This could be posted under general discussion I suppose as well. Here’s the deal; 200 Argentine blanks will be coming into Fiberglass Hawaii Maui on friday(3/31). All 200 are already sold! “Can’t buy a thrill”. There will be blanks up to 9’2. Three weeks later there will be another 200, but sizes top out at 7’11. The little guy gets the squeeze(as in squeezed out). I have watched a local shaper basically beg for a couple of blanks so that he could fill a couple of orders before Christmas(and therefore HAVE a Christmas). The attitude at Fiberglass Hawaii seems to be that the little guy is out of business. Everbody has been a little guy at one time or another. Since everyone seems to be rethinking their suppliers due to the demise of Clark foam; As I move forward in my own efforts I will also so be looking at all and other alternatives. The other supplier on the Island is building so many boards himself that it is ridiculous to buy cloth and resin from a competitor. Best bet is a container filled with a variety of resins(epoxy as well), cloth, and a combo of eps and poly blanks. I have bought alot of stuff fron FGSH, both in Cal. and Hawaii over the years. Their stuck-up “sorry, I can’t help you” attitude has done it for me. Having my eggs spread around in various "off-island baskets’ means I don’t have to beg for a bone over on Papa pl. It’s worth the $2500 to wave the “flying fickle finger of fate” at FGSH. McDing
howdy mc ding
i recomend you try adhesive technologies in New Zealand.
they are leaders in resin technology. and suppy cloth as well.
im sure if you ordered enough it would be economical.
i pay 22$nz per litre if i buy a 5 litre kit
also there is great cnc hotwire services here as well .
however im sure they manufacture eps over there.
no one over here has quite caught on yet as far as i know
Aloha McDing,
I feel your frustration ^%&*(%$
Have you worked with epoxy resin yet? If you have…I can cut a few blanks of 2.4lb density eps.
Are u on Maui or Oahu? PM me and let me know. I can order a billet eps block and hotwire blanks. 2.4lb density is between clark ultra and super. Also, I can order stringer material from GVM.
Also, my cousin is in china/hong kong. Hopefully he will bring PU blanks for me. If he can…I will share with you.
I won’t charge for my labor…just pay for the material.
hope to help somehow?
my wife is expecting our first keiki on May 1st…so let me know asap.
Lets be realistic. I have a customer who spends $100,000.00 per year on resin, cloth and all other accessories to make boards. I have another customer who spends $1000.00 per year. Which customer should I give special consideration to? I bet the customer getting the special attention could be actually spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year at FGH if his shop is of significan size.
In whatever you do in life, you also do the same thing. You give special consideration to those who you make the greatest amount of money from.
What’s the big deal to switch to eps and epoxy? You can get everything you need from Hawaii and never have to visit FGH ever again.
You can do it!!!
A more intelligent approach for FH would be to save a few of those blanks out and distribute them among their smaller customers. That way, if after supply picks up a little, the big customer gets a $5 a blank break somewhere else and bails, FH still has a base. Yes, it can be good business to show your larger customers some form of recognition. But putting all of your eggs in one basket is never a prudent business move, and considering the current volatility of the foam/blank market it would seem to be particularly ill advised right now. Hypothetical: I have 200 PU blanks right now in a market that demands 1000. I’m not going to make my fortune from the net profit on 200 blanks no matter what I charge. Do I want to (a) maximize my profit from this lot of blanks or (b) use them to help secure the loyalty of customers for the future? If the answer is (b), then I want to pursue a strategy such as the one mentioned at the beginning of this post. Sucking up to a single large customer who could easily go elsewhere with all of my business to the detriment of the rest of my customers makes me a captive supplier, and that is bad business.
-Samiam
If you make your money selling fiberglass and resin, blanks are only important because those who use them need fiberglass and resin. Fiberglass Hawaii makes its money on fiberglass and resin and all the other stuff less foam needed to make boards. The distribution of blanks is motivated not for a small stocking fee, but for the sales needed to complete a surfboard. Give the guys a break, your intelligent approach has nothing to do with reality. The survivors are surviving because of a history of being good customers and they have the connection to get the blanks. There is a blank shortage right? Not for some of us.
Quit crying about not being able to get a longboard blank. Call walkerfoam and pay a little extra for shipping or transition to epoxy and get an eps blank from any one of many local producers of eps blanks. Maui has been doing eps/epoxy stuff for decades with the windsurfing manufacturing there. FGH has nothing to do with the guys laziness or lack of thought in how to get himself a blank.
So I guess until you open up your own foam,resin, fiberglass distribution center in Hawaii, your intelligent business plan will never see the light of day.
