Hands up if you travel constantly?
It’s great to be able to travel but it presents some problems. I want to share my experiences as a buyer to see if we can find some solutions.
I have my boards mostly in Spain.
When a friend arranged a trip to Indo I wanted to take the opportunity to visit people along the way. The end result was many hops and stops along the way so it made no sense to bring a board with me. I looked at getting a wooden board made in bali… but then I’d have the problem of getting it back past more hops and stops and charges. I had a look and even considered foldup boards… but I couldn’t find a company to send to Indonesia or even Spain. I also couldn’t find a shaper to make me one that I felt convinced by. After searching online I got the impression that so many boards are available locally in Kuta I should go there, pick up a board and continue on.
What I found is that this doesn’t really work. If buying a €700 board then it’s easy - the prices at the upper level are all about the same. But, since I don’t want the hassle of bringing the board with me afterwards, I don’t want to spend crazy amounts. My goal was to spend <€250. But being in Kuta looking for a board when you could be surfing is a total, total ballache. I would never recommend trying to buy a board at the low or medium price point. It took me a day of haggling and eventually I got myself a new board for 3.3million. It has an awful cosmetic design, but the rails are sharp, 5 fin option and stringerless. However, what I didn’t notice was the rocker. Because I’m not familiar with Indo waves I had picked something which really has to have about 4 litres more than a decent board would have. This is where a chat with a local shaper would have been a lot of help. The board did great in decent waves. I basically learnt to handle the extra volume. But we had one wave in particaulr with a mushy takeoff which it was rubbish for and I started to hate it.
On the way back I found a shop with used boards for 500k. Very cheap but this sale is unusual. What the shops do is only sell them like this when they have too much stock in order to get you to spend more on a new board, so it’s not reliable. This kind of thing only works if you’re in Kuta for a while. And why be in Kuta for a while? Even low season is crowded.
Now I’m going back to Europe. My friend suggests to wait until I get back to talk to local shaper Nacho Agote. He can advise me, that’s great. I also have a friend who shapes a board for €150 whereas Nacho is €600, but he doesn’t have the experience to advice me on what to get.
The problem with the local shapers, especially in Spain is that it’s all poly. Because I snapped 5 boards last year and I don’t really appreciate flex that much I very much prefer EPS/Epoxy as a minimum (I think it makes a difference for bumps but for me it’s not worth it). I also very much like Tufflite after using a Surftech which survived for so long. I really like strength. And closed cell for dings. This kind of stuff I really like.
Because I’ll also have to wait I’ve had a look to see if it’s possible to buy online. Well, it is if you live in USA or Aus but none will ship to the Canary Islands. I didn’t find any demo shops, firewire boards in the Canaries. Eventually I found a shop in Bournemouth who can show me some firewire boards and maybe even a demo. But… there’s no waves in Bournemouth. At least I might be able to test the buoyancy. And that’s another problem. I’m 70kg. Initially I was looking for a groveller hybrid like a Channel Islands Biscuit but now I’m thinking I’m really someone who likes playing with the pocket surfing so maybe single fin option…
I was expecting to begin to like thrusters after Indo but I’m still not really feeling it… I don’t get the point like I do with a longboard. A longboard in a convienient shortboard package would be nice. I wondered how a 5’0" mini simmon might work. I have a longboard which after getting snapped and repaired could e a donor. But shapers don’t like this kind of horrible job. But I can’t do it myself since I don’t have the space, tools, or much time at the moment in one place.
I relise I need the advice and I using Nacho. But I don’t get the materials I really want and it’s the same price as a firewire board which is easier to resell so I’m almost paying €300 just for the consultation. When it’s finished it’s be in a place I might not be able to visit for months. I’ll snap and ding it pretty quick but it might teach me what I like to surf, so that’s worth paying for, even if the wastage goes against my love of efficiency.
What would be nice:
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find a shaper with CNC/materials in the Canaries, or someone skilled working with wood
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find a company willing to send anywhere, total cost working out about the same as locally bought
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advice and give the info to the cheap shaper, get the poly board made, test it, snap it no doubt, and then get a stronger board made with any lessons learnt, maybe a wooden from Vince in Bali