumbers way more per hour. Even if you are backyard guy, charge the big bucks you deserve! The customers will get used to it.
