June '07 Surfer Magazine Article

I read the “Turning The Corner” article in the new issue of Surfer Magazine and wrote this letter to the editor and author Chris Mauro. It’s a bit of a rant and I know I’ll get in hot water for it, but it’s something I feel strongly about and wanted to test the waters and get other input on the subject. The article is about the large, well organized overseas prodution of surfboards and how it’s affecting our market.

"Hi Chris, I’m Byron, I’m a surfer and I make

surfboards. I work at the Basham factory here in San Clemente.

Please take the time to check my info here;

http://www.myspace.com/byrondesign

Surfing and surfboard building is my temple. The money

changers have come in and set up shop in my temple. My

mission now is to drive the money changers out of the

temple.

The number 1 thing that the “Turning The Corner”

article shows is that the large overseas manufacturers

and big US brands that have sold out to them are doing

a better job of getting their message out. Small,

independent builders such as myself don’t have the

advertising buying power to reach the masses through

the media. The only corner being turned is the

propaganda one.

Matt Biolas is either mis-qouted or mis-informed about

the location of the developement of composite sandwich

construction. Polyester resin and polyurethane foam

were developed by the US Navy right after WW II at the

North Island/Coronado base in San Diego. Bob Simmons

was an aircraft engineer and had access to the

materials and made the 1st foam & fiberglass board at

that time. The US Navy lead the development of most

the composite techiques still used today. The vacuum

bagged, sandwich construction process was 1st used to

make aircraft wing and fuselage sections. Hansen made

hollow surfboards here in the US with similar

techniques during the early 70’s. This type of

construction did not go overseas in mass until the

windsurfer guys started doing stuff in Asia in the

late 80’s. The materials and process were developed

here in the US.

Matt Biolas did some really good work a couple of

years ago to make a voice for us surfboard builders

and to raise awarness, but in the end he sold out. He

traded in his million dollar house on a hill in San Clemente

overlooking Pico and the Ocean last month for

a 4 million dollar one behind a private gate at

Cypress Cove, and the higher profit margins on

Vietnamese made surfboards helped pay for it.

Timmy Patterson who grew up at the old Hobie Factory

has sold out our heritage and our future. The next

generation will not have the oppourtunity to learn the

surfboard building skills and tradition the way he did

because all the manufacturing will have gone overseas.

And R-Dot Everywhere sold all those T’s in the 80’s

that paid for his La Jolla Colony mansion because of

the SoCal surfing image. What these guys don’t get is

that if the bros and pros start excepting the foreign

produced boards, the image of SoCal that keeps our

industry going will be lost forever. Once the giant

overseas manufacturers learn the construction

processes and marketing formulas, how long do you

think it will take for them to start private labeling

their own brands en mass?

Guys like Al Merrick, Rusty, Matt Biolas, John Carper,

and Timmy Patterson are undermining their own long

term market and image for a quick buck now. Magazines

like Surfer are rushing that process along. There is a

widening gap between the rich upperclass and the

struggling working class, the middle class with the

disposable income that supports all the giant brands

is disappearing. The top brand guys need to understand

that when all the manufacturing and jobs go overseas,

so do all those dollars that once were disposable

income here in the US. The top companies need to study

where the dollars come from that makes their brands so

lucrative, then they may re-think their sell out

positions. When they talk about the “customer winning”

what they are really saying is that the customers are

giving their money to them. The big brands will make

make big money now, but it’s a one time hit.

Image is what sells the top brands goods, the top

brands running adds keep the magazine afloat, it’s all

tied together. There is a reason why I go to DeNault’s

in San Clemente and look for US made items instead of

buying Chinese items at WalMart and Lowe’s. We live in

a special place at a crucial time when we need to

think about being better stewards of our gifts and our

image. How many houses or big SUV’s does one company

founder need? When so many in this world are

struggling for the basic day to day necesities we

should be using our positions of comfort and affluence

to preserve what we can for our children and to force

positive change in overseas enviornmental and labor

standards.

The bottom line is that the Surfer Magazine "Turning

the Corner" article only showed one side of the issue,

and that just happens to be the side of the big

advertisers. There is a complex equasion at work here,

one that’s worthy of a far more balanced and in-depth

investigation. We owe it to our heritage, and we owe

it to our future.

