just found this, girls always get the last word, so go right ahead, it may or not be on here, I’m shaping and coaching finished my advanced first aid today, do you think I’d save you? I would have before, doesn’t mean I like you.
edited by moderator to embed photo
…incredible but few hours before that you posted this picture, I saw the almost the same but in the other angle.
That standardization is what lots here in this forum and of course worldwide swear
That fucking shit will ruin all the Surfboard and Surfing perspective…and I m not talking about the if the machine is another tool or a machine/handshaping debate.
Well… all of 'em are gonna end up in two peices, in a dumpster, sooner rather than later anyways.
wow, is there really that many hipster’s down at Bondi that can buy all those boards? Harris and Reverb I agree with your viewpoint, the C.I boards are amazing designs but such excess?? They are $850 now, come September next year they flog them off for $500-$550, maybe good for the tight consumer but is it good for the larger shaping and surfing community?
Then the next thing we need is everyone to post where they are surfing constantly on social media, mixed with websites that tell people where and when the best waves in the world are, so then we can all turn up in the hundreds at the same place at the same time with the cheap generic surfboards, unreal!!
…must do two boards a week…must do two boards a week…
I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle. By that I mean I’ve been away a long time, sold my tools in 81. I didn’t say I quit surfing and since then I’ve ridden a lot of folk’s boards. I should have realized this several years ago, when I purchased a Surftec, CI 7’-6” and it worked quite well. I thought man this thing is an exact replication of a “magic board”. Later, old age forced me to sell it and I got another Surftec this time a Rusty Island (8’-6”) rode it awhile and realized a machine is not perfect. I sold it and a few “soulful” boards that I could part with. Bought some tools and blanks, got a few boards wet and I’m stoked. No worries, this deal (making boards) is family and close friends only thing, as I need test pilots these days.
Here’s my point. What I see is the Industry side of this business has become way more complex than it has ever been. Right now everybody is struggling and it is common practice to have the product manufactured overseas to turn a profit. We expect that in the shoes, etc. but surfboards? Realize this only my perspective, surfboards mass produced are what we called “pop outs” and then, as now, this process will never have any soul. I realize I’m not the first to get up on a soap box and say that.
“Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it”
When I grew up, you could get a new board made when the surf was flat and you waited forever anyway. Velsy was (as usual) ahead of his time and started this mess. When he went down, Dale had already trained the guys who became big, with surfing going coast to coast. I’m most familiar with Weber and the “little man on wheels” was on it big time. Not to say that, Hansen, Bing, Noll (oh crap I started) G&S, Gordie, Rick, Jacobs, oh Hobie, Con, (sorry I gotta stop) weren’t but I think you see. In 1967 The Walker foam shop was milling the “Performer” to the point you just had to pull the rails and clean it up. Performer’s where flying out the door and Dewey was bank. Large inventories in the shops and manufactures. Then it happened, Surfing El Capitan, I’m riding a 9”-10” Harbor Sol and encounter the Aussies. The next week I’m trying to surf a 7-10” talk about a revolution! Almost overnight short boards sold as fast as you could make them. The big guys really knew it was coming and they got burned. Still they thought things where the same and cranked out all kinds of “models”, that had been the norm. However things changed so fast, only the backyard boys could change that quickly and they became the next generation. The big guys survived but the words in the air where “establishment and revolt”, it just drove the whole scene underground. Mountains where moved. I’m so glad I was able to adapt to the new (or what we thought) no limits surfing. By the way a lot of guys couldn’t change and quit. A little more room in the lineup.
I think it was 69 when professional surfing started. “Is professionalism black” was the question. We had always competed, just to surf the best that day and for the love of it. Pro surfing has made the big rich. The only good from “pro tour” I’ve seen is, “the cream always rises to the top”. Kelly Slater is the best surfer I have ever seen, next to Dora that is. My opinion? The pro tour is doomed along with the sell offs who think “you’ll dance to anything” (dead milkmen). Somehow, I don’t think there is any “soul” in it. This business has got worse and surfboards really haven’t changed that much since Simon Anderson and the thruster!
There’s change coming! You know where it’s coming from? The underground, by not worrying about selling it, some are willing risk it, trying some “outta the box” stuff. Some that works and some is junk. Forgive me as I am new to this forum but from what I’ve observed here at Swaylocks, there are way more very fine craftsmen and innovators than I would have though.
I don’t think I can speak for anyone except myself, I think that a living is the best you can expect when you elect to put your love, knowledge and skill into surfboards. The bucks will bring you down as you lose your soul. Surfing and advancing the art should be what it is all about. Make enough boards to keep surfing and savor your life, that’s soul, the true surfing life.
You old timers know even getting your trunks took a while and again didn’t we go to Katin or Birdwell over Catalina? Grassroots. There are those who ride well have soul and they will always seek you out, regardless of the mainstream. A novel of the greed and manipulation of surfing, versus the pure source of itself, should be penned.
I would like to think that, soul and love will prevail and that a revolution is long overdue.
Thanks for letting me vent...
Aloha!
Oldphart
That entire rant was worth reading just for the Dead Milkmen reference. In some ways, all of us old farts are Watching Scotty Die.
I ordered a blue board with green and yellow stripes.....It's gotta be in there some where.
photo: not a surfboard.
A surfboard is; hand made one of a kind
work of one who has ,is and will have to
surf to access a familiar peace.
