Yes, I understand your points (by the way, I was not referring to you in regards to Pavel, etc), but I see no real innovation with surftech, at least. The boards I’ve seen have FCS, which many consider to be a cheap and low quality fin system. For every ST owner who claims their board is indestructible, you can find another who can tell you about dings. I speak from experience, I purchased a Takayama 9’0 to see what it was all about and I wasn’t pleased. Aside from the riding characteristics, which I think don’t fit what I like about longboarding (that’s another issue), my board did suffer several dings…my volan / heavier glassed boards have suffered equivalent impacts and fared much, much better. I found the surftech dings difficult to repair (I’m not the greatest, but I’m capable) and the outer shell tended to crack and break off…like an m&m shell. I can think of a large number of surfers in my area who have either broken their st’s in half or suffered dings, including one who had the entire nose of his longboard popped off inside a well-packed airline travel bag. Please note that I am not saying they are WEAKER than standard boards, but it is clear they are not the magic antidote to dings and breakage.
I have numerous dense blank / strong glass / tinted resin / glass on boards that are going strong several years down the line…and they are surfed often and they travel. And no, they don’t weigh 100 lbs or anything like that. I also have boards from the 60’s and 70’s that I ride and they are holding up 30-40 years later.
Right now, there are way more st’s than there were 3 years ago…I really think we need to go a bit further down the road before we start claiming that 3-4 year old surftechs that are surfed regularly are going to be “as good as new”.
Perhaps boardworks is different…
In regards to established shapers finally getting their share, or however you wish to view the situation, it reminds me of something my friend said about the late great jazz organist Jimmy Smith. It’s a sad indictment of the music world, that so many talented and gifted jazz musicians died poor and more or less in a bad way…charlie parker, billie holiday, charles mingus, lester young, the list goes on and on. Nowadays, those who survived are more or less given greater recognition, but also more FINANCIAL compensation. Jimmy Smith is one of my favorite musicians…the sound he created on the organ and the records he made at Blue Note are amazing. But he suffered throughout his career and had to work hard for his art. In the late 90’s, we saw him play at several places in NYC. By this time, there had been a reappeciation of his work beyond the world of the jazz heads and he was able to sell out $100 a ticket shows at the world’s best jazz clubs. But the thing is, he MILKED it. Sure the talent was still there, and you could never take away what he had accomplished, but he played a short routine set that was filled with cliches and bad jokes. My friend called it a RETRIBUTION set…sure, I’m glad he got what he deserved, but I’d prefer to have never seen him.
I’d like a true Brew gun, but that doesn’t mean I should settle for the surf tech version just because Brewer’s name is associated with it…
Sorry for the long and rambling post ha ha…