See ya in the water, Byron"

to steal a phrase - “good on ya”

thank you for taking the time to write this and the honor to send it. i hope it gets published so everyone who reads SURFER will get a look at it. it’s much more worthwhile than most of the ‘bashing’ letters they publish. it’s well written and contains some great info. i learned some stuff.

thank you for taking the road less traveled in this day in age. it’s good that not everyone just sits around and nods their head because their too scared to challenge anything and protect themselves. they don’t know how.

-jeremy

Im into it. We should talk about “selective purchasing” next time Im skunking around the shop. I’ll ask for you. By the way, the glass job you guys did on my chicks 9’0 Bambridge log came out sick. I can see it in your myspace pics

well-informed & well-penned. i hope it gets published, but i’m not hopeful. nevertheless, well done mate.

Here’s a potential small solution. Its small, but small things add up.

What the cottage/domestic builders need is an alliance organization, and an internationally recognized, large surfboard logo/sticker that states “made in the USA” or “made domestically”.

Boards made domestically will have the sticker, overseas boards will not. The customer decides which to buy.

You cant rely on gov to ‘save’ a cottage industry. If domestic builders group and ally themselves, they can fight back a bit. But ultimately, free-market forces rule.

Btw, making surfboards is still considered a craft. I recently realized that ALL CRAFTSMEN are struggling, just like surfboard builders. Bottom line: you gotta have a local market, or else youre dead.

Us smaller independant board builders do need to get organized and have a voice together, I’m kicking around some ideas on how to form something like this for us. The thing I want to do is put together a glassing school with an apprentice program for laminating, hotcoating, fin instalation, sanding, glossing, and polishing. There are alot of info sources for how to shape, but not as much for the glassing side of things. Glassers are where we have the biggest need in the local board building industry. Surfers could make $15.00 to $25.00 per hour hour and be envolved in the board building industry, but we need a teaching program to get them started. I’m going to figure out a way to set up a website and get funding to start a program like this so we can keep or heritage and industry going here in the US. One of the big clothing companies could be a sponsor, so instead of paying all their profits into their own pockets thay can pay some of it forward and give back to the core surf community that made them so successful.

Byron

About your chicks board, I’m glad you liked how it turned out, and I’m sorry it took so long. At Basham’s we have a new full-time airbrusher as of last week, a new hotcoater, and I’ve got some sanding help now. We know the best way to battle the overseas competition is to do top quality work in a reasonable amount of time. If we do a good job and turn the boards out fast, customers will stay with us. You cannot get a custom board from overseas in the the same way as you can have it made here, this is where we can win the import war. Our biggest shortcoming is on staffing. We need quality, well trained workers and we have to start a program to teach and train. There is a shortage of glassers in the SoCal region, and this is one of the things that is alowing imports to get a foothold here.

Byron

thanks Byrondesign for fighting the good fight.

for me though, it’s not necessarily USA built as much as it is surfer built and not big money built. i would absolutely love a board hand-made by Tom Wegener or any number of grass-roots non-US shapers as well as grass-roots US shapers. true craftsmen and women.

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Matt Biolas did some really good work a couple of

years ago to make a voice for us surfboard builders

and to raise awarness, but in the end he sold out.

this is the sound of me standing and clapping! right on Byrondesign!

Matt Biolos basically said (not direct quote) ‘hey i know it’s wrong and i’m going to fight to stop and or control it (overseas popouts)…’ then he realized that there was lot’s of money to be made doing it and said ‘in business if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking’ so he jumped on the bandwagon. SELLOUT! basically he saw all his contemporaries making loot and had to get a piece of the action. it amazes me that ANYBODY buys into his/lost’s punk rock image. complete garbage. but hey, they’ve got an energy drink. probably would have slap bracelets if it was 15 years ago.

Al Merrick sold out

Matt Biolos sold out

Rusty sold out

i’m beginning to think that the best thing for the art would be to blow the thing wide open. tell all your buddies how easy it is to make a surfable board. tell everyone that you know of that they could make their own boards for much cheaper. inform them about how accesible experimentation in design truly is. let them know that just because a board says “Al Merrick” on it doesn’t mean that it will help you surf any better than something you came up with for yourself. if you want something done right, do it yourself. blow the thing wide open. even if every surfer in the world doesn’t start making their own boards, those that don’t will have a buddy that does at cost. Rusty, Biolos, Merrick, etc. are ok with whoring our artform? undercut them. make it so that their big “surfboard” companies won’t have a leg to stand on.

i can hear and understand Oneula’s point of view about unionizing but to me, that’s just more beaurocracy.

blowing it wide open would put a lot of people out of jobs and that’s a tragedy but the current state of affairs is worse. as it is now, people are being put out of jobs. but, those jobs are going overseas to people who don’t surf and many times are oppressed by their bo$$es and their governments.

