A very good friend is going out of business. He’s been a local businessman for decades, keeping customer service the number one priority. A few years ago he had to deal with a messy resigning of his lease. After thinking long and hard (no pun intended), he worked through the details and ended up at $5.00 / square foot as the negotiated price. Now, a few years in, the price jumps to $8.00/ square foot. This puts him at the curb.
The new key word is gentrification.
Hi Guys -
I’m 15 years old and new to surfing. Depending on my grades, I might be getting a new board soon. I hope someone here can help me.
I saw a new brand made with something called “composition sandwich” technology… they are called “Firewire” and cost about $700.00.
I showed one to my mom when we were at the Surf and Sport store and she said if my grades are really good this year she might buy me one.
Then I saw one of these on eBay. With shipping and everything it’s only about $300.00.
Is there a big difference? Someone told me the Firewires (and a bunch of other “name brand” boards) are made in China anyway so… maybe I can just get "C"s on my report card and my mom will buy me the eBay board instead? She also told me they have some really cool new boards at Costco.
is that a firewire copy or a firewire do you think john
anyway back to the barn for me
keep it going fellas this is geting hillarious
the only mowing shapers around here are going to do ( will be lawns)
rising material prices
biger tax demands by govt
carbon credits
higher wages
falling retail prices
the little guys gone
the biger guys will go ofshore
the barnyarder&sways will survive
huie
is that like punting, or bustin as in air’s?" does this mean if i damnificate a sick air then i dont like the board ,i cant send it back?
what is a cm.??? their expensive!! whatever they are, they MUST be sick at that price!!!
A very good friend is going out of business. He’s been a local businessman for decades, keeping customer service the number one priority. A few years ago he had to deal with a messy resigning of his lease. After thinking long and hard (no pun intended), he worked through the details and ended up at $5.00 / square foot as the negotiated price. Now, a few years in, the price jumps to $8.00/ square foot. This puts him at the curb.
The new key word is gentrification.
$8.00 a square are warehouse rates. If your friend can’t afford that…he is not in legitimate business to begin with. I don’t see how he could have been around for decades if he can’t take a $3.00 a square increase. Thats dirt cheap.
The brothers neilsen shops closing is the end of an era. I think they got to large and imploded
A SQUARE FOOT???
hokum smokenem.
surf shop?
guys hanging out at a barn surfin makin a few
sitting in the shade in the afternoon tropo wondering if the wind will drop
somebody stoppink bye to tell a yew missed it story to rival the last one
a forlorn brother in arms telling the tale of not being able to get in the water because of an
injury or physical break down or a broken car part or the toll of doing budget toil on an old howuse.
MUSAK SO LOUD THE CLERQUE WILL NOT SEE YOU IF YOUR DESIGNER
DING REPAIR KIT IS LESS VALUABLE THAN THE THEFT ANTI DEVIZE.
air head shoop girl that looks at you screwy and looks for that guy that
dropped in on your parking place at the bowl in hopes that he knows what a skeg is.
going vertical?
subverting the loife style?
crybaby matron fornication
ditching 10 million in debt
puking new Jack city
carpet baggers ditching
out the back door
after throwing a smoke screen
about ''giving back to the community
…robin hood?
take from the suppliers and divest their corperate arses
surgically … … …
Jimmy Z has a bitchin woody
house car and the next development scheme
10 million in debt sounds like working capital
surepticiously diverted to real estate , CEO WAGES,
art investments etc.
Transparent corperate demise?
unfortunate fire sale?
next week living under a bridge at the santa ana river jetty?
dream of a surf shop?
live it boys live it.
get some surfboard rental money go shopping for food.
support your local surf shop?
ha ha ha .
I deposit all the money I get from my store.
manufacturers sell to retailers
aggressive retailers
pay 17.00 a foot
dont pay for 180 days
and when the go down the
manufacturers eat 10 million.
sign of the times.
21st century blues.
…ambrose…
walt disney was the man
that started calling mousekateers
citizens of the twentieth century.
if he only knew then what we know now
…dizknee corpx…
text message your shaping machine
on your egg pod.
My long time friends have been managing the BK store in Waianae for years. Went in earlier this year to say hi and check the boards.
No boards. I ask my friend “where’s the boards” and he says “there’s no money in boards” as he’s inventorying shorts.
My Aunties family had a couple of acres right across the street from Laniakea that I’ve been trying to buy for about 30 years. Last year she said they were finally planning on selling it. I asked my cousin what happened to the land and he says they sold it to one of the big 3, either Billabong or Quicksilver for big bucks. It was more than I could ever put together.
I won’t be seeing that retirement dream home at Lani’s, but she said I can always come stay at one of their homes in Haleiwa.
If you have other question, please contact me .
Following on from Greg Loehrs post about China changing, China has reduced it’s subsidy from 1st July 2007 for resin and plastic exports from 11% to 5%. This included surfboards. So now you might say it costs $1.50 to produce a surfboard in China instead of $1.00 which is probably not far off the mark in the case of producing boards in China.