This foam problem is not a long term problem, blanks coming from all over the place, Walker opening a plant out in the desert so they can pump TDI without hassle, the Chinese plant they helped set up is now competing with them, Just Foam is starting to roll, Petritech is making foam with MDI instead of TDI, thats not to mention all the foam coming from Brazil, Australia, South Africa. And then the EPS guys doing there thing.
I know everybody is looking for foam, there is going to be plenty, it might not be a cheep as it once was, but there will be lots of foam. Personally if I get treated poorly I don’t patronize that business. Get enough people getting treated poorly, business declines. Nice thing about the surf industry, people remember like elephants. Bad thing about the surf industry, it’s run like the surf industry.
story: A few years back a funky little man dressed in a flanel shirt and overalls came into my work to set up an account. The business he was trying to deal with wouldn’t give him the time of day. I talked to him, and explained what we did…just tried to be friendly and what not, I got family members that wear overalls. I had never met Sam Walton before, but that funky little man turned out to be 145MM per year in business, and it wasn’t because we had a superior product, or a better price. It was because of the customer service, he knew he was going to be treated with respect and integrity.
Moral: Treat everybody with respect, you never know who your talking too. Small business turn into big businesses. And big businesses go out of business…who would have thought 20 years ago that Sears would be going out of business.
I’m rambling, just my 10 cents…out.
story: A few years back a funky little man dressed in a flanel shirt and overalls came into my work to set up an account. The business he was trying to deal with wouldn’t give him the time of day. I talked to him, and explained what we did…just tried to be friendly and what not, I got family members that wear overalls. I had never met Sam Walton before, but that funky little man turned out to be 145MM per year in business, and it wasn’t because we had a superior product, or a better price. It was because of the customer service, he knew he was going to be treated with respect and integrity. Bad thing about the surf industry, it’s run like the surf industry
Such a simple thing…and such philosophy was in so short supply before surfing boomed this time around. Now surf retailers don’t have to be nice - the fad/trend/fashion money keeps flowing. Should there be a big enough shakeout someday one would hope it’s the good people who survive. Take notes as you go!
I think PU longboard blanks are going to be hard to come by for awhile.
Alot of bigger guys are buying their own containers for themselves.
Be careful if you go third party cause alot of scammers are popping up due to the strong scent of cash in the water. I have had lawyers, stock brokers and politicians approach me to about financing some foam dream with “cousin suppliers” off shore. None of these guys are in it for the long haul they just want to make a quick buck and get out… So be careful who you are dealing with.
You’ll have to pony up big or get a hui togethor if you want to make it worthwhile to order a container cause at the same time your are buying a container of foam guys down the street are buying containers of private labeled finished boards for about the same price.
Meanwhile there’s lots of EPS longboard foam available up to 2lb density here so like Manoa said there are some other options if you want to consider them.
PU will be awhile (couple more months) before the trickle down takes effect.
Just try and hang on till then or try something different while you are waiting.
To put things into perspective with anywhere from 50-100 guys out here big and little doing what you do in every neighborhood around it’s gonna be hard to source foam unless you can get on someone’s list. FGH is cool but they are a “small” business( i,e, <$25 million in income per year) and basically a middleman in this deal so they have to be careful. I’m sure those 200 were pre-ordered before they committed to the supplier. No one’s taking chances any more, it’s all cash up front before they talk. When their Bong/US Foam project gets going things will change as they become a supplier versus agent. I bet once blank monday hit their name popped up on their loan officer’s “watch list” with a more frequent review of their inventory movement and cash flow. Things like that get your banker’s attention…
Best of luck to everyone out there struggling…
Howzit McDing, That doesn’t sound like the Fiberglass Hi I know. When they were getting rid of the Clark blank surplus I was told I was close to the top of the list because I was a had a good business record with them and I only spend about $6000.00 a year with them. I know that F.H. on Maui is a small operation compared to Honolulu and that could be a factor. Did you try talking with Honolulu, you might have better luck. Ted ,Jim,Dutch ,Cora,etc have always gone out of their way to help me and when they made a mistake on an order they would take care of it with no problem. For my last roll of glass I ordered I asked for a small roll and instead they sent me a roll with over 250 yards on it. I called and complained about it and they cut the price to $1.80 a yard from $2.45 a yard to make things right. I’m sure Ted will be bringing in plenty of blanks and try to help all customers. Sounds like somebody on Maui is grabbing all the blanks thay can before the little guy has a chance to get any. There mustbe some other Blank source on Maui, I know that we don’t get blanks from F.H. under normal circumstances becaus we have other sources on Kauai, seen Walkers and Bennetts here. Aloha,Kokua
I’m sorry about your experience with FGH on Maui (right?), but that’s not my impression of the people at the Honolulu store. You can’t stand around looking at cabosil for a few seconds without one of the staff asking if they can help you in any way. Very nice people. I haven’t tried to buy any blanks from them because I make my own from EPS, but everything else I’ve bought they’ve treated me extremely well, even though I usually only buy in small quantities. Another plug for FGH, I think they do a pretty good job of providing quality products at fairly reasonable prices, especially considering they are basically the only game in town.
