I saw this in surfermang forum. I did a search and someone mentioned Matt Posts under Mayhemb3 handle or something like that … MaYbe he’ll post?
Anyone know if this is true?
Here is the source files:
title is this: Email I came across. Straight from Biolos’ keyboard
bobsurf
Rabbitt Bartholomew status
Reged: 01/10/03
Posts: 8552
Loc: Blue Oyster Bar
Email I came across. Straight from Biolos’ keyboard.
#859411 - 11/17/05 10:43 AMEdit post Edit Reply to this post Reply Reply to this post Quote
Unedited by me:
I have been looking at the internet gossip sites and following my
crucifiction with a bit of a sigh.
Who do these people think they are, After all the work I alone did to slow
down the rampant growth of ,and enforce the trade laws being trampled by,
the various surfboard importers here in this country?
I told everyone I could that if it went unchecked the entire landscape of
the surfboard buis was gonna change and if we all didnt get together and
do somthing we werent gonna be happy.
Only 3 manufactures in the whole country offered support or asked me what
they could do to help (the ones that did were all so small, I couldnt ask
them to do anything)
One guy, Pat from WRV helped tip me off on some clown imoporting “American”
brand surfboards into Norfolk Va.
Less than 5 Shops actually contacted me and said they supported it all the
way and asked if they could help…5 times that amount told me I was crazy
and should keep my mouth shut.
Who do these internet gossipers think they are to judge me and my buisness
after I have done so much to inspire, ignite, and drive the buisness we are
in.
These are for the most part men making uneducated accusations.
If people are gonna point fingers( as I tend to do) at least go do your
friggen research!
A short list of some of the positives Me and My cmpany have given to the
surfboard industry in the last few years follows…
EX:
- The …Lost Round Nose Fish.
Its the mid 90’s, No One was riding twinfins outside of a few underground
type guys, NONE available in retail…we put the hottest groms in the world
at the time on a bunch, made a movie about it, and 6 monthes later every
shaper in the country was gettin orders for Twin fins. Many shapers (like
Xanadu) thanked us for sparking a spike in board sales and making it
manditory to have a quiver for even non traveling small wave surfers. To
this day, we are yet to see better surfing on a twin fin than in that
movie. "The whole Kane garden keel fish fad we have now is a direct
derivative from the …Lost rnf movie and the constant retail sales of the
rnf in surfshops for nearly 10 years"
Joel Tudor told me that at Velzys funeral.
- The “thanx4-3” Simon anderson project.
With total repect to history and what he did for the industry, …Lost , as
you know gave him $1.00 for every thruster we sold 3 years back…It was a
total of more than $5,000.
In the press release, Derek hynde wrote " I (Derek) once sent Simon a buck
for every thruster I ever owned". He chalenged all manufacturers to do the
same as …Lost and send a buck per board and we hoped private surfers
would do as Derek and send 1.00 for each they owned as well.
NONE…NO Manufacterers, NO persoanl private surfers…NO ONE steped up
and sent a dollar (to the best of my knowlage)…Where were all the
swaylocks, Surfermag design forum and other internet Western Lynch mobs
then… When they all had a very good chance to step up and do somthing
special??? Easier to sit and stare at the monitor and jump on the whiping
post bandwagon.
A bunch of Modern day Salems Lot witch hunters!!!
- MR…In the last year, we made over 500 MR retros and super twins. All
with a steep and margin shrinking (for me) royalty paid to Mark. This gave
a FULL time shaping job to a great shaper here in SC, a nearly full time
job to an airbrusher, 500 sets of domestically made glass fins (unlike all
the rtm molded import fins on most of the Witch hunters boards I am sure),
higher priced consistent glassjobs to a glasshop here, not to mention about
$15,000 worth of royalties into the pocket of the second greatest contest
surfer and GREATEST SURFER/SHAPER of ALL TIME.
We spent a ton of un recoupable money on air flights and hotels etc to have
Mark here and we are doing it again for the Janurary '06 tradeshows as
well.
But I am the bad guy.
What about other less known things we do to make the board thing better and
try to build better boards in a more and more difficult enviornment…
- XTR…We have made more XTR Waterproof foam epoxy hand shaped boards
than anyone in the country the last couple years. We spend and extra $90.00
per board to make them but sell them at no extra markup (just adding the
90.00, and making margins next to nothing). This is the strongest lightest
best perfroming commercially available option for hand made epoxy custom
boards.
We at …>Lost are at the forfront of this buisness and its continued
development.
- I have worked extensivly with Hank Johns of Graphite masters (he supplys
the Glass distributors and delivery trucks with most of the cloth and
materials used in the worlds board market) trying new and diffent materials
on both Clark and XTR and Beaded styro blanks. More work on this than
anyone in California. The end result was trying to make Clark foams cost
efective and easily obtainable foam and mesh it with epoxy resins and newer
glasses in order to make better boards…Lots of time spent , lots of money
spent and some pretty rad boards came out of it.
