does anyone know anything about the brand? they do their shaping from a cnc machine, but who did the original shapes? aslo, If you’ve riden them, how do they feel? Just wanted any possible info I could get… i’m trying to get a few of my friends into surfing and I dont want to go through the hassle of making 3 boards if they won’t use them/break them, and I dont want them to blow a hugh chunk of money on a name brand board. From what I read, they look ok, the glass looks a little thin for a longboard… 4oz, 60z top and a 6 oz bottom, but it is epoxy… heres teh board im interested in getting (going to get 3 of them if they get a good response)
they arent china made, but they arent exactly hand shaped either… from what research I did, it looks like they have a series of boards shaped by real shapers, glassed by real glassers, and at each step they are scanned into a 3D modeling program then the CNC machine duplicates them to a very tight tolerance (like .001 of an inch). So the originals are true handcrafted boards, which are then duplicated on a huge scale and hand glassed from there. I just wondered about who shaped the templates, how they were tested (e.g. wave size, locations, rider weight). I want to know how they are to paddle, how they float, and durability.
the waves I surf, which ill be teaching my friends on are Florida Gulf about 20 minutes out of Pensacola. Its basically gulf mush 4-5 ft high on good days, any higher and it turns too choppy. So im looking at the longboards as a good first boards for them.
They do sell China made surfboards. The same manufacture that your local department store surf shops in Pensacola get’s them from and put’s their name on. That’s what most China made boards are…duplicates. You will likely never find who who actually shaped the original templates as with much of this stuff…shop owners find a board they like have it copied and then send that copy overseas. By the way…many boards made in China are actually hand shaped by the workers, not put on a CNC machine. It’s easy to tell if they were shaped in China also. Just look at the stringers.
If you are in Pensacola…why would you need to waste your time with those boards when you have a host of local shapers or shapers from there, who know those waves who would be happy to do them for you. Unless you order them at over 100 at a time, you will not save much money anyway.
You can tell just by looking at the board that and the advertisement for it that it’s a Chinese import. Same templates, same finishes, same use of the term “Australian blank”, which usually really means “Chinese blown blank using Aussie formula”.
Don’t let the logo throw you off. If you’re buying a containerload of boards for import the factories over there will be more than happy to put any logo on it you want, including no logo. Well, you might have some problem getting trademarked logos through customs if you’re not the trademark holder, but that’s about the only limitation.
Think about it - what domestic board builders completely omit all mention of the origins of their designs or the shapers and - if applicable - the notable surfers who created them? Even Surftech notes some of the shapers and surfers involved in their designs.
The “About Isle” page on their website doesn’t mention a single shaper. These guys don’t shape boards and they don’t glass boards - all they do is import and sell. Look at their inventory, including their closeouts of GSI (Global Surf Industries) surfboards.
They're based out here in SD. Its just a China operation.
Its up to you what you buy, my only advice for china boards is not to pay full price since they are making at least 100% markup, and domestic board is around 20%.
On the boards, they ride ok. Construction, they sand the hell out of them so they are a little weaker. I've repaired a few and the repair area ends up being alot bigger than the ding. The glass tends to chip away and you need to sand a large area to get a good glass to patch on.
I bought two of there pro shotrboards to leave at my place in Costa Rica four years ago. I picked them up on EBay for 200.00 and 250.00 respectively (shipped to CO). One is epoxy and is there xps performance series. This is a good board and for what I wanted, a cheap board that I don't really care what happens to it. It rides pretty well and seems to be fairly durable. It is by no means a magic board, but for a board that I don't care if anyone takes it out for surf its fine. The other is an older polyester board that was hand shaped in Cali. It is signed by the shaper and is not epoxy. This board is definitely a little nicer than the epoxy board and rides very well. Again it is not a custom board but for the price I am very happy. I have ridden both boards in everything from waist high slop to over head barrels and the boards do pretty good. Would I buy another board form Isle, yes. Would I recommend them to someone just starting to surf, yes. If you are a hardcore surfer you probably wouldn’t get the board you want, but it just depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to pay.
I know a couple friends who have gotten them as first boards. One, well he’s not much of a surfer so I don’t think he could articulate much about the board other than the “bitchin’ graphics.” The other, he got it pretty beat up, and proceeded to beat it up even more as he was learning on it. Eventually I took it from him and told him he couldn’t ride it until I fixed the dings, which included all 3 fin boxes being broken, huge chunks of rotted foam, delams, stress cracks, etc. It’s a masters course in ding repair.
