Just rang the Australian distributor for Resin Reserch epoxy to see if I could finally get hold of some to try.
He told me that it is only for recognised manufacturers and not for the general public and sold as a bundled package with Marko foam.
Too bad if you prefer Surfblanks, South Coast Foam etc, or hotwireing your own EPS blanks
Sound a bit like fcs.
I couldn't get plugs either because I wasn't a pro so I went with Speeedfins at the time. Now I used Motivation boxes which are made locally and cost me $4- a box with screws and a key. Install kit with templates, jigs and router bit cost me $40-
Come on Greg. I thought it might have been easier to buy your product here than this and I have been trying now for a couple of years.
I have bought both your shaping and glassing epoxy DVD's which are readilly available here but cant buy the products.
Maybe you should refund the money as they are useless to me now.
there the same anyway . or in a practical sense. apparently its a copy but the chemist here in nz said rekons he can make anything he wants but they have to buy ingredients by the drum. so when you exporting tonnes of resin to china a few drums of surboard resin is not worth their time
Gotta love that sort of arrogance, it simply makes people go to other manufacturers and creates bad will. No wonder only one in five small businesses survive in Australia. The days of protected little market niches are gone with the internet, the only way to prosper is to have a better product or treat your customers better or be cheaper.
Sorry this is the way it is. I understand the frustration. Not every business owner is cut out for retail. I always have and I set up RR so that everyone in my area could buy. I have always enjoyed my retail customers too. In the US there are 10 places where you can buy a gallon of resin all over the country. But we’ve also been in business here for 30 years.
I can understand why they decided to structure the business this way. When a wholesale customer walks into my shop he’ll take 20 blanks and 15 gallons of resin. He’ll hand me a check and by next week he’s back again. When he comes in he’s busy and wants to get things done so there’s not a lot of small talk. When he leaves I get to put a nice check in the bank.
Retail customer comes in and he wants one blank and a quart and a half of resin. He wants to chat about which blank is good for his project and wants some feedback on laminating technique and colorwork. Should he gloss it or should it just be a sanded finish or should it be sprayed? What color stringer should he get and what size stringer would be right? What about pin lines and would an acid splash be right?.. etc. etc. etc.
Like I said at the top, I always enjoyed my retail customers. I never minded answering questions (Guess what … I still do) and I always found the time to be a relaxing break from the day. But also like I said, not everyone who owns a business is cut out for retail. It can be an incredible pain in the butt and it doesn’t make you much money in the long run.
Daves a great guy, but he’s a businessman first. I’m sure he’s sussed out the nuts and bolts and decided to go this way. I’m sorry it’s not a freer situation.
Don’tcha just loathe that sort of attitude…getting EPS blanks sent is an order of magnitude more complex than small amounts of resin.
Do they have sole distributorship?
EPS is EPS is EPS to a great degree for the majority of the construction techniques used by home builders. Commercial production may require different qualities and charactersitics.
And there I was hoping to try the RR epoxy on my next boards.
What is everyone else using instead?
I have used the R180 with various hardeners from FGI, but discolouration from UV is an issue, think fake tan orange without a complete UV protective coating.
Even surfblanks still have a retail front down in brookvale, and you can stop in to get as little as 250 mls of resin, same with Dion, and FGI enough for some repairs if that’s all you need.
Sounds like the bottle neck is with your local distributor, not Greg. He likely has identified diminishing returns with retail sales and has decided to cut his losses.
Greg has been more than helpful with the little guys in US. He's done some great live demonstrations as well as posting tons of free info right here.
Maybe some of you should pool your resources, buy a bunch, and start your own distribution network? You too can spend an hour on the phone (as Greg has done with me) to sell 2 or 3 gallons direct to the little guy.
I don't have an insider connection with Greg or your distributor so I don't know the answer.
Is the 'bundled package' a decision your distributor made or a decision Greg made? Either way, it's their decision. There are any number of products - surf related and otherwise that are basically proprietary or otherwise unavailable to the little guy.
In the US we have the same sort of difficulty buying foam from down under. By that I mean the manufacturer might sell it but getting it shipped and through customs is a royal pain in the ass and results in much higher cost.
As far as I know, the 'very best' foam of which you speak is not available at all up here - is it?
If someone wanted to buy a container load and sell only to manufacturers in wholesale quantities is that the fault of the manufacturer?
Go slap that distributor around...use a bunch of big words like, Cutlap, and fin placement......, get your guys together and come up with the 2K or whatever a drum costs.....I bet you he'll sell you one if you got the cash. Roll it into the back of your Zombie (isn't that what you call your surf cars down there?) and go to an empty lot and start pouring it onto glass jars and old plastic milk jugs.
one more thing. In America the reason why we are so great....besides our large american peniusesiuses is because we use the motto...."Where there is a will, there is a way".
You know that there is RR on your oversized island....now go get it.
Mick, the motivation fin boxes also fit probox fins!. You have to take a whisker off the front and back edges of the tab, but its less than 1/8 all up, so around 1/16'' from the front and back. And the fins are
E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T!!!!.
I have a thruster set ( big size ) so if you want to try them, i'll lend them to you. I also have a set of modern keels, and some aipa twinny's too ( ben is sending them back here shortly ). I prefer real proboxes, but if you are already using the motivation boxes, and want to try the fins, let me know.
Part of the issue in Aus and NZ is that your where we were four years ago. The foam companies are contoling what you get and the access to what’s available. You therefore get what they’ll give you.
They aren’t interested in EPS or in epoxy … it goes against their business plan. Therefore someone in Israel, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Canada, the US, Peru, Brazil, etc. can buy a gallon of our stuff but you can’t. Not real fair at all. It was the same here in the Clark days. Beat the epoxy guys any way you can. Keep them out of the market at all costs. It’s the guys with the money … isn’t it always.
Today in the US the largest US blank manufacturer makes and sells urethane and two different EPS styles. They sevice everyone because that’s todays market since the end of Clark. What we make is no longer dictated … we make what we want and they supply. They are in the business of supplying what WE WANT not what they want to give us.
I have tried hard for you guys … but just aim at the real target. Dave’s not it.
Greg has done more for advancing surfboard resin technology (for everyone) than anyone on the planet. The people who want to maintain the status quo have got to love you guys attacking him.
in oz im sure we used to look after the little bloke??
hopefully with this sort of attitude (not selling to the little bloke) the general public will stop purchasing boards made 'professionally' with marko foam and RR products, at least then distribution sales will drop, and guess what, you'll soon start seeing the distributor pushing the retail sales.
it should be recognised there is a market for one off, small scale sales and the distributor should approach this accordingly, perhaps a part time position?? after all, the distributor is looking to make money??crazy to say NO to a potential sale?!
also...if us backyard shapers decide to purchase one of the big name shapers boards (for whatever the reason), and we have used and like the marko/RR products, its likely we will choose the shaper that will use these products, hence making a sale for the marko/RR distributor...allbeit a sale at wholesale instead of selling to the end user directly at retail!!!!