Am I behind the times, or doesn’t Surftech have pretty consistent quality-control?
I had a 7’6" Haut-designed Surftech some years ago that frankly was a great board. I mean, it is what it is, but I kinda thought they had set the bar for Asian pop-out board quality.
I Just saw a Jim Phillips 7’6’ Egg for sale on the San Diego CL Buy That Board Now! Drop what you are doing. Tell the Boss you are feeling sick. Maybe you have zika or ebola make something up.! sGo Get that Board Buy it Now. . Jim is one of the finest shapers in The World. Well respected Even Rusty bought a custom collectable Phillips at full price. Now grab the keys get some cash from the bank and pick up the 7’6" Phillips egg.
I will go to CL now and check that out! You talking about the one for $300? Looks sexy, and clean. But it’s in Temecula! I think I’m just leaning towards having one shaped… That is a really good looking board though.
Of course like any job you have to meet the standards of what the supervisors expect they have to meet the expected standard of the factory managers who have to meet the sanndard of the executive shaper or ( marketing bloke ) who is a person given the job of recreating the brand owners or orginators creed or ledgend or respected representation and reputation of that particular board.
Eg i would love a Gerry Lopez board i know it would be absolutely impossible for an adverage joe like me to convince or let alone become in contact with him to get a custom surfboard shaped glassed and totaly built by him.
it would be impossible for Gerry to satisfying all the people on the planet that want one of his boards, this has to be done in a factory of mass production and as a custemer I expect to purchase a board compleat with lopez style and standard of ledgend also brand personality.
So the executive shaper has to be sutibaly ledgendary so dose the craftmanship and material othewise the brand will be damadged .
Its all about what the customer expects.
Reverb you have to do your work cool as Gerry
Kind regards Hydro
Ha ha ha!
IMO it’s all about the money. The other stuff is just smoke and mirrors :-). Your mileage may vary.
Yeah - Get that one. The old school FCS plugs/fins have been improved upon but the board looks good enough.
Huck posted: “I’m assuming that you’re aware of the building methods and materials for popouts, and that they generally differ from shop made boards.”
FWIW I’ve been around awhile and I am not convinced I could tell you the differences or advantages of ‘hand shaped’ vs ‘machine shaped’ vs ‘mass produced.’ Nor could I tell you exactly what constitutes a ‘pop-out’ vs ‘shop made’ board anymore. Many ‘hand shapers’ get their blanks pre-cut to a closer tolerance design and fine tune from there.
I was in a shop recently and discussed with the owner the level of quality in an Asian composite-sandwich skinned board. The board in question was a Santa Cruz ‘Pumpkin Seed.’ I don’t know who designed it but believe the blank is computer shaped and the covering is a modern compsand skin. The board looked perfectly shaped to my eye and the ‘thumb test’ result was definitely favorable to a standard 4/4+4 polyester conventional lamination.
A computerized shaping machine is likely going to produce a more symmetrical, perfectly reproduced shape and a team of specialists doing each step in the factory will likely create a very decent finished product. The brands doing things this way include Surftech, Boardworks, and Santa Cruz… possible all out of the same Cobra factory although this is hard to verify.
I’ve even heard it said that a ‘hand shape’ is inferior to a ‘machine shape.’ A machine can accurately reproduce a design and various tweaks can be perfectly isolated while still keeping the basics of the original shape. Certainly a heat-cured vacuum-bagged compsand skin over EPS core is going to be hard to beat when it comes to weight/durability. This type of technology is not readily available on any sort of custom domestic level although a couple of places can do it.
To Hydro Skiper - Gerry Lopez has a shop in Bend, Oregon and as far as I know is happy to discuss custom projects… a Pipeline replica will run you $5,000.
http://www.gerrylopezsurfboards.com/store-1/
Yeah I didn’t say they were inferior, just that it’s good to be aware there are differences in how they are made. If you’re planning to keep a board for some time, then you will be repairing it at some point, and that’s when the differences in materials or construction methods come into play. Which I think is what I said.
Ill keep dreaming for a while thats a bit of a let down ill get a third job i suppose
One is predictable, accessable and corprate.
the other is
Radical, knocks you on your arse, and done with love… Just like my Granddads Beer.
Maybe contact stingray and see what he’s got in his inventory, might have a midlength egg from the lo-tech shop. Seems to me he had a beautiful blue one awhile back he said he might part with…
I didn’t want to spend that much, but I may be able to scrounge up enough, and I like the idea that I can get EXACTLY what I need.
Hi Huck -
No argument… I didn’t say that you said they were inferior.
I did mention that I couldn’t tell you what the differences were… I’m kind of lost when it comes to terms like ‘pop out’ and how they might differ from ‘shop made’ boards. There are so many construction methods out there it’s hard to generalize.
That was the price on the classic model. There are several other models available but I didn’t see prices on those.
The first time I repaired a board that was made with a composite shell vacuumed over cheap eps I was unpleasantly surprised. For me, repairing a shop made board is much easier. And for guys who don’t know any better, repairing an eps board with polyester resin could be an unpleasant experience. That’s why I was saying its good to be aware that there are differences that come into play when doing repairs.
I don’t generally use the term pop-out, but the original poster used it in his opening post. I consider a shop made board as shaped and glassed in a surfboard shop, whereas a pop-out I consider as a board made in an assembly line type factory, usually in Asia, with proprietary methods and materials, often a vacuum formed skin over a cheap “beer cooler” type eps core. And frequently lacking a central stringer like a standard p/u blank would have. They can be good quality and ding resistant, but repairs are different than shop made board. Just my two cents worth, and directed to the original poster, the regulars here, like yourself, have been over this material many times.
John do you think that he might have some sort of vacuum bagging machine I might be able to help him out maybe do some sort of a swopsie
If you ask politely enough when you meet up with the Shaper they should lend you something hopefully something similar to what you’re after so you can get a better feel to make comparison what you prefer when it comes to the time of customisation with the Shaper. If he has long-standing good rapport with his customers he might be able to even call a client with a previous order similar and if they like and trust the Shaper enough they would lend you the board to try out.
A good shaper that’s confident in their product would have no problem lending your boards to try out as I suspect it’s a huge put purchase if you’re struggling to afford a second hand board but all worth while if you do it properly.
FWIW,
Next weekend the Long Board Collectors Club will be participating in the Dana Point Surf Festival.
Don’t let the name fool you, they have all manner of surfboards for sale or trade and plenty of brains to pick in your search for the right stick. A great opportunity to see a lot of different styles available for purchase.
Think This getting to be a waste of time The OP said he was looking fora screaming deal He is shown a few and still is posting up his quibbles then posting up junk asking is this a good one. If it’s a troll it’s a good one a Jim Phillips with an asking price of $330 is a screaming deal Most likly it could be had for $280 to $300. A quality board by one of the best at a very good price.
Board was not in hem it as he said it is in Univesity Town Center. Right behind LaJolla. Easy to make arrangement to meet up and view make a deal and walk off with quality under your arm.