Cheap boards, cheap glassing. Not worth it. You could go worse, like with a GSI Blue or Seven, but sadly even a Bic will be a better board. Cheap, pretty ding resistant, and for a beginner plenty good enough. Also pretty easy to sell if they advance past or great for passing on to other beginners.
I second what Rachel is saying. My nephews best buddy bought one of the cheap O brands, I think something like 270.00 with a leash and fins. Completely destroyed it in about 3 months...he was alway bringing it over to be fixed, I mean like every week to be fixed. .....rolled fin boxes, crushed tail rails, busted off nose. etc. I finally sent him to Gary Lindens shop for a real surfboard. He got custom, with more volume and a better shape for So Cal, and the price was about $375.00
You pay for what you get. I'd rather buy a slightly used quality board, than a low priced POS.
I remember reading sometime ago (I think it was on the surfermag BB), that ISLE was started by two shopping cart retrievers at the Rose Canyon Costco in San Diego. They saw the Realm China boards being sold there. One was an IT web student and the idea of marketing cheap surfboards on the web was sparked. They both did surf, though neither had ever built surfboards before.
They are here in san diego (nat’l city area if I recall correctly), for a while they were also importing Excell blanks from China… I bought a few batches of imported blanks from them after Clark shut down. That stopped when they apparently figured out they might as well fill containers with boards instead of blanks…
sounds like your three friends are absolute beginners. The surf schools down here all seem to use soft surfboards and are having success with getting their students standing. Soft surfboards don’t ding and hurt so much, but I dunno about cost and resale.
yeah… I think I know where I’m going to start… im going to buy 1 soft deck board, and find 3 good used boards. I talked it over with them, and this seems to be the best route, once they grow out of the second hand boards, im going to try and get them to shape their own. Thanks for the input on ISLE. and yes, the closest they have ever some to surfing is riding boogie boards
Chi---Com Bro; Strictly Chi--Com. Probably not even "California Designed" like the Costco Realm boards. Every beginner "Kook" should start out on a used board. It's a tradition!
completely agree with mcding, i cannot see why begginers insist on buying a cheap new board which will be filling the land-fills in a couple of years when there are heaps of better, better made, second hand boards around, what happened to repair and re-use
completely agree with mcding, i cannot see why begginers insist on buying a cheap new board which will be filling the land-fills in a couple of years when there are heaps of better, better made, second hand boards around, what happened to repair and re-use
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I agree. To this day I personally wouldn't pay for a new "off the rack" board. I would pay for a custom from a small handful of people. Me personally....buy 'em used, surf 'em, wanna switch it out...no big deal, relist sell and get something else. IMO new boards, unless custom shaped, are a complete waste of money.
" based in California " is the key phrase. They may have some sucker back yarder doing sanded finish boards cheap by custom so they can live up and not be totally bogus…but the boards are Chinese at least 80%. I have seen them. Nothing wrong with a couple of the shapes either, but no need to go there when I can make four or five phone calls and get what I want exactly the way I want and catch up with old friends at the same time. BTW: Merrick, ,Rusty, and a host of other shapers started the " lazy " trend because they didn’t want to spend the extra 40 minutes sealing the board properly and instead opted to tell the surfboard buying masses that a 4 oz glass job with a sanded finish is what the pros road because it was faster and etc. 90% of that sanded finish garbage is worthless in two to three years also. Most of it yellows badly over time and the average surfer doesn’t benefit from any weight difference.
Like fin boxes whose original purpose was ease of packing and shipping and so you could fit more boards in the surfboard rack at the you have some companies attempting to sell a weakness in the product ( break away ) as a built in benefit. That’s life in the surf industry.
Solo-----------------I'm in complete agreement. Except to add that alot of sanded finish boards are "oversanded" . The result is exsposed weave which begins to soak water and turn brown in no time at all. Some manufacturers do not even wipe the board down with a finish coat of acrylic
Isle surfboards are crap…Check out Equinox surfboards. They have cheap boards and the construction is much better. I assume they are imported from China but good value for the price. I have a Equinox retro fish and it’s fun as hell.