South Coast Surfboards what would you do?

General Discussion
1

First off I’m not here to bag on Bird and South Coast Surfboards surf shop (well just a little), but I would like to set something straight and get some feed back.

One of the local groms brought me his board a little clear 5’8" 4 oz chip, with a huge glass 1/2 inch pressure fracture around the stringer where he has obviously been putting his knee to duck dive. Now he understands the repercussions of doing that maneuver, but the board is less than 3 months old, and if you live in So Cal you know dreadful the waves have been the last 8 months…except for just a few exceptions. So there hasn’t been any death grab duck dive situations lately.

Ok so he brought the board to me for a fix, and I said hell no take it back to South Coast to see if they will stand behind there product. South Coast told him to take a hike, it wasn’t there problem now? So I’m going to make it all better…But i think it’s a crock that a board thats 3 months old is falling apart, lets face it the board has probably been surfed 30 times? This kids comes from a hard working blue collar class family, a kid that $400 bucks takes all year to save up, not some ‘mommy I need another board cause mines got a scratch’ kid.

Underglassed, overshaped, $400.00 eggshell with no warranty…who says there’s no money in surfboards? Keep up the good work South Coast, and all that positive PR will help you through the next recession!

-Jay

2

i worked in one of south coast’s glass-shops and mark smith’s glass-work is top notch. Im not sure of the kids board was glassed there or at PSG, but custom surf n’ sail does quality work. And as for bird, he is a great guy. Year after year he lends people $1000+ vintage boards for the OMBAC contest, he is a stand up guy. One bad experience with one board is no reason to generalize.

3

Wait a minute here.

ONE pressure ding? I’m sure there’s some pressure dents as well.

THREE months surfing? Thirty days?

Hey, for a chip tri with 4oz bottom and double that top, it’s doing just fine. Grom is complaining, but not crybaby-ing. Happens with all light chips.

Tell him to go epoxy next time so he runs the risk of that material.

4

Isn’t that the “industry standard” now? A “good” glass job is light. A friend visited in September and he brought a South Coast egg he thought I might like. I’m used to my homemade over glassed things. My impression was cheep glass job. I admit. Its a sample of one board. But,it’s not much different than 90 percent of the shop boards I see. His Pavel fish had a very nice glass job by the way. I don’t know who glasses what down there anymore. Hopefully, the kid learned an important lesson. Most of the new boards I see are pieces of s–t. Mike

5

The problem really is that kids (and most people) don’t know dick about boards; not design, construction, or how to even take care of them. Just what they hear the pro’s say or what retail shops tell them. If this kid was wealthly, he’d probably order the same lightly glassed board as a custom. I fix a lot of boards for the younger grom’s in my area. If they bring it in themselves or have Mom wait in the car, I’ll fix it for a reduced price if they’ll willing to learn some tech stuff. If Mom carries it in, I shut up and it’s full price. Educate them, tell them where to get a custom for $300, and tell them what to order on the glassing. Let them take control of what they ride and not be dependent on some dumb-ass in a shop.

6

Well said,Pete C. I should also say I had Ace who was shaping out of the South Coast Longboard side of the business make me a 6 fin hybrid swallowtail thing. Excellent glass job. Of course, I asked for a beefed up glass job.Surfed it hard for four years from May through September. Sold it last Spring. Saw a guy riding it last week. Checked it out and it was still in excellent condition. Keep them out of the sun, fix the dings, and put it in a board bag.Mike

7

Thats what i love about this website, all the opinions. Thanks for the insites…Yes Bird is a good citizen, I surf with him too on occasion, and yes a 4 oz board is in my opinion is a waste of fiberglass, and yes the kid knows better, and yes the kid is not a cry baby, hes a good kid, and a good surfer.

My point was supposed to be from a retail point of view, not a personal view (but I got a little pissed because I am, and have been involved in retail for the last 25 years. What I was getting at is in any other form of retail the customer has some form of recourse on goods. Look at the Home Depot, some hack buys a chain saw, cuts down a bunch of trees, then returns the chain saw no problem. Nordstroms some one buys a pair of shoes, wears them for 2 months, they don’t fit right, they return them, no problem. Hell someone buys a house, the have (xx) days to back out of it if the buyers remorse… etc, etc, etc…

The kid wasn’t looking for a new board, he was looking for some satisfaction? That satisfaction could come in a hand full of stickers, or a 10% discount on your next purchase, or a frick’n free bar of wax? It doesn’t take much right, all it need is a form of acknowledgement to the issue? He got nothing, A shrewd retailer knows when he’s being taken advantage of, and likewise he should know when to step up and make thing right. That’s my point.

-Jay

8

you reckon thats bad , i get this phone call the other day , i can sense the guy at the other end of the phone is real charged up , he asked me what would i do if someone broke one of my boards after only a few surfs and it was only 2 weeks old , i said it doesnt really happen much , but it did happen to a guy who brought a longboard of mine , only had it 3 weeks and snapped it paddling out into some solid beachies , i offered to replace his board which was way more than he was expecting , he wanted a 50 % change over , i said fine if you want to pay something make it 1/3rd , he was more than happy with the deal as he felt some responsibility , but was still bummed he broke a board after 3 weeks …

when i told that story to guy at the end of the phone , thinking he could be refering to one of my boards , he then really lit up and started getting angry , he said he was ringing all the surfshops and was going to write letters to all the surf mags …

here comes the bit i like … he brought a new salomon , surfed it like 6 times , reckons it went real well in super small waves , he was surfing waist to chest high waves and snapped it coming down off a reo as he was going into a bottom turn , i asked if it folded under the front foot and described what it would have done and how the snap looked , he said yep thats exactly how it happened …