I got (your) foam!
foammaster!------Nobody and I mean Nobody spends $100,000 a year at Fiberglass Hawaii. Any surfboard builder who could spend a hundered grand at Fiberglass Hawaii, was buying direct from Clark until 12/5/05. Which would also mean they would buy resin and cloth from somebody like Revchem. The big guys do buy a few things(even blanks) from outlets like FBGLS Hawaii, when they need something for a special order or can’t get it quickly from their usual sources. Other than boaters and fishermen(gel-coat and fishing lures) ; sales of glass and resin have been down at outlets like FBGLS Hawaii. It is true that they make money selling glass and resin, but they sell a Hell-of-lot more of it when they’ve got blanks to go with it. I noticed a couple of months ago, they only had one five of Lam. sitting out and they said ‘why bother with pouring of any more from the drum, no blanks, no sales of fives’. Fiberglass Hawaii (in my opinion) has always been geared toward the small to medium -sized boardbuilder and boaters. All that changed on 12/05/05. Even larger manufacturers who have not yet recieved an order of blanks from overseas will turn to any source to get the necessary blanks. Very simple. The little guy gets left out of the mix. I am sure they think they can woo the little guy back later when there’s plenty of foam(US Foam). There will be plenty of foam . I am not saying that I will not buy “anything” from them in the future; what I am saying is that they will not be my primary source. I’ve got a resale # just like the big guys and I can buy from the same sources they do. There are blanks trickling in on Oahu and the the Mainland already. I agree that we will be awash in them by mid summer. I have worked with epoxy over the years and wil go that route with some percentage of what I build. It’s just a slower and more labor costly process. Mcding
25-30 board per week glassing shop. over 60K spent last year at FGH. That’s materials to glass only, no blanks purchased. There are bigger shops around and they need to get resin and fiberglass from somewhere.
I am glad you think FGH sucks. Just don’t be a hypocrit and make any exceptions to it’s suckyness by running out of tint, pigment, paint or resin, or sandpaper, or fiberglass or finboxes, or sanding pads, tape, paint strainers, cabosil, brushes, acetone,hardener, fins, leash plugs and go out and have to enter the evil doors of FGH and purchase from this company. The store in Oahu is very customer friendly. Why don’t you give the owners here a call instead of this dirty laundry waving on sways.
Can you really stay away from this one stop shop? After all your bad talk of the place, if you go back without an apology to FGH you lose all my respect.
Your mid summer awash in blanks theory…hope it’s true for your longboards. I don’t see it coming yet. All sorts of EPS available. Slower and more labor costs with epoxy sounds like a huge excuse. Maui is the home of epoxy use in sailboards, don’t here them complaining. Get over it and make the move, it can’t be slower than your zero production now.
This could be posted under general discussion I suppose as well. Here’s the deal; 200 Argentine blanks will be coming into Fiberglass Hawaii Maui on friday(3/31). All 200 are already sold! “Can’t buy a thrill”. There will be blanks up to 9’2. Three weeks later there will be another 200, but sizes top out at 7’11. The little guy gets the squeeze(as in squeezed out). I have watched a local shaper basically beg for a couple of blanks so that he could fill a couple of orders before Christmas(and therefore HAVE a Christmas). The attitude at Fiberglass Hawaii seems to be that the little guy is out of business. Everbody has been a little guy at one time or another. Since everyone seems to be rethinking their suppliers due to the demise of Clark foam; As I move forward in my own efforts I will also so be looking at all and other alternatives. The other supplier on the Island is building so many boards himself that it is ridiculous to buy cloth and resin from a competitor. Best bet is a container filled with a variety of resins(epoxy as well), cloth, and a combo of eps and poly blanks. I have bought alot of stuff fron FGSH, both in Cal. and Hawaii over the years. Their stuck-up “sorry, I can’t help you” attitude has done it for me. Having my eggs spread around in various "off-island baskets’ means I don’t have to beg for a bone over on Papa pl. It’s worth the $2500 to wave the “flying fickle finger of fate” at FGSH. McDing
McDing,
Bummer about your experience with the guys on Maui. I don’t have a lot of experience with Maui but I’ll second some of the things said in this thread. The customer service at the Honolulu store is top of the line.
