To me, that picture envokes one single word from my mouth,
YAWN.
It’s kinda like a white Ford F-150.
Boring as F*ck!
I’ll take mine a custom.
A good friend of mine shapes 10 of those a day off the machine. I’m sure some of those are his doing.
When I see him, he looks bored out of his mind.
And yes I am happy now.
Just saying.
Barry Snyder
most of the people who buy those CI’s are pretty happy about them . you can choose between 5 boards of the same dims and feel what one feels best in your hands .
burton islands is not the devil
Well as they say ‘a picture tells a thousand words’, so you can move those words till it suits you the best. I would also say, most of those people might be slightly brainwashed and wouldn’t know any better.
Let’s focus on the positives and let CI be CI. There are still great board builders out there that are churning out boards and somehow making a living doing it… I build boards in Santa Cruz, so I’ll start there: Michel Junod, Marc Andreini, Doug Fletcher (laminator) and Dave Aronovicci (sander) at the Santa Cruz Board Builders Guild, Doug Haut, Carl Olson (Two Crows), Travis Reynolds, Rob Lion (Royal), Ward Coffey, Danny Hess, Ashley Lloyd, Nick Palandrani (Source), Buck Noe, Tony Mikus (laminator), and myself (Tim Folkert, Migration).
I know I’m missing a few, and I also know there are a bunch of others all up and down CA that I’ll let others mention. I worked as a polisher for 6 years before launching my own label. I’ve polished boards for every person on this list and can honestly say that the level of talent and craftsmanship in Santa Cruz is top notch. What’s even better is that most of us are friends and support each other and our respective labels/brands. We often struggle and succeed together. We get stoked for each other when we see someone putting together a beautiful board. I know we’re not alone in this… It seems there are similar scenes in Santa Barbara, San Diego, Orange County, and elsewhere. Some of you may look at that picture and see doom and gloom. I look at the picture and choose to ignore the mass produced mediocrity. I’d rather focus on the folks I work with and see a sweet community of fine craftsmen and fine people who are taking board building in a multitude of different directions.
I do all of the work by myself. Have an apprentice that sands and polishes. Only make 2 per week at the most (sometimes). Have a backlog of orders from people willing to wait. 64 years old and don’t advertise anywhere. Only making mid range hull/eggs and fishes. Lotsa resin color because I like doing it. Average price is around $600 without fin. No overhead really as they are built in my furniture workshop on my property which is paid for.
I buy materials in small bulk (resin in 5 gallon cans,rolls of glass) and buy enough US blanks where 5 will go in a shipping box so it comes to around $15 per blank via truck (I pick) up at terminal). Buy sandpaper and tape by the box etc.etc. I figure the average price for materials is $250 per board (and thats a high guess). So I make around $300 clear per board.Not too bad for a part time hobby gig.
I think there are a lot of folks out there just like me.The underground thrives. Bartering is getting to be more popular. I do it all of the time. Life can be good if you are willing to work. The underground thrives but… you can’t find us because we are…“undergound”. Thats my rant for the week.
merry Xmas to all