Quote:

Magazines

like Surfer are rushing that process along.

Surfer has long been the liason between surfing’s big business and the masses. they homogonize the media and the masses.

anyways, i’ll get off my soapbox now.

thanks for writing the letter Byrondesign.

Oldy is right on

Quote:

well-informed & well-penned. i hope it gets published, but i’m not hopeful. nevertheless, well done mate.

blow it wide open, go grassroots, fight the power.

There are great composites classes going on a Cerritos College. They have classes in everything from basic P/U P/E wet lamination layup to infusion molding and vaccume bagging. And, the State and local industry are covering most of the cost. All you got to do is enroll and make the drive.

Hey tomatdaum, you’re absolutely right about the Cerritos College program. My friend Ken Eberts of Segway Composites took classes there and they do have a great program. When I get a real website up I will feature their contact info and direct people to their program…Byron

THANKS!!! for writing this! I hope it gets published- I think it’s the single most pivotal issue for our sport right now. Mass produced shiny trinkets do more to stifle progress, create crowds, and destroy our culture than all the lame t-shirts, shorts, cheap-o skateboards, etc. created in the 70s/80s. And you’re too right to call ‘em out on it: they ARE sellouts, and it’s on the back of the rest of us who can’t afford the month long Indo boat trips. How much frickin’ money does one of these dudes need?!!

How about this - boycott the sellouts AND pledge to support your indie shaper by paying MORE next time - give 'em a big tip.

(how about that for a rant!)

Anyway I ditto the “good on ya”

Quote:

There is a

widening gap between the rich upperclass and the

struggling working class, the middle class with the

disposable income that supports all the giant brands

is disappearing. The top brand guys need to understand

that when all the manufacturing and jobs go overseas,

so do all those dollars that once were disposable

income here in the US. The top companies need to study

where the dollars come from that makes their brands so

lucrative, then they may re-think their sell out

positions. When they talk about the “customer winning”

what they are really saying is that the customers are

giving their money to them.

They pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to know just exactly where their money does come from. The biggest of them are on the stock markets, and “stock market analysts” do nearly the same thing. If clothing/softgoods are involved, the bulk of their money comes from non-surfers!

It maybe is hard to remember that if you live in San Clemente and other high density surf industrial zones. In the U.S. go to a major league baseball game sometime and look at the surfwear on people who probably don’t even go to the beach…ever. The big softgoods companies need to have a presence in the surf community to validate their status with those who don’t surf. They rent “pro” surfers to solidify their credibility in the surf world, use the surf world to solidify their cred within the action sports worlds, and all that combined to front themselves with the literally unwashed masses. Hardgoods are an economic afterthought. In some ways so are the surfers, and the surf industry workers.

What’s really good right now in the surfboard world though is availbility of materials and construction and design information. It really doesn’t affect the people in the softgoods Big Biz castles on the hills, so they don’t even need to acknowledge it. There should be business opportunity in surfboards too for the same reason, as many but certainly not all of them don’t need the board sales to live at all, much less live well.

Quote:

read the “Turning The Corner” article in the new issue of Surfer Magazine

“Turning the corner” doesn’t really describe where the road is taking you in the end…heh heh heh…could be Motel Hell or Honolua Bay 1967…

Nels

Byrondesign,

This is one of the many times I have heard the rant concerning foreign ‘sweatshop’ products, be they surfboards, furniture, cars, whatever. However, this is one of the only times I have heard someone say they have a plan for doing something about it, and (from what i can tell) are going about it.

For many of the other rants I have heard before, I just wanted to reply “You’re pissed off, so what. What are you gonna do about it?”

I think you have a great idea on your hands. Best of luck to you. Let us know how you progress, if you can.

On the other hand, if you play Devil’s Advocate, are you really surprised that the industry (and some of its players) have taken this ‘turn’? I don’t know how it started, maybe with the clothing and its outrageous markups, and now it has simply progressed to damn near every other product in the industry. When there’s cash to be made, and people to be exploited, there never seems to be a shortage of folks in line waiting for a piece of the action (scruples be damned!)… That goes for ANY industry, and any job, for that matter.

