Hi, just wondering if anyone knows anything of the quality of the machine shaped Velzys? I have seen one on ebay.. as I understand it they are machine shaped in japan. I have no idea if this suggest the same poor sort of quality as generally expected from machine shaped boards in China. I'm hoping that since Japan has a surfing tradition they might be well made... but maybe i'm being optimistic.
Any thoughts?
Nothing beats the real deal of having a hand shaped board. I guess well never see an other new Velzy again.
Pay for it in the next life!!
Wrong! His son lives on Maui and has been shaping them the last year or two. Whether they are CNC'ed or not I couldn't say. There are several CNC machines on Maui. The ones I have seen were foam and primarily templates and designs taken from some of Dales early models like the "Bump" and the "Malibu Express". Dave Gott at Gott Glassing in Haiku does the glass work. Dave can be reached at (808) 575-2273. He can stear you onto Velzy. If they are being made in Japan that would be a pretty recent development.
Stoked to hear Matt has taken up tools. But I think he would be the first to say you won’t get a custom board from the Hawk again in this life.
If you see Matt, give him my Aloha
Thanks guys,
I enquired from the surfboards by velzy website and Fran suggested that because it had a code VEL_05nr it was likely to be a japanese machine board.. apparently they've been machine shaped in japan for several years now.
It would make it a lot more intersing if Dale's some had made it but the lack of signiture on the board makes me think machineshaped somewhere
the ebay adress is http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=200460062488&Category=112966&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2
I'm pretty sure there are guys like Jim Phillips or Terry Martin who could confirm that more than a few signatured models weren't necessarily shaped by the guy that put his signature on the board, including Velzy's. It has been reported that Phil Edwards for instance didn't actually shape all of his models.
From what I've seen, some of the Japanese shapers and glassers do great work.
Oh no! I’m shocked!
Ghost Shaping…been going on since the 1950’s. Sometimes the Ghosts are better than the humans.
I'm not an idiot and am aware that ghost shapers do the majority of the work and that signed boards have like as not just come off the machine and had a signiture copied or transfered on. Personally I'm quite happy with machine shapes / ghost shaped boards if you know thats what your getting.. and am sure the shape will be good.
My concern is that the glassing may not be great, I havent had a stock board in years and normally surf shortboards made by my local shaper whos glassing is spot on, however the glassing on friends stock boards from 'big names' has looked poor. I was more wondering about if anyone actually had one of these boards and what the glassing would be like.
Since the early 60’s some of the top surfers and board builders have been going to Japan and plying their trades, Tak Kawahara, the T in T&C and it continues to this day.
The level of quality in Japan is extrememly high, as is the cost of the surfboard also.
The people who are building the Velzy’s have been the moving force behind Velzy’s name in Japan for nearly 20 years, I shaped about 5,000 for them before they saw that all the leg work required to make and ship them from California was not neccessary.
Dale and I shaped and designed the programs that are used and that combined with more than capable craftsmanship in Japan, they are still high quality, better than a lot of “customs” that are built right here in the US of A by guys who can’t see it from their house, quality knows no boundaries
Thanks Jim, just what i was wanting to know, being in the UK I had no personal knowledge of Japanese board bulding and my (probably feeble) internet search could not find infromation on who was making the Velzy boards over there.
Cheers.
The quality in Japan is "other-worldly". I know of several shapers who had boards glassed and shipped to Japan from the US rejected for glassing flaws. The types of things that would be "norm" here in the US. Ie small bubbles, visible laps, scratches in the foam etc But if I wanted a Velzy RIP I would go to the next closest thing,Dales' own flesh and blood. The shapes I saw on Maui being done by his son were exact replicas of Dale's own shapes. And------------He will put his signature on the board. Couple that with the simple fact that Gott Glassing does the BEST glass job and rub-out in the Hawaiian Islands. Why pay more and give $$$ to "NO-Names" in Japan. You will have a CNC'ed board with NO soul or lineage. Why not just buy a Velzy Surftech. Same Shit. Lowel
