In case you hadn’t heard it before; Sanders make the most money. If they are good and fast. It’s piece work. There are a couple of videos around. jC’s glassing 101 and Fiberglass Hawaii has a video on YouTube on how to sand a surfboard. You’d be hard pressed to find a sander who will teach you. Laminators are next behind sander for $$ made. The bottom starting jobs are leash plug and longboard box installers. Finning multi fin boards has gotten pretty specialized. Not sure what those guys make. In most shops; one guy sets all the fins. You got to know how to use a router without thinking about it. Second nature.
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High end glassing shops on Oahu charge up to $600 for a longboard. I don’t know what other shops charge, but I always hear friends complain that they’re waiting for someone to glass their board. Some wait months for a shaped blank to get glassed. I don’t like to make boards for others, so I stay out of it. I won’t shape or glass for money, but I will give away old boards to friends.
If you do all the work, you get all the profit.
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There is an article by Stab magazine, but I can’t seem to find it. It’s titled something like, “Stab article: Where have all the new CT shapers gone?”
Interesting article, but it’s fairly obvious that it is difficult to break into the top tier of shapers when there are basically about 5 surfboard shapers/manf. who are already at the top.
What’s a CT? And not to point out the obvious, but most wanna be shapers think that they can break into the big time and still live in places like Arkansas or Bend or Mojave or wherever there’s a wave pool. You want in on the action, you’ve gotta be where the action is. And don’t ask me where that is, cause if you don’t know, you’re not there.
CT, Chapionship Tour.
The place to be, in hopes of becoming a break-out shaper is Cali.
Spend a winter on the North Shore. Hand out a demo board to an unknown hot grom.
Thats one angle. However, According to Surf Splendor, many younger surfers, once they get noticed,go of to be sponsored by the top surfboard companies.
I watch a Surf Splendor, 2nd look at this subject.
I love the show but feel they missed the mark, or real crux of the conversation. It was a show where David Scales and Scott Bass discussed the subject. I am paraphrazing in order to make this short. The premise is that new up and coming shapers might benefit from being good surfers. One named mentioned was Ryan Burch.
Here is where I think they are missing the point…But first, let me begin by saying that I am not hypercritical of the surfing prowess of the brands I might mention.
I dont believe that the top brand owners are super great surfers. I dont believe prospective buyers are saying, "Man, did you see that shaper rip!? I need to get one of those boards!?
My approach to commercially establishing my technology would be to offer substantial cash prize(s) to the surfer(s) who won major contest(s) riding my designs.
That would be an important part of my business model/expenditures.
Surf splendor huh? I’m not very well read. But someone should tell John Florence and his brothers that they should have gone to Al or Mayhem Matt instead of taking a chance on a jack of all trades like John Pyzel. He took a chance on them and they took a chance on him. Cream rises to the top. But having said that; I will quote Brad Basham: “There’s no shortage of good shapers”.
If you can go and watch in a shop. watch a guy fix dings, shape , sand, tape up , clean up . pick up blanks , a lot of things matter , if you do them incorrectly you learn the hard way. videos and books show you stuff but doing it is different. I was sanding once and maybe for a bit long and I picked up the board to look down the bottom, and let go and it slid off the stands and smashed the nose … wow so disappointed … watching and talking with people is a good start. might save some $
For me there is 2 buisness model. First is mass production with cnc, contract lam shop all over the world, lot of sponsored guy, pub, etc… saying bullshit about shape, tech etc to sell lot of board… well a good capitalist business.
Second, do it all by hand, board after board, if you do them right, durable and efficient, be sure guys will ask you. An artisanal model that can make live in harmony.
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Shapers get the Glory, Glassers get the money……
I would suggest glassing first. This way you can review and analyze all the shaped blanks coming through the shop. You will end up meeting many shapers willing to give some advice.