…i think if surftech boards will made in the USA there are no place for paranoia …; and this type of board will spreads fast…imagine this sh%t … famous shapers doing the master, proudly n. american workers, all this stupid crap…
famous brands are like Shakira, R. Martin or ford or PC s or whatever…they are not real music or "hand made cars like aston martin or mazzeratti …
My personal opinion is that Matt Biolas is constantly fighting contradictions within himself. On the one hand there’s the craftsman who wants to make a superior product. That part of him sees success as the production of that superior surfboard. Then there’s the marketeer Matt, who sees success monetarily. In surfboards you can’t have it both ways. You want to make great product, you aren’t going to make much money. You import boards and you’ll make far more. I’ve seen this for years in the terms of making epoxy vs. polyester boards. Nearly everyone knows which product is superior yet the vast majority still does it the old fashioned way. It’s fear of making that jump and how it may effect you financially. So most just rationalize that what they do is good in terms of the status quo and not step into the unknown.
Imagine if Al Merrick were to import his production of over 10,000 boards a year. He’d make $100 more per board than getting them produced in the US. Anyone with a calculator from the local dollar store can figure that one out. But there’s that fear of repercussions (the unknown) and that craftsman inside still wanting to have a personal hand in it. Nearly all successful marketing shapers are wrestling with these issues at this point in time. Matt just seems to personify these contradictions best at this point in history and these recent articles and interviews are poinient to that.
Imagine if Al Merrick were to import his production of over 10,000 boards a year. He'd make $100 more per board than getting them produced in the US. Anyone with a calculator from the local dollar store can figure that one out. But there's that fear of repercussions (the unknown) and that craftsman inside still wanting to have a personal hand in it. Nearly all successful marketing shapers are wrestling with these issues at this point in time.
I was rather of the opinion that
Al Merrick does import his Tuflite boards
Machined blanks and polyester finishes still require skilled labor, about 30 minutes per board
the skilled labor doesn’t exist in China.
I don’t think Al Merrick CAN out-source his mainstay boards to China or any other non-surfing country without a loss in quality control. But that may be just my overly naive view.
Greg,
That was a good post. I think the surf industry is changing rapidly at the moment because it is experiencing such a surge of popularity. As for Matt and his article the guy is a contradiction. I have seen tons of his company’s boards and they are the same lite glassed fall apart in 6 months to a year that comes out of many other big production factories. Not to mention that the current modern shortboard ridden on the pro tour is simply not the right board for the majority of surfers out there, yet it is sold as such by guys like Biolos. To claim concern for the state of the art of surfboard making when his company is part of the problem of fashion over function simply sounds silly at best and hypocritical at worst.
Joe surfing public for the most part has no clue what is the best, they only see what the magazines tell them to ride or some kid in a surfshop who pushes his favorite label. Biolos has become king of the magazines and the ultimate in ultra hype. Not that I cannot appreciate some of his outlines and his creativness, but him trying to play the part of surfing messiah sounds like more advertising to me. It sounds again as if he is simply setting up the public for Lost being made in China at some point.
If the choice becomes getting boards made in China or going under, most will choose China and from a business perspective probably should, but when it’s all done over therr with only a few pulling the strings; What protection will these shapers have that they will continue to get paid or even credit. Who is going to train the next crop of true master shapers, when the last of the masters quits?
Quote:Imagine if Al Merrick were to import his production of over 10,000 boards a year. He’d make $100 more per board than getting them produced in the US. Anyone with a calculator from the local dollar store can figure that one out. But there’s that fear of repercussions (the unknown) and that craftsman inside still wanting to have a personal hand in it. Nearly all successful marketing shapers are wrestling with these issues at this point in time.
I was rather of the opinion that
Al Merrick does import his Tuflite boards
Machined blanks and polyester finishes still require skilled labor, about 30 minutes per board
the skilled labor doesn’t exist in China.
I don’t think Al Merrick CAN out-source his mainstay boards to China or any other non-surfing country without a loss in quality control. But that may be just my overly naive view.
Yes
Yes and no. You can train those guys to finish a C&C milled blank, its not THAT hard.
See #2
And it is possible to outsource and get decent quality. Look around your house and tell me how many things you have made in China or Taiwan? Most of the parts in your computer you typed this on i guarantee you was either made in china or taiwan.
