In reference to “Dale Solomonson mat valves”: Last year I finally completed over 10 months of R&D on surfmat valves. The result has been to incorporate these “Twister” or rotary valves on all my custom surfmats. Aside from its commercial applications, this project was very personally satisfying, one which wouldve been pursued even if I wasnt in business. Not only havent I increased the price of my equipment to recover the cost of months of labor and significant material expense, I also sent a number of my new valves (free) to widely distributed individuals, several of whom also build their own surfmats. Even though these rotary valves were developed completely by myself, they dont bear my name or any claim to ownership. Besides, all the key players know where they originated. Anyone who wishes to manufacture and sell such valves without my permission, is welcome to do so. My best security against those who attempt to copy my efforts has always been to keep moving forward, continually learning and investing in myself and what I create. Its all about legitimate innovation, the natural progression of improving design, fabrication and materials. Ive never tried to receive extra dinero for any of it… and from a purely business standpoint, thats crazy. Yet Ive somehow been blessed with so many great friends/customers who share their unsolicited time, money, experiences, wisdom and gifts of all kinds, that I more than receive my just compensation. It`s true what they say… “What goes around, comes around”. Pura vida
If I saw products being marketed by others using my name, with no compensation and no permission from me, they would get a cease and desist letter from my lawyer in about 5 minutes.
“True Ames Fins.” “Hi, I’d like to order some fins please.” “No problem. Hang on, let me get a pen. Okay, what would you like?” “I’d like to order some of the 9” Wilderness fins. Please make them out of a 1/2" panel, and shape some flex into the top 1/3." If this doesn’t work, send me an e-mail.
my ??? stillis why is paul gross’s name on wilderness templates. should be an easy answer not a lot of bs
Most all good fins are Greenough inspired. The Wayne Rich line of Single fins are a good example. It’s a tricky thing to put someone else’s name on your product. This is a good case in point.
this whole thing has gotten out of hand, and has had me thinking about what led to this, and what a solution might be. I.semantics-have you ever heard steve lis piss and moan about a short, wide swallowtail, multi finned board that some joe built and calls a “fish”?i don’t recall any negative bruh-ha-ha when Frye came out with his “fish-simmons”.i think monikers like these are good for a couple for reasons. 1.they pay respect and homage to the originator of the design. 2.they give the consumer-that’s us-an idea of what type of surf the equipment is intended for and a certain concept of how it will/should perform. II.in the world of business and marketing when someone invents/develops a product and takes it to a manufacturer to build and sell, they are rewarded for their work via $$$,ineither a lump-sum “buy the rights to it” fee or a continual royalty fee.does this happen in the surf industry? no, at least not consistently, which is nobody’s fault but perhaps it is a major issue that the industry as a whole should address and scrutinize more closely. III.truth in labelling.in this case the manufacturer messed up by switching names, labels.if a person submits a design, then that fin should wear their name on it, not someone elses.in thhis case we had a guy submit 4 templates to a manufacturer-3 were his own concepts and designs, built from the ground up.those fins should bear his insignia, ie, pg 9.0, pg9.5 and pg whale tail period.the fourth, and fin in question, was a copy of another’s fin.it was done not out of malice, but from knowing what it was and that some boards could benefit from this forgotten design.even though it was on a certain brand board, it was a fin designed long before that brand came into existence and should be labeled accordingly-greenough (or greenough designs)-period. IV.if we can accept the semantics issue,and if the industry as a whole could adopt practices that fairly compensate those who desrve it and if the manufacturer in question could perhaps re-think his labelling policies, then perhaps this current issue could be resolved and further conflicts such as this could be avoided. that’s it from me.hope you all get some waves and have a good weekend.
“…pay respect and homage to the originator of the design.” George Greenough agrees. He has remarked that beyond all these arguments, the simple fact remains that such fin designs all came from NATURE. That`s a very humbling perspective to consider. George Greenough, Country Code (61) 266-877090 (George has no email address) Mail: P.O.Box 611, Byron Bay, NSW Australia 2481, http://www.georgegreenough.com/
Most would agree with Dale’s quote of the adage “What goes around comes around”. The extreme genorosity of the valuable posts by Paul Gross over the last couple months and the posts of Dale Solomonson over 2± years are without contention. The good Karma created will not be outdone by minor discord and I recommend both of you prepare your selves for the set waves the universe is sending your way!
In an earlier post I said that at no time before closing my shop in 1997 were any of the Wilderness fins labeled anything but ‘W’. That’s wrong. After slogging through my files and old receipts pertaining to the shop I located one receipt, invoice number 009825 from 1/23/96. According to the invoice I ordered 6, 9.75 P.G. Wilderness fins and 6, 8 1/6 Wilderness fins. Up until that time, on invoices 007925, 008006, 009025, 3113, 009558, and after on 010405 (dated 6/07/96), all records indicate either “W-Series” or “Wilderness” as the name of the fin. So why the change? Invoice 009558 shows that I ordered 6 Wilderness 8.06 fins in red. http://www.spencesurfboards.com/W_8_fins.htm I expected to receive red, 8" fins that look like what is now known as the Greenough 4A. Instead, I received something entirely different (http://www.spencesurfboards.com/W_8_fins.htm). This invoice is dated 11/06/95. When I next ordered fins, invoice 009825 dated 1/23/96, not wanting to be sent bunk fins again, I made sure that the template we sent to True Ames was the template that was to be used for the fins I was ordering. Did the template then become known as P.G. Wilderness? I don’t know. I wasn’t the person talking to me on the other end of the phone. My last inoice for fins ordered from True Ames Fin Co. is dated 6/07/96, invoice number 010405. I ordered 12, 9.75 Wilderness Box Fins. Now the name is back to Wilderness. Except for one occasion, I ordered everything from True Ames Fin Co., and that occasion has nothing to do with this topic. I haven’t ordered a fin from True Ames Fin Co. since June 7, 1996. I’d really like to know the identities of ‘Bob’ and ‘Ranchlander’. Over the years I’ve worked for a couple rather prominent Bob’s in the Santa Barbara surfing community. One of them is dead. I pulled another through the kelp repeatedly in the Fall of 1991, and sanded some of his Greenough Design surfboards. Those Bob’s have more integrity and were/are professional enough to pursue a subject like this in private, not under the spotlight of a public surfboard design forum. If who started this whole mess is who I think it is, I hope you’ll be happy.