he took it back and the salomon rep said bad luck no guarantees , he was fuming , he said it was sold to him under the pretense it was the latest technology and was super strong … i explained a few principles to him which he understood , he ended up coming down later and placing an order , he then said " if your paying 1400 hundred dollars for something youd expect your getting something about as good as it gets " i put a board deck down and gave him the trampoline test , he freaked and wondered why i wasnt making thousands of them … my reply was " if i was doing that i wouldnt be going surfing would i "

my personal opinion is , so many crew are snapping there salomons theyd go out of business if they had to replace them all …

i really wanted to tell this story and put it on the salomon thread , but i thought it would look bad coming from me so i didnt worry , but this story is along the same subject lines so it fits with this thread , and hopefully wont get as much attention hidden in here …

regards

BERT

9

Some people are much harder on boards than others. I find if I put on a rear traction pad it really reduces the denting I would normally get. Was the board an all 4oz.? if it is, it is part of the “disposible” surfboard mentality. Get a bit more glass on the deck and add a year to it’s life. What kind of warranty can be expected? What would be reasonable? for a sanded finish shortboard, blue foam, 4oz.

10

Bert, I snapped my bullet proof epoxy/styro paddling out at Sunset, didn’t even get the first wave, boohoo. Yah, buys yah ticket, yah takes yah chances

11

It’s a difficult area and one I have given much thought to lately. I agree that with most other products you have some form of recourse in the event of a product failure. I think the problem lies with the environment in which surfboards are used. As we all know, the ocean can unleash immense power. Hence, it can and does snap boards of all construction easily. Therefore ( I know this is a diferent situation to the one you are talking about, but I’m just trying to make a point about refunds on surfboards) If you buy a board and don’t like it for what ever reason, you can jump on it, take it back and say it snapped while you were riding it this morning. Thats a believable scenario. So, because of the power of the ocean, it is possible to atribute all manner of board defects caused by misuse of the owner, to the ocean environment. If you buy a chainsaw & run over it in your car, you can’t just take it back and say “this happened while I was trimming a tree this morning” not in Australia anyway. No one would believe you.

I bought a custom 9 footer from a legendary Australian surfer & shaper 12 months ago. I ordered a strong glass job and a board that would last. I looked after the board well, always washed it after surfs, always bagged & garaged, never surfed it more than 3 times a week (often less). Two weeks ago it snapped clean in half in ordinary smallish surf. I have seen a mate snap a surftech longboard in similar circumstances (bigger surf but pretty mushy). In both cases I think the surfboard construction was OK. It is just that given the right circumstances, the ocean can snap a board easily. So retailers and manufacturers are reluctant (rightly or wrongly) to give any sort of compensation. Bert’s response to his customer was great and there should be more of it, but I can see why there isn’t.

12

thomo , i agree with that …

sometimes you just get unlucky , some boards are stronger than others tho , in my current construction my snap ration is 1/10th of what it was when i was building conventional boards …

so sometimes your customers are just in the wrong spot at the wrong time …

its more of a P.R. excersise to keep your customers happy , that particular customer i looked after was stoked , already 2 of his friends have signed up for boards , and i can guarantee he will be back in the future …

now if i did what salomon did to this other guy , i run the risk of having an angry customer losing customers for me and tarnishing a hard earned reputation …

i fixed this guys board and sold it for 650 , after i paid my repair guy and the 450 i got from the customer , i almost broke even on the whole sale price , so in reality i didnt lose financially but still got value out of positive advertizing …

you have to look at the longterm costs of having unhappy customers …

the only unhappy customers i have now are the ones who are sad about waiting so long for a board , but even that is a form of good advertizing …

you want the most positive press and the least negative press , there was one pro surfer that i made boards for quite a number of years back , i would get secondhand feedback about particular boards not being liked , better to not have this pro , then have one that would say negative things about equipment and potentially ruin your reputation to a wider audience …

thats why my teamriders pay for boards , even if it is at a reduced rate , that at least looks favourable as well , if there willing to pay …

maximise all favourable press , cut off any negative or unfavourable press … think long term , not short term profit …

regards

BERT

13

there’s just no way a hotshot grom is gonna add a 3rd layer on his deck! it would make his airs harder!! My better grom riders mangle their boards and i literally sneak circles of 4oz on areas i know they heel dent the sh#t out of!! Can’t blame any retail outlet, it’s supply and demand! The sander will ruin a 4oz glassjob if he’s being pressured into 25 min sand jobs after a laminator has done his thing correctly. They need a quality assurance guy looking at boards after sanding if anything…

14

Yes I agree with all this, but for $20 Bill Stewart Surfboards in San Clemente will guarantee your surfboard from breaking for 1 year. Nice little insurance policy for $20. Its little things like that that separate good retailers from marginal retailers. As long as your board doesn’t come in with tire tracks on it, they will honor the policy…you can tell when a board has been broken from abuse, or a quality issue.

-Jay

15

Yeah Jay, Stewart made a good PR move with that $20 thing. Unfortunately, they don’t warranty against the zillions of deep deck dents and delams for a year. I’ve have many Stewart boards in for these repairs that were less than 3 months old. My son picked up a 1 month old Colin McPhillips model that was 6/6-6 glassed and guess what happened in 2 months? I don’t mean to beat on old Bill, but how many do you think will be returned broken versus how many will be sold with the $20 guarantee? Just raise the price $20 and take it back if it breaks. Don’t try and make a statement about the quality of construction unless you’ve got the lab test data to prove it.