I’m researching this to see who’s funding and oraganizing this “Consumer Surfboard Expo”. With heavy hitters like Channel Islands, Randy French (SurfTech), Matt Biolas, and Rusty Preisendorfer, I can’t imagine that it’s that it’s nothing more than an attempt to rationalize their sell-out positions and try to convince the general surfboard buying public that we need to support their overseas manufacturers. Guys like Rusty and Biolas have big mansions in the La Jolla Colony and Cypress Cove to pay for, so they need big marketing scams to convince surfers to buy their “new technology” surfboards.
What’s really happening is that the few big brands are trying to gobble up the whole market for maximum profit and remove choices to the average surfer. As long as places like Mitch’s, Basham’s, and FiberGlass Hawaii are around selling blanks and supplies to independent surfboard builders, our authentic surf culture and boardbuilding craft tradition and heritage will continue. The big brand sell-outs are burning the foundation of surfing out from under their own feet for short term profit. The internet is a conductor for truth. The sell-outs need to be exposed.
I’m researching this to see who’s funding and oraganizing this “Consumer Surfboard Expo”. With heavy hitters like Channel Islands, Randy French (SurfTech), Matt Biolas, and Rusty Preisendorfer, I can’t imagine that it’s that it’s nothing more than an attempt to rationalize their sell-out positions and try to convince the general surfboard buying public that we need to support their overseas manufacturers. Guys like Rusty and Biolas have big mansions in the La Jolla Colony and Cypress Cove to pay for, so they need big marketing scams to convince surfers to buy their “new technology” surfboards.
What’s really happening is that the few big brands are trying to gobble up the whole market for maximum profit and remove choices to the average surfer. As long as places like Mitch’s, Basham’s, and FiberGlass Hawaii are around selling blanks and supplies to independent surfboard builders, our authentic surf culture and boardbuilding craft tradition and heritage will continue. The big brand sell-outs are burning the foundation of surfing out from under their own feet for short term profit. The internet is a conductor for truth. The sell-outs need to be exposed.
I agree the majority on the list are propaganda masters…but what foundation? Never has been one. It’s always been building to this point. Now you have a few have have made it and in typical big business fashion want to keep anyone else from getting their chips.
I am sincerely trying to help shapers / surfboard makers get their wares out to the public, as retail space for small - to medium sized builders seems to be dwindling in so-called ‘surfshops.’
well, kp, klaus and i were talking about this show this past weekend.sounds like a booth will be rented featuring hulls and other stuff from a few known shapers mentioned here and there on this forum…
That’s what I thought it was for…small/mid size local shapers/manufacturers from each region of the U.S. to get together and display their wares, share design info and keep the stoke going for the custom board builder. So what if the “evil axis” of top brands have a hand in it? It looks to me like a great oppurtunity to meet some of modern surfing’s great shapers and ask the questions that you’d always wanted to know.
Don’t like Lost or Rusty? Then ignore em and check out the Campbell Bros. booth. I’d be stoked to talk to Malcolm about his Octafish and Klaus’s hulls.
BTW- I didn’t mean for this to sound like a paid endorsement, I have nothing to do with the expo other than being a looky-loo.
Matt, This isn’t in response to you. It’s just my .02 worth on the thread.
Hey Scott, don’t appologize for what you beleive in. The “anchor” exhibitors for the Sacred Craft Surfboard Expo are all involved in some sort of overseas production. If you want American workers and surfers to have less choices for jobs and products, then promote and support the giant brands that are taking production overseas and tooling up for homogenization. If you want to help out the little, local guys who do this stuff for real, then don’t allow exhibitors who are involved with production in Thailand, China, or Vietnam. Choose which side of the battle you’re on and plant that flag!
There are artist / craftsmen, and there are businessmen. And sometimes there are rare individuals who are both. Some names that come to mind of craftsmen who are also good businessmen: Takayama, Stewart, Walden, Rusty, French, Noll, and Velzy.
Why, if someone knows how to make a surfboard and run a business, he or she all of a sudden becomes the Big Bad Enemy of All That is Pure and Good in the World?
They own big houses. So what? They worked for them, and they paid craftsmen to build them.
Thanks for offering a voice of reason to this issue. I posted on the other thread and will repeat it here…
FWIW I contacted Scott directly and wished him the best for success at the Sacred Craft event. I knew straight off that he has taken on a big task and will be dealing with tons of details that would drive an ordinary person insane. I’m sure that for him, it’s a labor of love.
He has offered a free hour for a Swaylocks sponsored spot in the seminar program. I have no idea how to put that together but the fact that he made the offer tells me his heart is in the right place.
Any takers?
A few ideas… Lee Vanderhurst presents the mysterious telekinetic razor blade lap cut technique. Herb Spitzer and how to use diaper filler in 101 surfboard building and repairing processes. How John Mellor turned his vacuum bagging operation into a penile enhancement device and made millions on the internet.