Look around your house and tell me how many things you have made in China or Taiwan? Most of the parts in your computer you typed this on i guarantee you was either made in china or taiwan.
Maybe have a look around your shaping room at those cheapo Harbor Freight sanders, and plastic planners from “over there” that everyone posts about.
The saddest thing about the whole thing is that the only person making money out of the whole deal is the cooporate giant surfboard company. Most of the poor bastards in china make 30 bucks a month for their hard labor with no safety regulations and no health benefits. Check out the recent article in the LA times. The bigger problem is not just surfboards. It’s the way our own greedy companies will outsource labor to make a buck, 1. taking jobs away from American workers, and 2. exploiting third world nations, all to make a buck. it’s not like these countries don’t know their being exploited. no one is that stupid. in the end, we all wonder why the rest of the world hates us Americans and why i have to pretend i’m spanish or italian when i travel to europe so i don’t get spit on.
<span style="font-weight:bold">The World; COLUMN ONE; Dante's Digital Junkyard; Chinese laborers eke out a living using acid, fire and their bare hands to recycle mountains of electronic scrap, most of it from the U.S.:[HOME EDITION]</span> <span style="font-weight:bold">Los Angeles Times</span>. Los Angeles, Calif.: Apr 6, 2004. pg. A.1
to Walmart and all the other cooporations… get off the dime! keep the jobs here and take a small paycut to the CEO’s and the stock holders.
the only person making money out of the whole deal is the corporate giant surfboard company
What giant surfboard corp? Who in china is making functional surfboards?
Eye,
watch out or someone will accuse you of being trivial.
The people who use sweat shop labor to make their products need to simply admit that they are for Slavery, child labor, and low almost non existant wages. They need to quit patting themselves on the back by saying they are providing jobs and that the wages are really higher than the rest of the countries and other tripe. How many that say that would want to switch places with them. America is hated because America the government is a bunch of hyprcrites and America the people are suckers for a patriotic song and a waiving flag. This is coming from someone who is pretty conservative.
I hear you say the truth must take a beating
The flag a camougflage for your decieving
I know we all make mistakes
My country right or wrong
Midnight Oil
Just because we are all wearing or using chinese or other abject slave labor does not make it any less right. Keep in mind that China has murdered over 30 million of it’s own people and is our self proclaimed enemy, yet they maintain Most favored nation status under both Democrat and Republican adm. If we deal with these type of people knowing how they are: What does that make us?
Thats why Biolos statments ring hollow as the liberty bell.
As far as the Chinese or any other “import” for that matter. Their going to keep coming whether we like it or not. The question is what are “we” going to do? We can sit on our hands and pretend their going to go away and pretend that our product is “better”…but is it? I dont really know I havent tried an “import” like realm or any of the others. I can say that I have paid for quite a few boards from big name shapers that didnt work…at all. Some were okay to mediocre and the very good to magic ones i can count on one hand. So are USA boards better? Do we use better materials? Do our boards last longer? How can the customer know the difference when your average buyer knows nothing?
JTroy,
YOu make very good points. Do I think that the quality out of China is worse than the quality of Channel Islands, Rusty, Lost, Surf Rx and many other big name American board manifacturers? Nope. In fact I think for the most part the quality of the big name American production board makers is not even very good and none of us really know for sure if any of them have them made in China right now for certain markets. The production boardmakers are like American car companies; they make a product for a limited time in the market so they can get reorders. If you look at the quality of many custom shapers world wide you have quite a few that take pride in their work and are not desperate for orders, so they can turn down the customer that wants the latest greatest but does not really need it. I can name you shapers that will not let inferior product leave their factory and if it does will take it back no questions asked.
Those are the guys who I want to have my dollars.
Thats the reason i started shaping my own boards. Shape a board for my style, my fin positioning, my foil, my rocker and it works for me…alot better than almost every one of the boards i bought off the rack.
Check this link out.
http://www.surfindustries.com/news.html
Cobra/GSI has purchased a monster shaping machine.