I am not innocent, either. I own some Harbor Freight tools, but that is simply because I do not have the disposable income to afford otherwise. I realize they are crap, but they function (for now). Part of my IRA is in a mutual fund dedicated to foreign stocks (why? it performs!). Hell, I can guarantee damn near ALL of my clothes and shoes are not made in the USA. IF you take a good look around your house, isn’t it hard not to be called a ‘sellout’ in some way or other?

I like to think that I am able to see both sides of any issue. I also don’t have a high regard for people in general, unless they prove otherwise. This comes from experience… So, I am not surprised at what is happening, but I am sure glad there are folks like you out there who are doing something about it, instead of just whining…

JSS

Hi Byron – “The top Companies” is a relative term. You may end up proving the top company does the best work, in the heart and soul of the true center of the surfing industry. The guys chasing their tail, or the carrot, only have what they think is important to them, which doesn’t equate to the soul you have. If nothing else, this exit to the PRC will make the cream rise to the top here in California where the heart of the surf industry will stay. It’s folks like you, and a lot of other shops and factories up and down the coast that will keep that heart pumping. Workers will work; it’s only there to prove how well it can be built. I think the market will bare a niche for your product for as long as you can afford to build it. There will always be surfers who know what you are doing… I’m afraid though that there in no stopping the pimps and magazine editors who sell advertising and bullshit articles to fill their rags.

Keep up the good work!!

very well written letter, even if it is not published in Surfer it will start making the rounds via e-mail so pass it on if you feel so inclined

Patagonia has a grant program that might be worth looking into. they seem to be moving in the right direction on many fronts.

I’d love to get my son and some of his friends involved in a shaping & glassing apprentice program if it was available…

water your roots!

Damn Olsen, for the staunch Pro-Corporate, Rush L worshiping, NeoCon you where back during your time working at Tonys on the Hill, you sure have changed your tune. Your’e sounding, do I dare say, like quite a Liberal now. Good Luck!!

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The top Companies” is a relative term

Let’s have some fun…the following is directly quoted from the current (May 2007) issue of Transworld Business magazine concerning QuiksilverEdition product…with my bold emphasis…while you read it remember that this is probably the leader among surf industry corporations…a Wall Street darling obviously adept in speaking out of any and all orifices at once…does this article clip leave anyone with questions?

"If the Malibu line is hoping to attract the 40-plus crowd, however, the brand’s new Santa Monica collection targets the previously forgotten 30-year-old male. “We ratcheted down the graphics and visuals and ratcheted up the quality of fabrications,” explains Baillargeon of the 100 SKUs featuring two-ply wovens, tailored coats, sweaters with cashmere, and more sophisticated trousers in suiting fabrics. For holiday, a military-style washed-leather lambskin jacket and viscone peacoat are examples of the more sophisticated pieces not made for the beach.

Design director Guy Stagman says that Santa Monica will have less of a Hawai’ian beach feel and more of an authentic California feel with designer styling. The design team traveled to Tokyo, New York, and Milan for inspiration on the Santa Monica line. It is designed to feel equally at home in a surf shop as it will in a boutique, " says Stagman. Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Barney’s have already picked up the collection.

QuiksilverEdition’s team will reach beyond the current WCT stars to what they are calling “Uncommon Heroes”. Legitimate surfers like big-wave rider Dave Kalama, Shane McIntyre from tv’s “On Surfari”, and artist Sandow Birk are the poster boys for this line.

While QuiksilverEdition is looking to carry over customers from its current youth-centric Quiksilver lines, the higher fashion twist of Santa Monica also allows the brand to look beyond Southern California. “This line will have appeal in regions and to people who are new to wearing the brand, but not new to the surf lifestyle,” says Baillargeon."

I think their stuff should only be sold at Barney’s.

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Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Barney’s have already picked up the collection. …

Maybe a new “underground” t-shirt logo for the new wannabee crowd that just says…

instead of “Do it…”

“Prove it…” over a sillouette of a surfer holding a board

could go for alot of things

Good job Byron! Tell Brad I said hi!

Here’s a contribution - First ever removeable wood shortboard fins? Dyed ply on these. Also doing palownia and bamboo. Featherlight (they actually float). Hand made by Marlin Bacon in the US of A. and available for Lokbox in the very near future. Complete control over flex patterns by adjusting the grain angle and/or amount of glass they are layed up with. Ride very different than glass fins. “Buttery” is the term many have used. 90% less glass and resin so they’re semi “green” as well.