Doug, Your words are well taken, but this is part of a much greater equasion that deals with the rampart consumerism of the American public, the trade deficit to Asian countries, and the future of our economy.
Yes those big brands supported local craftsmen while they climbed their way towards well deserved success. And yes there is a real shortfall in qualified laminators to meet the record high demand in surfboard production locally. But what is the best way to address all these issues? Could the large brands instead of going overseas to train workers use their well honed marketing and promotion skills to get local workers into the Composites course at Cerritos College? Did the big brands exhaust all possible solutions for domestic production or did they just take the path of least resistance for short term profit? Will American workers and consumers be better served with less jobs and less money staying here?
Rusty got his big break working out of the back of the Canyon Surf Shop in OB. The next up and coming shaper will not have that oppourtunity when all the little shops like what Canyon used to be are gone. Matt Biolas and Timmy Patterson got started at the old Hobie factory, now that place is gone. If the production goes overseas and we lose our local manufacturing, how will the next generation of board builders learn our craft?
I think we have to examine all of this before we give our stamp of approval to what is going on in surfboards and other industries.
Okay…I read through the website for the event…don’t know who is behind it…but I don’t see anything saying it was created by the Big Overseas Offenders…
in fact it looks like it was created by someone or some people of the basic Swaylock’s mindset…concerned with the smaller aspects of the surfboard industry…even open to the individuals behind The Bigs…even with my own ambivilent- to anti-surf rag sentiments…“shaper tees the only softgoods allowed”…
Shoot…sounds like an event made for us…ask Rusty or Biolas to their faces why they’ve done the overseas thing…hear what they have to say first in the seminar…
On another subject, ahem, I read on Surfline this morning that McTavish has signed on with GSI…check their website for their “Brand of the month” at the bottom…
I am sincerely trying to help shapers / surfboard makers get their wares out to the public, as retail space for small - to medium sized builders seems to be dwindling in so-called ‘surfshops.’
Sorry I offended you.
I’ll stop posting on here.
My comments were directed at the original post that was saying there was some foundation of the surfboard business. There never has been. There have been some people who have struggled, fought and yes even sold out to propaganda to make it. It’s much like any other industry. Most of those on top right now are just really good at slinging hash and managing their business…not because there was a good foundation that went bad. It’s pretty much the same as it’s always been.
As for the expo or whatever. If it’s a sucess…it’s a sucess. Best of wishes. It not a bad idea.
Hey Scott, don’t appologize for what you beleive in. The “anchor” exhibitors for the Sacred Craft Surfboard Expo are all involved in some sort of overseas production. If you want American workers and surfers to have less choices for jobs and products, then promote and support the giant brands that are taking production overseas and tooling up for homogenization. If you want to help out the little, local guys who do this stuff for real, then don’t allow exhibitors who are involved with production in Thailand, China, or Vietnam. Choose which side of the battle you’re on and plant that flag!
Try opening an event and banning someone willing to pay your price. Let them in and allow the local shapers show them up or fall on their face. Thats business. As long as the anchors with their money don’t start controling the thing …it’s just another free enterpize.
There are artist / craftsmen, and there are businessmen. And sometimes there are rare individuals who are both. Some names that come to mind of craftsmen who are also good businessmen: Takayama, Stewart, Walden, Rusty, French, Noll, and Velzy.
Why, if someone knows how to make a surfboard and run a business, he or she all of a sudden becomes the Big Bad Enemy of All That is Pure and Good in the World?
They own big houses. So what? They worked for them, and they paid craftsmen to build them.
Give the boys a break.
Doug
Doug,
My third post responding to three different issues. How many boards have you bought and resold from the above named shapers?
I have been a dealer for two of them and I am very familiar with most of the rest. I don’t think people have issues with them because of their sucess…I think it’s because of the massive amounts of bullcrap they sling and shifty business practices they do. I wonder how come none of the big names that have their boards made in asia put on the stringers…“proudly made in Asia”
Hey, most of you don’t have a clue what it takes to put on a trade show. You need the big names to step up, because the little guys don’t have the cash to pony up. At best you could get a few little guys to spring for a small booth, Like $1,200. That ain’t gonna cut it.
Who else in the surf business you gonna turn too to help share the cost of the expo, what, you gonna charge $100 a head for the general public to get in…no
Thank god there are guys like Rusty, Lost etc to help out with this kind of event. I don’t see any Local guys stepping up? Rainbow, Christenson, Ezera, Walden, Walker, Bessel, Stamps, Sharpe Eye, Epic, Surf Perscription…List goes on. Reason: No money to waste on this kind of marketing. Trade shows don’t generate much business. Expos do even worse, it’s all about the public at these events.
So what if they pitch there story? Were all big kids and can read between the lines.
What trade shows have you been going to the last 18 years? They are a bussiness I agree, but many of the biggest brands that have mega set-ups are comped the space fees just to get them to be there. It’s hard work for sure, but that’s not the point, the overall point I’m cocerned about is the outsourcing of American manufacturing overseas and the long term effects it will have on our jobs and the US economy.