I was talking with those guys when things went down with Clark and got a first had impression of the predicament they were in when Clark called them, told them to go to Wahiawa, close the doors and figure out a good way to divvy up the remaining blanks.
Basically they were thrown into a situation in which is was virtually impossible to please everyone. People wanted more of what there actually was, some weren’t going to get.
Regarding you lack of blanks, I have been sending blanks to the outer islands and it sees to be working pretty well. After trucking and shipping, we’re seeing the costs of a loaded pickup truck of blanks come to about $5 per blank to get them to an outer island, depending on the blanks ordered.
We’ve got Midget Farrelly’s Blanks, SurfBlanks Australia, SuperWhite Formula. Midget’s been in the biz for over 30 years. I’ve talked to him, he’s on the ball.
Right now we have lots of longboards, actually we’re running a mini-sale on some of them, seconds and firsts. Also, I know it’s tricky for you on Maui to buy just a few to sample them, but I encourage people to sample the different blanks that are coming in as qualities will vary. So I have discounted those who want to come in and just buy 1 or 2 blanks to check them out.
Anyway, things will smooth out hopefully soon and there will be some choices. I understand Fiberglass Hawaii will have some US blanks here in a few months, we’ll also be carrying the SurfBlanks America formula along with the Australian strain, and I’m hearing there will be other types.
Choices are fun, soon it will be like Australia, at any given time my partner down there has 11 different types of foam in his factory.
to see pricing and inventory.
Jimmy
Aloha Jimmy! Big mahalo for setting us up with some blanks over here ( and also much thanks to Robin “handshaper”, and Mary Mair for organizing)! This has been the first foam that most of us over here have been able to get, other than some scraps that a few lucky guys have come up with, since the big shutdown. I’m real stoked on the Surfblanks foam, the consistency is killer, and the foam is real clean. Like most everyone here in Hawaii, I’m all behind F.H. Ted has personally helped me out a few times over the last 20 years, and the whole company has always come through in every way. I laugh when I hear newcomers talking about buying materials “back home” to try to get a better deal than we get out here from F.H. Fiberglass Hawaii has got anything and everything you could imagine right here in Hawaii. Although it’s been some rough times blank-wise, over here some people have taken the initiative to organize foam from a few different sources. Myself, I’m stoked to get anything to shape, although I’ve been making a big stack of 1# styro blanks. A hui hou! Aloha…RH
Aloha Jimmy! Big mahalo for setting us up with some blanks over here ( and also much thanks to Robin “handshaper”, and Mary Mair for organizing)! This has been the first foam that most of us over here have been able to get, other than some scraps that a few lucky guys have come up with, since the big shutdown. I’m real stoked on the Surfblanks foam, the consistency is killer, and the foam is real clean. Like most everyone here in Hawaii, I’m all behind F.H. Ted has personally helped me out a few times over the last 20 years, and the whole company has always come through in every way. I laugh when I hear newcomers talking about buying materials “back home” to try to get a better deal than we get out here from F.H. Fiberglass Hawaii has got anything and everything you could imagine right here in Hawaii. Although it’s been some rough times blank-wise, over here some people have taken the initiative to organize foam from a few different sources. Myself, I’m stoked to get anything to shape, although I’ve been making a big stack of 1# styro blanks. A hui hou! Aloha…RH
Yea Rick,
I’m stoked you guys are liking the blanks. I’m also really happy with Midget’s quality.
I had a couple of inquires from people but wanted to clear it up and say that I’m not associated with Fiberglass Hawaii. I just think the guys there are solid and that they were in a tough prediment a few months back.
The blank operation, AkuBird Foam, along with our machine, Pro Shapes Hawaii, are separate from FGH.
Glad things are going well with the blanks.
Jimmy
Just so everybody understands: For the last few years I have been happy with the service and the personnel at the two FGLS Hawaii that I have patronized. Wade in SB was always helpful and went out of his way. The times I picked up a few things in Santa Cruz was good. I like the guys on Maui and they have been helpful over the past 4 or 5 years I’ve been on Island. I just don’t like the way they have doled out their foam. They are the only game in town on Maui for Misc. tools and materials. Kind of like Clark was at one time in ancient history. I’m not gonna turn down an order just because they are the only place on the Island I can buy tints.
I have 800 blanks in stock from Australia, France, South Africa we can ship to Hawaii
There is a 40’ container on its way to Trevor Moore and Pono of Hawaii Foam (Clark’s x distributor) leaving the US in one week. From then on they should be well stocked on a regular basis. Contact them for some blanks. Trevor’s # is 808.372.0156