Glass not wood perimeter stingers, full single flowing into a deep double concave, five fin plug options for thruster, single, quad or 2+1 setups in 9’ or 9’6" all in epoxy for $675.00 either size…
I don’t think you can get a homegrown epoxy 6’2" for that price
Ive tried to get my friend who is just starting out to buy boards from local shapers, but instead he went down to his local surf shop, ate up what the shop owner told him and bought that exact longboard one of those links goes to. Once he learned how to ride that he wanted something smaller, so I recommended a fish, and even recommended a shaper in his area. However, once again he goes down to the shop and buys another china-made board. The thing that irks me is that this particular friend is making a ton of money this summer and when I gave him a price range for a custom shaped board he seemed to be okay with paying a bit more… Yeah he saved some dough (that he didnt really care about) but completely disregarded any advice. I tried… and failed. Sorry to all you guys losing business because of this s@%t.
I’m beginning to get the impression moulded EPS blanks as well as moulded EPS boards are pretty stiff. So if you like a stiff board GSI is probably the one for you.
I like the ''ideal for all weights" one size fits all aspect. Makes it really easy for shops to not have to hire people that know anything cause this is all you need to know…
I’m beginning to get the impression moulded EPS blanks as well as moulded EPS boards are pretty stiff. So if you like a stiff board GSI is probably the one for you.
I don’t think that’s true, the flex is most likely related to additives in the EPS beads, density and bead fusion. That’s my take after having a look at surfboard specific EPS vs. insulating EPS. Secondly, if the molded EPS is so stiff, why do they put glass fiber stringers in them?
Are these board molded anyway? I would think they came out of a KKL type machine and then where glassed the normal way from the information from GSI. Couldn’t tell if it was EPS or PU though…
none of Griffins boards are built to flex and snap you around a wave
but very few complaints so far.
It’s certainly a valid position, one that I think is largely neglected right now with all the hype about what’s newest and bestest. What about making a board in the shape you want it to stay in, and then asking it to stay in that shape?
when they can do these systematically in hundreds and even thousands a month.
howyagonnacompete?
offer a more personal service. Let the customer drop by to watch his board being made, maybe even influence the design during the process.
Not sure I’d feel very special if a guy just pointed and said that one coming off the production line there next to the other 999 identical boards is your one.
When each masproduced board is unique and fully customisable then I’ll be worried, but I’d still make boards.
none of Griffins boards are built to flex and snap you around a wave
but very few complaints so far.
wonder why?
Because as you know, DESIGN still rules and GG has something very special. I like flex cuz it feels better, but its not the end-all its been propagandized in this forum the last few years. With good design you can make a stiff board go great, but maybe lacking in good feel. Or maybe I just havent ridden a stiff board that feels good yet. IMO, the neutral axis thread goes down as the most rediculous tech thread in Sways history. Im ashamed to have participated in that one, altho in my defense, I wasnt drinking that koolaid. So much neuron energy wasted on something that doesnt even come in contact with water! There are some other related threads that are a close 2nd or 3rd.
Not in particular response to your post Woody but Greg Webber seems pretty stoked on his SLX range. See video on Link
Check out the size /weight chart though. At just under 70kg I should be on a 5’8" x 18" x 2 1/16" shortboard. Ha ha ha!
I would like to try one of Webbers deep double concave boards. I don’t know a shop in the UK that imports from Oz Webbers boards. So If I wanted to try one I could either have one shipped over for probably $1000. This would be a huge leap of faith buying unseen relying on communication of the type of waves and surfing I do across continents or alternatively i could get a potentially readily available Asian factory made one endorsed by Greg Webber for $750 that I can handle before deciding to buy. I’m not really interested in the fact they are Epoxy/Eps but intrigued by the shape.