To no avail though, because They cost more to make than tufflites and still
arent as strong and shops would prefer the tufflites.
- We were the first to introduce the “Blue stuff” into resin here in the
USA. This is the agent we add to the resin to make the boards a “cool”
white instead of w warm white, It gives the effect of whiter boards and
clearer resins …This soon changed the “whitness factor” overnight, for
all manufactures and surfshops across the country now had whiter boards on
the racks, that stayed white longer (thus increasing time to sell it while
it still looked good on the surfshop floor) Rev Chem and the other resin
distributors sourced my connection and now the entire industry has access.
- Same goes for Soar glasson and FCS replacement fins…we imported
directly from Oz, because they are the best…Now readily available to the
whole market. No one knew they existed till we brought them here.
- While we are at it…How bout those Posca pens???
Started bringing them in my duffle bag from Japan in 1991.
(Timmy Patterson had them a year earlier actually) But we all know who got
them into the market and helped give the DIY paint jobs to every one who
wanted to make boards in the USA.
Now, They are available in every coastal art store int the country.
And these guys Judge me because I have studied more about, have
specifically traveled and worked on boards world wide more, and make more
boards, visisted more shops than nearly everyone else in this buis, And
because of this I have made a very educated desicion and realized that its
either Join them (Surfteck) or beat them.
Because I will not stand by idely while the unfortunate offshore surfboard
revolution happens around me while I begrudgedly and foolishly keep typing
on a typwriter as everyone else moves on to computors.
Not sure if this is common Knowlage yet, but…
- T Patterson just signed a contract with Surfteck (he is one of my IDOLS,
his dad and uncle practically INVENTED the way we make production
surfboards).
Timmy will have about 8 modles in Tuflite at the Jan shows.
- RUSTY will have about 12…yes 12 Tufflite surftech Rustys available
this spring.
- Webber…Perhaps the greatest and most misunderstood shaper I have ever
met…The one who inspired Al Merrick to try deep concaves and hyper
rocker, not only has his Tufflites, but was at ASR and Surf expo in
September this year with Asian Made Polyester hand shapes… He was
standing in the GSI (Best known for their “Seven” and “Blue” brand
Polyester cheapo boards) Booth all three days of each show.
All Webber, LSD, and other top Aussy shapers Polyester handshaped
handglassed boards will be imported into the USA and Europe next year from
Thailand…Nothing you or I can do about it (allthough you and I Tim are
probalbly the 2 in our own right who tried to stop it from Happening).
- Heres the icing on the cake.
AL Merrick is now making Most if not ALL of his High end Polyester
surfboard production in Asia .YES…The Single fin Machado, the Keel fish
and others are now being made in Thialnd. No more St Peirre, San Diego
resin tints, No more California made acid splash gloss and polish
glassjobs. All going to the Orient…This isnt the hackm it out, all
clear sand only fcs Flyers. This is the cream of the crop artistic highend
beutyfull ones here we are talking about.
NOW, once again, I tell you, Like I did when Channel Islands decided to do
Tufflites… This sets a precidence, Because when the top dog (the god of
shaping and board making) All Merrick tells everyone that now its OK to
make your high end Cadillac Polyester boards of your line in Asia, Well ,
who are you and I to tell them its not?
This now sets another newer and far more damaging precidence than when he
did tufflites.
What are we to do?
Understand, that as preceidence, NO ONE has put forth more of an
concentrated, unassisted effort into the slowingdown of the imported
surfboard Pariah.
Hundreds of hours, close to 30,000 dollars, mutliple air and rode trips to
Customs depts around the country, a couple thousand in longdistance bills
and basically setting my self up as a bit of a martyr in order to get the
word out that this will eventually spell the demise of the domestic
manufacturing industry.
Exept for a few hardcore shops making a stand (like you), and a few slaps
on the back from industry “bros”. The thing, for the most part, fell on
deaf ears.
I am soley (with the help of my lawyer and some financal backing)
responsible for the law that made the tracking of boards by volume and $
manditory in the US. The numbers dont lie. The volume has increased nearly
10 fold in 04 to 05. While the number surf shops in the US have DECREASED
from 04 to 05.
I once said on line and in print in late 03 that the there is…quote " NO
excuse for Al Merrick to make Tufflites, UNLESS the market and customer
demands or prefers this product"
"Once he does it the precidence is now set that is is accepted and ok to do
, and the time will come that this is the norm."
Unfortunatley, he did and it has.
Randy French is in this months FORTUNE magazine…They did 70,000
Surftecks this year alone. Tim, this is more than CI, LOST, RUSTY, WRV,
HIC, T Patterson, JS, DHD , all of the Florida top shortboard brands,
Stewart, Hobie and more put together.