The 21st century is a brand new papadime
[dont correct the spelling as papa is a refrence to the hawaiian word]
{genius no, freudian slip yes automatic spirit writing ,yes}
PaPa - flat He’e-octopus Nalu- wave
A proud man standing with a board taller than himself
after riding to shore with a hand made implement
a nineteenth century Icon, food for a disenfranchised
twentieth century youth reactionaries in the richest
culture in the history of the earth.
Now that surfing is a comodity
traded on the stock exchange
stolen in broad daylight by forces
of avarice and marketing .
The time is at hand to declare
a separation.
surfing is not done with a remote or a keyboard.
surfing is not done on a ski slope , on a lake ,
or on cable t.v.like in the 60’s a haircut style
and a bottle o’bleach dint make you real.
surfing is done in the natural ocean
with no payoff greater than a gravity drop
un- witnessed {empty beach}.
the photo is evidence
of what a surfboard is not.
Humility aside
the distinction must be made
the Greatest surfer is not but
a molecule dropping through
the weightless spin of personal best
awaiting only the chance to do it again.
Do You Still SURF?
perhaps your go-Pro
channel Island
corperate shorts
reveal the fact
that you don’t actually surf
though you devote yourself
to The new paradime
travail sounds like travel
to remote spots to rub shoulders
with russian oligarchs living the goodlife
on the decks of yachts as 'surfers.
…ambrose…
I remember watching carefully every turn executed
while sitting on the beach hoping to get a clue to the mystery
of surfing well,saving every spare dime to buy a good board.
p.s.why dont moderators correct the spelling of velzy’s name?
or dont they know it is spelled Valkyrie.
A good friend who made surfboards for 50 years, and had the biggest surfboard shop in Newport Beach, Ca. used to always tell me: “Who gives a F#%k what the other guys are doing worry about what your doing.” I heard Joey Buran on the radio preaching the other day, and he said something about the elections, and how unhappy some people are about it; and then he said something pretty profound, which I am paraphrazing: ‘The man in the mirror has caused me way more grief than any President.’ Be stoked Harris, because your Harris, and you have, and you can; don’t lose your focus, or passion; do the best job you can do, and I assure you, you will sleep better at night.
Deep! Those last 2 posts by Ambrose & ghetto are the best posts I’ve read on sways in a long time
“Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop,** ever,** until you are dead.” From the terminator movie,1984. I wonder which corporation is more pleased with their work… C.I. or Burton? I suppose I could console myself with this. The one thing that never changes is the** fact **that everything changes. If these were the last mass produced boards on earth, I wonder how long it would take to get to the last one and how much its price tag would be. It seems that the brand that one wears as a proud craftsman (top shelf or otherwise) will soon be categorized along with liberty lovers, conspiracy theorists, and flag wavers. So be it. I wear my brand with pride from the depths of my heart and soul. Long live the rebellious American craftsman…
Ordinarycitizen, Right on brother, Huzza.
there was a time when velzy was the definition of popout.
dale velzy was’nt involved after the tax man came.
and greg noll was popouts too as sports ways subsidary.
…ambrose…
change is what
you got back
from a buck.
try and get change
from a buck
good luck.
Aloha Ambrose,
I’m not sure if Dale was the first @ pop outs but he was the first sellout with the “Surfboard of Champions” deal. Really hate to say it, Duke cashed in on mass production too.
All the change we get from a buck is deer s@*t. Progression in design, lets move on.
Aloha nui hoaloha
Your wrong about Velzy. He was very invloved. Just behind the scenes and nameless other than Velzy/Jacobs. And--------- He didn’t do the “Popouts” , He “licensed” them. And with Dale I use the term “licensed” loosley and not in its strictest meaning. (ie written contracts, franchise and licensing agreements).
Well that pic doesn’t remind me of anything to do with surfing, hung like rubber thongs.
Ya know your right. I believe that if the tax man had left him alone, it never would have happened.
Never meant the man did anything more than sell or license his name. He lost the right to his own name and operated under the "V"surfboards by Dale logo.
Dale did then, what we need now new stuff like the bump, banjo and the first (kinda) winger the 422.
The real tread should be what can the little guy do...Innovate..
Inevitable result when literally millions of surfers clog the global waters…not nearly enough custom shapers to meet the demand…and the masses don’t want a custom anyway, just want whatever the Pro Of The Month is riding…"Spool up production, boys, we need another 3,000 Fred Rubble models by the weekend, make 'em all 5’10 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8
Ask the average surfer why he’s riding what’s he’s riding, get met with a blank stare…why that rocker, that fin placement, those bottom curves…cause Kelly and Parko ride 'em, why else…so why not churn 'em out by the thousands…custom surfboard riders will continue to become a dwindling % of riders, just as custom shapers will become a dwindling % of total surfboard production
And the biggest change hasn’t even occurred yet…once 3D printers are up and running en masse, probably about another two decades, maybe less, the milling machine will obsolete…won’t even need finishers, boards will emerge from the chamber as polished as a new egg…and as 3D printers become even more affordable, commonplace in many homes, won’t even be a CI or SurfTech making boards anymore…just a matter of buying or self designing the shape algorithm, send it to the printer, make sure the materials hopper is full, come back in a few hours for your new ride.
And somewhere, just as there will always be a grease monkey with a wrench in his hand, head under the hood of an old iron dinosaur, will be some guy with a planer and foamdust between his toes, hand shaping boards for him and maybe a few friends