I have come to much prefer either buying new off the rack of buying secondhand. I think virtually every custom board I have ordered from a shaper has been a dissapointment in one way or another wether it is through poor customer service, not getting what I asked for or poor workmanship eg sand throughs. Especially if you want to explore something different then you will be paying the shaper to gradually home in on the design through ordering several boards. I’m not wealthy enough to be a guineapig. But all said and done I still would try not to buy a GSI board. Or maybe wait a year and pick up a secondhand one.
offer a more personal service. Let the customer drop by to watch his board being made, maybe even influence the design during the process.
bingo!
the customer side customer service focus of this industry has been lacking forever especially in customs. It the “i know better” and the “its all about me”
that create the whole “dude!, dude? ahh duedue!” phenomena… The best have always done it the right way. That’s how they developed lifetime clients,
I think the customer coming by and seeing the board being made and maybe influencing the board is not what makes a good custom surfboard. I don’t want to watch a performance from the shaper . I just want a good surfing tool at the end of the process. Thats all the board is. Getting involved with the building puts too much of a preciousness on the object. I hate new boards. They ding. They don’t come up to expectation. Use them once and they are devalued by half. But I would love to find a shaper to keep building me better and better boards, that challenge me to surf better. At the moment I don’t really know what I’m looking for so trying loads of different shapes from different shapers who have perfected (I hope) those shapes.
yeah that was me… and my friend… im havin a great time on the stubbie, great for summer. once I have surfed this one into the ground, I’ll be ordering another.
offer a more personal service. Let the customer drop by to watch his board being made, maybe even influence the design during the process.
bingo!
the customer side customer service focus of this industry has been lacking forever especially in customs
To expand the conceptual view of the issue and some of these and other thoughts expressed, communication and the idea of inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness are methods and philosophies that will enable small businesses to survive and perhaps prosper.
Just look at the “Bigs” in the shorty surf magazines…busy ads that relay no info, all attitude, all exclusive…but you can buy into “the crew” with a new board or t-shirt or pair of boardshorts. They call that concept “Branding”, straight from the feedlots, and the use of that term perfectly illustrates the esteem in which they hold their customers.
Figure out what they are doing, and why, and then do the opposite…
At the moments its a bit of a scattergun approach but i have been down the route of stressing to the shaper that i want to get at least 3 boards in succession to home in on a good custom for me. After the initial ‘performance’ of being welcomed into the shaping room watched the skinning and then the templating of the blank, having it propped against the wall and asked what i thought ( as if you can tell anything from an outline). Then thing go downhill regarding quality of service. Deadlines drift and the shaper just makes what he usually makes but in your size. Thats not a custom at all, its an off the rack made to my measurements. Often someone screws up the glassing or the sanding or the plug install. One time I gave up after 6 poor boards and another after a mixture of 9 or so very good and some poorly made boards.
Only one local standout has been working with a shaper to refine a board particular to his needs. But because he had made boards himself he could pursuade an at first resistant shaper to go in the direction wanted. Could prove it worked and could be tweeked to be even better. Bloody successful for a wafer thin banana rockered shortboard.
Most of us are caught between the is it me or is it the board syndrome. Seen it in some very experienced surfers too. So they just buy what is proven , not particularly by a pros marketing example (I personally don’t think advertising works at all) but by what they see other similar standard or slightly higher standard local surfers surfing.
Anyways the shapers I have tried for customs have never failed to disappoint me one way or another.
Glass not wood perimeter stingers, full single flowing into a deep double concave, five fin plug options for thruster, single, quad or 2+1 setups in 9’ or 9’6" all in epoxy for $675.00 either size…
I don’t think you can get a homegrown epoxy 6’2" for that price
when they can do these systematically in hundreds and even thousands a month.
howyagonnacompete?
another gauntlet thrown down
better yet it’s available right here on our main page
guys/gals better step it up a notch
Finally a Modern Longboard
that is modern!!..Nothing but a gimik line. M.K. Video…Obviously done by someone trying to sell something who is not an experienced surfer if he surfs at all…which is obvious. He seems to be repeting something he heard from one of the shapers in his stable.
I posted this awhile back ago…It is what it is…and what it is is obvious to all but the delusional masses.
