Interesting question… It seems like much innovation comes from those willing to think outside of the accepted dogma of a discipline. Look at roy stewart, for example. I won’t say that his stuff is necessarily better than anything else, but in the absence of anyone telling him what to build, he has come up with a unique board building method that I’ve not seen anywhere else. Another example would be Solomonson and his surfmats. Excepting some pool-toy manufacturers, he is basically peerless. Having little existing framework for how a surfmat “should” be, he has innovated to create a very well-developed and refined product on his own.
On the flipside, without some type of peer group, one’s isolated innovation stays just that… Isolated. If nobody is interested in hearing what you have to say, or worse, you don’t even have anyone to share your ideas with, then what value are they except to yourself?
That’s speaking in broad generalities, of course.
As a surfboard shaper, I think it would be of value to any “young” shaper to get as much influence as possible until absolutely proficient in all aspects of surfboard design theory before setting off to be innovative. I’m all for mind-shaping some wild new shape, but without the foundation that years of experience brings (and I’ll never have), it is really just an intellectual exercise… Or maybe an experiment in sculpting. A shaper might shape something really new and effective out of sheer inspiration, but without the experience and foundation to interpret why it works as it does, replicate and refine it, it is of little value as anything other than an effective oddity.
I think the dogmatic, peer-pressure part of surfboard shaping is unfortunate, but can be avoided. If your customer is some young stylin’ ripper who knows he wants a thruster just like AI, by all means, give it to him. If it is someone who simply knows what he wants a board to do, and is willing to work with you, then you can collaborate to innovate.
What would I prefer?
I think I have the best of all worlds here. I haven’t ever had anyone breathing down my neck telling me how to shape a board, I’ve never been told I’m doing something wrong (even though I’ve made plenty of mistakes)… But I’ve always had sways to come back to when I had a question, or needed some advice, or wanted to bounce an idea off of someone. Really I don’t think a person could ask for a better balance of isolation/influence.