Does anybody know how many boards GSI are selling? I’ve seen a few around (in shops that is, not in the water)
I’ve read a few posts with people grumbling about surfers not knowng anything about boards and just buying what they see pro’s riding. ie being sucked in by marketing. The irony is I don’t think GSI will sell too many boards precisely becuase surfers don’t know a lot about boards and what they buy is driven by fashion. GSI can reverse engineer any board and make exact copies of proven designs with top quality construction, sell em cheaper and offer bigger margins to retailers but surfers will keep buying Merricks or what ever is the next big thing is, just becuase they’ve got credibility. I can’t see boards made in Asia ever having the credibility to sell in a market so influenced by fashion.
I retract my statements, after going into the store to get something to drink, I saw a Lost brand energy drink. Now that is over the top.
Does anybody know how many boards GSI are selling? I’ve seen a few around (in shops that is, not in the water)
I’ve read a few posts with people grumbling about surfers not knowng anything about boards and just buying what they see pro’s riding. ie being sucked in by marketing. The irony is I don’t think GSI will sell too many boards precisely becuase surfers don’t know a lot about boards and what they buy is driven by fashion. GSI can reverse engineer any board and make exact copies of proven designs with top quality construction, sell em cheaper and offer bigger margins to retailers but surfers will keep buying Merricks or what ever is the next big thing is, just becuase they’ve got credibility. I can’t see boards made in Asia ever having the credibility to sell in a market so influenced by fashion.
Hey Pinhead,
Unfortunately the average surfer is really only interested in price and has not even heard of Al Merrick nor have they ever opened a surf magazine.
The truth is Surf Shops are full of boards made by GSI and their competitors, follow the above link to check out just some of the brand names to watch out for
like Blue, Seven, NSP etc and then add the Espo’ products like Surfboards Australia, Oceanside Spoiler, Challenger, Surfer’s Alliance etc add on The Realm, Ron Jon and the list goes on without even having to mention the other 100 or so brands/models (including more than a few by your saviour Al Merrick) that come out of the Surf Tech and Boardworks facilities.
And having just returned from my annual trip back to Australia, I can tell you there are plenty of them in the water there and plenty being surfed here in New Jersey, maybe not by experienced surfers, but definetely by average surfers.
PS Most will be surprised to know that some well known brands are also outsourcing some of there regular production shapes to these offshore facilities and can even deliver a “custom shape” in as little as 2 weeks.
I think that one aspect that is being overlooked here is the long term effect on surfboard design which will take place if the majority of boards sold are mass produced offshore. Obviously, these manufacturers only copy designs already worked out by “top shapers”, they do not themselves design the boards they make. As such, after the small shapers who are creating all the design innovations are cleaned out of the surfboard market by cheap competition, who moves design forward? OK, the point can be made that some famous shapers are in fact themselves “selling out” to the foreign manufacturers, but the designs then become essentially “pop outs” which are reproduced in mass but cannot be altered. You might be able to get a “Chinese Custom” in 2 weeks, but who tells you whether that design will work if you blow out the tail by 1/2"? From what I know, design development is for the most part carried out primarily in small increments or refinements, and the key is to be able to tweak the design at will. Only the true hand shape by a qualified shaper allows for this to happen. Maybe the Yater Spoon is a classic that represents a point in time design wise and does not need to be tweaked, but can any valid design for a modern shortboard stand to be updated only once a year (or maybe never)? I think the watchwords should be “Be careful what you wish for…”
Pin- If my sources are correct, surftech sold about 40,000 units worldwide last year. this is not cobra’s total output.
…when i read or someone tell me that some stuff are a “best seller”; i move away…see music, closes, food, movies, house stuff, etc…they are all made to the masses…
I was luckily enough to meet Matt Biolos a few years ago when I was on a surf trip and he told me about the same thing as it sounds like is in this article. He said something along the lines of, there is not really any money in making surfboards. We mostly make them to keep the image there so we can sell t shirts. The shirts are really cheap to have made over in China and when we ship them to the states we can sell them for $30. It has been a few years since I heard this so it could be a little wrong but that is the jist of what I remember. The sad thing about it is that it is true. Many of the local builders I have talked to say there isn’t much money in shaping and their lifestyles show that fact. Only when you can start selling a name is when you can make a good amount of money. It sounds like Matt is well aware of this and in exploiting it to the fullest.