Just wondering how many of you guys use surf source. I’ve been going there about 3-4 yrs. they’ve always been great.
I haven’t been shaping much lately due to starting school (hey you young guys, go to college. go while you’re young, if you think it’s hard now it’s brutal when you’ve become domesticated (wife,kids,job,mortgage).)
Last time I was there was 9/04. I was paying $26 and change for a gal. of suncure and $23 for reg. lam. I went today and it’s $36 and $35 for retail customers, the old price for the pros!
Now, I thought that the old added 20% for the backyarder was pretty high but I could understand where they were coming from looking after the pros, but now a 40% hike! That’s just RUDE!
I know a lot of backyarders use them and I have to think we make up a fair chunk of change in their pockets even at +20% but I’m wondering if we make up such a small part of their biz that they’ve done this to get rid of the unwanted nuisance of small retail sales. If it’s pressure from the pros (who are afraid my 10 boards a year is knocking them out of the market), why would they gouge us so hard they run us off.
I don’t want to rant, I could but I won’t. I’m pissed. You know that feeling when your local crack dealer gives you free crack for a couple of weeks and then about the time you really want it bad he starts to charge you? Neither do I, but I reckon it’s similar to how I’m feeling now.
Anyway, there is another place in FL where we can still get a gal. for $27.
That sucks, I like to be a loyal customer to local shops and shops who treat me nice, they used to be one of them.
Howzit rider, Oil prices are only part of the problem. Honolulu posted a thread about how China is buying all the products they can and that is also a big factor causing prices to rise. Do an archive search for " Material costs going up,up,up" and read what he had to say.Aloha,Kokua
Yo Kokua…you are right on.I live in huge port city.Used to be those container ships from china would come in loaded to the gills and leave pretty much empty.Now they leave totally loaded with american raw materials like lumber,sheetrock,titanium,kaolin etc.Word has it prices will never go down again in our lifetime.
29.30 for lam and sanding from fiberglass fl at the end of march.
the cost of driving down here would far exceed any savings you’d have on the resin costs.
you might as well get a city/county license and federal tax id, run your small business at a loss, buy resin cheaper in the long run and deduct losses from income on the 2005 tax return. nothing illegal about that.
Epoxy raw materials have gone up 67% this year alone. Styrene is up 87% over the past year and is in short supply.
Fiberglass is up and threatening shortage.
Gasoline is up about 40% this year (135% in the last 5 years) and still rising.
It’s the emergence of third world industry and demand on raw materials. It’s also a weak dollar and it’s not improving. I don’t really want to get into the politics of all this but WE have made Chinese industry very successful. Our consumerist lifestyle is being buoyed by cheap foreign labor and foriegn government export subsidies.
This governments policy (on both sides of the isle) of shipping American industry overseas will come back to bite us in the ass, the same way it did with the emergence of Japanese industry in the 70’s and 80’s culminating in the deep recession of the late 80’s. And China is many times bigger than Japan.
When the average Chinese laborer decides to lift himself to a higher level (the same way the Japanese laborer did) guess who will pay? Will there will be any Ameriacn indusry left to combat this? Not lookin’ to good …
Inflation, higher interest rates and recession … the early signs are already here.
Howzit drew, I buy my resin in 5 gal tubs and UV lam resin is $ 136.25 for the 5 gal tub plus shipping costs from Oahu. After adding shipping it costs about $141.00 per tub. Even those prices change from week to week and the lady who does the pricing for F.H. says it's driving her crazy trying to keep up with the changes. We have a hareware store in Princeville that asks $ 60.00 a gal for UV. Aloha,Kokua
Howzit drew, It's but what is not so funny is if they had their way they would change a lot of things on Kauai to be more like where they came from. A lot of them don't like the Hawaiian culture because they don't understand Aloha. A friend who has a store here in Hanalei was telling me about a tourist asking where they could buy some Aloha. Trying not to laugh she explained that aloha is in your heart and mind and it can't be bought or sold.Aloha,Kokua
The lone time I was in kauaii I drove all over the island and took a gander into Princeville. I was disapointed because I had visions of it being a normal town, with a town center and a sense of community…turns out that it’s just one big locked gate resort.
It certainly does not seem to fit in with the rural beauty and charm of the rest of the island. Seems like a a big chunk of Maui was dropped from the sky onto Princeville.
My time spent at a ski town in Colorado taught me that vacationers forget that they are walking into the lives of those that live in resort areas and seem to lose sight of the fact the peple there are simply living their lives on their own terms and are not there to make your “stay” more inviting, or to cater to you as a tourist.