Just a few more pics of what’s going on in the progressive SUP dept… Over the last few weeks I’ve witnessed some absolutely incredible SUP performance surfing… Its been fun building the boards to get more and more radical on… The Tahiti guys are hitting us up for boards… Vetea “Poto” David will be riding one of my 10 footers at Teahupoo and Ikaika Kalama wil be on a 9’-8". They can pretty much kiss those boards goodbye!!! Hahahaha!!!
Built this for a guy on the South Side of Oahu…
9’-6" x 27 x 4-1/8"
Leleo Kinimaka shredding on a 9’-6"
Derek on a grinder…
Me getting some lefts at an outer reef away from the North Shore…
All in all its been a very crazy journey so far with this SUP thing… Heading to San Diego to start full production since its a pain in the butt trying to get glassers here in Hawaii… All the good ones are to busy… Well, back to work… Aloha, Blane
There is and always been buisness halting glassing problems here. This is why i am slowly developing trips elsewhere.
I hear ya Greg. I’ve had this talk with many who have the same problems… I have a couple good glassers here in Hawaii that can do things for us but can’t handle our volume. I had a glasser who could do more volume but his quality was doo doo. They would do all kinds of BS stuff too… Maybe they were just too stoned to notice their problems… They were so bad when we brought order forms they laughed! My friends called them “Ghetto Glassing” They don’t back up their shitty work so I had to eat it many times with customers. The guy is very lucky he’s still in business. He doesn’t even know how many people he pissed off. To top it all off the guy who runs it is from out of state and he’s screwing the local people… IDIOT.
The shops up in CA are so well run and very professional in comparison. They can handle volume AND they do good quality work. Not saying we won’t have problems but after running on 1 cylinder for months clicking my heals together wishing for a better situation, its time to upgrade… San Diego is a direct flight from Oahu and plenty cool people there. I’m not stoked to have to give work to people out of our state but for our company, the sad truth is, relying on the industry here in Hawaii will send our business into the pooper. You’re so right Greg. Its always been a problem and it won’t change anytime soon. Lucky are the few who have good glassers right here in Hawaii…
Ah, I too am the casual observer…… I hear the same thing here as well. All the high end glassing is at high demand with long waits, and most established shapers diversified into multiple factories. This was, IMHO, the root of the Toby bash a while ago. I’m sure though that your good Karma will prevail.
It’s a bit sad to see that your Hawaiian dream being outsourced out of Hawaii. Good luck, I love seeing your dream come true, stoked outlook and updates.