The writing is on the wall. The public wants it, the shops want it (I have
been told I am a fool for not doing …Lost surftecks by way more accounts
that told not to do it…)
So now, I will tell you “why I am involved in starting Placebo”
Late last year Cory Lopez’ came to me and asked about being compensated for
riding our boards exclusivly. All other surfers at his level and status in
the world are payed well by the board brand they surf for.
Cory had ridden "mayhems " nearly absolutly exclusivly for the last 3 years
w/o one dollar of compensttion from My company.
A huge show of loyalty and passion for our relationship.
Before that Cory had ridden for …Lost surfboards for about 5 years and
was compensated by us for it.
He signed a very lucrative deal with Oniell International in Jan '02 that
included the removal of the “…Lost” logo from his boards. So from then
on, only "mayhem " appeared on his boards.
No one in my shaping career has stood beside me as unfaltreringly through
it all as Cory Lopez. Year in/year out, hes out there getting big results
and big publicity on the boards and all most never, if ever, orders a board
from another shaper.
This is completly unfheard of today in the world of pro surfing…even if
you do pay the guy!!!
So, Cory said he had been getting offers from Board companies to pay him
alot of money to jump to another brand. He explainerd that as an athlete he
has a short career and needs to make it count.
It became open that the two companies going after him and offering up the
big bucks were SURFTECH and BOARDWORKS…they each offered alot of money
and alot of royalties to do Coy Lopez models.
You see, a normall domestic board builder cant afford to pay the type of
money these brands were offering because our margins are so small.
Some board builders can offset costs of team by selling tees and hats to
help bring in more money.
I cannot do that because my brand is licensed out allready and I dont
reserve the right to make “surfboard” tees.
Anyway, we quickly realized that “Mayhem” not even being the brand of
boards we actually market and sell can never afford to compete with the
money being thrown at Cory without going overseas to manufacture.
I couldnt do that, Mayhem and …Lost stand for somthing more than that. As
a brand, we owe it to our customers and followers to keep the Brand the
last of its kind to not go overseas with production.
At the same time, We owed Cory the respect and the loyalty he afforded us
over the course of our relationship.
So he says “Lets start another brand and do Cory Lopez models”
Fast forward to Freddy James of Buxton North Carolina, Son of Ted James and
heir to the family buisness/surfshop of “Fox Watersports” in Buxton .
Ted and Freddy and his brother Ted (Not larry darryl and darryl) had been
involved in the early and ongoing development of molded surf and sail
boards for 20 years or more.
They were there when Surtechs were still molded in the USA.
He was buddys with Mike Reola (Co Founder of …lost with me) and had just
come to the table with a “Tufflite” type of building technology that he
claimed was “Better than surftech”
It flexes more, feels more natural under your feet and has a simpler
manufacturing process that allows less seams and less margin for error in
the layups.
Freddy was on board, Cory was on board.
I, after seeing all the he growth at a retail level and in the water of
Surtecks in the last couple years knew that one way or the other it was
coming… good or bad , and we moved forward with a plan.
We would think of a way to do a new brand with new designs, new image, new
art , shapes, and manufacturing .
Cory would get his board models, and his compenstion and Freddy had an
opportunity to start a buisness with a world class surfer and the expertise
of people like MIke and I behind him as well.
The name “Placebo” is a joke…Get it?
It means an artificial or fake surfboard, the icon is a pill that does
nothing, Like a Placebo drug.
It just happens to be a statement on the world today in general…not just
surfboards.
The shaper is a robot!!! He has little wheels and a smoke stack out his
head emmitting little death skull icons as he chokes boards out of his
mechanic belly!!!
It is so sarcastic and tounge in cheek…we are making fun of ourselves
while we do it, But its all very catchy.
Every board has a PERMANENT Country of origion logo screened onto
it…Placebo is the first and only imported brand to do so.
Placebos will be hand painted by the artist here in the USA giving the
boards a more personall touch than any other molded or imported board, thus
customizing the boards in a superficial way.
I am not the face of Placebo any more than Paul Naude (president of
Billabong and over see’er of the brands under the Billabong umbrella like
Von Zipper, Element and Honolua) is the face of Element.
Freddy James is the President, VP of Marketing, Vp of sales and production
and even board boxing and shiping if need be.
Pinky Taylor (an artist from South africa has come up with all the imagery
and is totally seperate from…LOST, in look and message and feel.
There is no overlapping.
Rick Hazard will be calling no one about Placebo, I dont think that any of
the …Lost sales reps will be selling them either (Allthoug Freddy might
lean on them for help).
Freddy and Cory and Pinky will be at the tradeshows in a Placebo booth,
doing their thing.
I will be where I belong, In the Friggen /…Lost booth drinking …Lost
and Vodkas talking with my customers, checking out all the girls and
showing off the latest from …Lost…and having a good time like we
have for the last 12 years.
This is all the explaination I am prepared to give.
I hope it works for you Tim, I value your buisness and your input and your
steadfast unfliching honesty.
Sincerely
Matt Biolos