Neat subject. Everybody has good input. Everyone knows if surfboards were any other product that was made by hand(music instrument,mountain bike,hunting knife,etc.)they would definitely be a little higher priced. It’s funny, we always joke about it,but look who the customer is…SURFERS. Duuuude…we’re like all in a tribe, you know man? Come on brah, hook me up dude. I need a new stick man…Hey brah, how bout the local discount…man, this is like my 3rd board dude,you gotta take care of me man…hey, we were wondering;if me and my friend both order a board,can you cut us a sweet deal bro… For some reason since wer’e all so passionately involved in this thing called surfing,every potential customer is like a kindred spirit; a good buddy.AND YOU CAN’T CHARGE YOUR GOOD BUDDY FULL PRICE!And if you do get full price from a stranger,guess what? Next time he’s (insert name),that surfer buddy of yours,the one that bought a board last year,(didn’t he pay full price?Better hook him up this time,he’s a return customer.) I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Some shapers are just shapers and some are also businessmen. The businessmen are the ones who get the most money and have the best reputation (ie Merrick, Rusty etc). If a shaper drops his pants everytime a guy comes back for another board, he has only himself to blame. If the board he made for the guy last time was total crap, the guy would not be coming back for another. Since he liked what he got, the new board represents a better value to the guy and he should pay the asking price. Otherwise, tell the guy to go down the street to some other shaper. This is a business like any other. If you like the steak you got last time at Sizzler, should you pay less this time? Don’t we wish!
The better question is Have you ever got a steak you liked from sizzler? http://www.surfboardglassing.com
a drum of silmar resin cost pretty close to $850aud last week http://www.feraldave.com
Sorry Dave l didn’t expect you to understand the point l was trying to make because you were’nt around back when you had to be a good surfer to get any recognition of being a good shaper to sell your product. My how times have changed, you dont even have to be able to do a bottom turn to claim that you are a good shaper these days, do ya Dave, just advertise and let the magazines tell everybody how good you are!!! Dont start on me, l got told today by the so called super factory that shapers like myself are no longer of any use and are being replaced by and l quote “foam smoothers” and if l want to become one of them my starting price per board is $17 dollars, they say that everything goes around in circle’s but l wish that my F#*%# pay would’nt. All l can say is that l hope that the pro’s wake upto themselves and realize that most of the guys using cad programs and foam smoothers are no better shapers than them and think, shit l can get someone to operate the program for me, pay a smoother to finish them, give it to the glassing company and WHAM BAM thankyou MAM, you get rid of the middle man, who is doing just the same thing. But this way we might start seeing some progression again because the guys who are "designing"can actually surf KR http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/krcomweb.msnw
To quote a magazine article , you cant ring mister fender or gibson up and say this is what i play and this is how i want it here’s 50 bucks a week till its paid off. of coarse we don’t charge enough, but charge too much more and every one will be riding mass produced popouts because that is what they can afford.
several “star” marketing shapers rides waves a little and very bad
Foam Smoother?Thats funny as hell.I can see it now…an interview in a Surf Mag…“I am a Pro.I use only the finest sanding screen on the market.All of my sanding blocks are custom made.I am currently smoothing for all the top pros and I am getting ready to open my own Smoothing Factory.This will be a limited custom shop and I will not smooth over 50 boards per day.” R. B.
kr why is it that you begrudge the success of others? Most of us that build boards love doing it but ultimately if you do it full time you want to make a living. Is it that dave makes a better living than you?Perhaps he has better business skills or makes a more marketable board. Either way there are plenty of starving gurus out there that go on and on about their ability in the water and in the shaping bay yet are always chasing work and whinging that they have no money. Do you have to be a formula 1 driver to be a mechanic? Living on the Gold Coast there’s always going to be heavy competition for the punters dollar and there’s always going to be someone bigger or more savvy ready to sweep you under the carpet.
If you are a big enough idiot to buy a board off someone who cant surf then good luck to you, but when you take that board back hoping to get one the takes you to the next level and the guy says, ok l will put this here and that there and you believe that he knows what he is talking about, then your surfing will not progress and you can’t tell me that you dont want to improve your ability or do you just like his boards because he advertises in magazines, has cool looking decals or does pretty sprays, if so good on ya. To me these guys are nothing but used car salesmen and do you trust those guy’s. As for other guys making more money and being better businessmen than me l could’nt give a rats arse about that, l have been rich and l have been poor and as long as l can pay my bills (and l always have)l am happy, anybody who knows me would vouch for that. l have survived in this industry for over 20 years without having to buy surfers, paying to put my name in magazines or cheapen my label by using inferior products, l have survived through my ethics and ability to produce quality surfboards. l do however get upset when l see these used car salesmen move into the area and use their conman ethics fool people. Quality surfboards and knowledge are getting flushed down the tiolet by these guys and somebody has to fight the fight to keep it from becoming extinct. No you dont have to be a mechanic to drive a formula one car but without the good car your just a regular motorist. KR http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/krcomweb.msnw
i got what i wanted!!I really loved the feedback.I will pay more and wait --let’s see 7 months for my 700.00 board --handshaped glassed beautiful!!–worth every penny!!!thirty years later still enjoying the whole shaper -surfer process!!!The custom board will be very expensive and highly valuble and loved the more we become a sterile, walmart society
Reverb, there is one “shaper” to one of the top pro longboarders, he went in the water this summer…and caught a few waves on his belly
and this guy you talk about Jim, is he the front runner for mal designs, l doubt it, my guess is he probably took someone elses board to get scanned maybe even one of yours but hey they do it in all kinds of industry so whats the big deal we might aswell let them do it in this one as long as they are paying some top guy to ride it. KR http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/krcomweb.msnw
and regular motorists make up the vast majority.When did you move to the gold coast ken???
Micheal Jordan is a great athlete.I would like him to make me a basketball.Do any of you guys know where his ball making shop is? R.B.
Hey if you want to be an average motorist good on ya but your the one who mentioned formula one as an example and that is what l answerd to, as for when did l move to the Goldie, about 19 years ago. What, are you going to pull some “local” trip on me are ya, cause if you are l am proud to be a Victorian and besides that when l first came here and joined Kirra boardriders there where only four guys in the club that where actually born here. So locallism on the goldie is funny to me. surfings funny isn’t it,unlike most other sports you used to be able to buy boards from the best in the world because they actually made them, l guess if Jordo did make the balls himself l am sure that l would have gone to him and got one to see whether the magic comes from, him or the ball, and if its the ball l want a peice of the action, shit who knows maybe he could have been even better if he made his own balls. KR http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/krcomweb.msnw