But to a corporation this is more than likely a huge difference. Take Intel which has about a .25% markup on some of it’s products I believe. Then I’m guessing came the flood of companies who wanted out of the surfboard business to sink their money into some other third country and whatever industry is offering a quick buck at the time. Hence the flood of even cheaper Asian crap that’s around at the moment.
My point being, the industry is undergoing an evolution (duh). Kind of like the industry I was in which was print. This has changed from offset to digital. Many companies just disappeared. Funny thing was is that offset presses were replaced by cheaper digital presses which still produced nice quality and was more affordable for everyone. Hence a new industry emerged. Not one that is full of corporates and no one else. Same will apply with this industry I think.
Just have petrol prices to deal with now I think.
Surfing journalists, pretenders to the Kampion/Hynde mantle, trip heavily on Slater’s miraculous
continuation as 34 has become their new 54, and he continues his timeless mission of deep carves
through the fall line as the new rockers trampoline their guts out. Orthopedic bills to follow.
Former pros move onto the payroll, hucking product for the man, white shades and tattered new shoes,
striking poses like Daisy at the prom, big mortgage to pay. Corporate profits only up 1.3% this quarter,
market penetration down .9%, get the new “now”, and get him fast.
Tow sessions are planned like gym workouts, flight on Monday, swell on Tuesday, back in the office on Wednesday. Film
on Thursday. Trade in on the 07’ for the 08’ in progress.
Office workers paddle one oar stubbornly for hours, learning basic skills, proudly carrying their new Dominators to the waterline,
how many waves can they catch in the next hour or three, ignoring the anger churned up in their wakes as they imagine Laird.
Retro 5’10 twin fins being spit out by the machine every ten minutes, joining the growing pile on the floor, retro is the new cool, and cool always sells. 220# weekenders proudly display bitchin yellow, red and green ones, then struggle with a mushy take-off, doomed from the start.
Deeply pitted, full spread ad, you too can surf like this on one of our pop-outs.
The board in the photograph was custom shaped in Hawaii, made of PU, glassed by the best.
ssshhh…
An elder of the tribe blinks in the glare of the headlights, and then moves slowly across the road towards the secret path.
The cars whiz past at a hundred miles an hour, hundreds of yellow, red and green ones, heading for where there are
only 24 parking spaces available, but Surfline said place to be.
In 1968 a kid looks at the old longboard and at the picture in the mag, and then back at the board until he can begin to see it. With razor and pliers he skins it nude, traces lines and begins with tentative strokes of the surform.
Forty years later, hundreds just like him across the planet lay down their vision in their garage, keeping the journey and the dream alive. Pop-out’s anathema, go soul or go home.
The elder emerges from the water, refreshed, the buzz from one ride still simmering.
It’s all good.
… once again the underground or backyard builders will survive as long as they feel like it … only this time we know how to build very good surfboards! Seriously, if anyones trying to make a living at this, I feel for 'em! Especially surf shops … Stay small, do it by hand, do it for love …
Greg
called it years ago
we’re transcending into the next cycle
we’ve been thru this before
we’ll make it through this one too.
It’s a sorting out period until the next bubble.
Surfing has been living off an unsustainable bubble for some time now
without the media to maintain the illusion
the fact that we’re running out of surfable beaches in the high population areas would have surely driven more away years ago. But cool is and was the drug of choice
Soon cool maybe a WII fit version of surfing strung in with a little “Guitar Hero/Rock Band” flavor
Seems like we want to become the story or the main actor and not just an observer these days (reality TV)
no reason that brick and morter needs to still be our church of becoming
when online is taking over everything else around us.
This bulletin board/forum would not be here if the transition was happening in the first place.
10 years ago I would’ve never concieved of buying boardsjust from some keyboard stokes and possibly fake online pictures from someone like manuel or solo but today it is a no brainer. Especially when ordering a custom ends up being no different as you just end up with what you end up with with no say during the process of creation only in the beginning on a piece of preprinted paper… And sometime the boards you order online end up to be better made. Hense no different than working off a keyboard. The industry has eaten itself from within by trying to become like every other business around it versus understanding what made it different and unique. Like Ned Mcmahon once said when the surfboard and surfing becomes just another commodity then it has lost any other virtue/value it may have had that made it different than anything else.
This will both compress things such as with core players as well as expand from the openess and accessibility of the web. The middlemen are the ones in danger not the source point. Because the manufacturers will eventually just not need them anymore. It all become about distribution channels such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Costco or how high Google ranks you on a keyword search hit.
Once nice thing about commodities…
The differentiator usually becomes the attached professional and customized service when it comes to price stability
And that can only be good for this industry whihc has so sorely lacked it up to now.
Even the whole clothing oligopoly that’s controlled the whole media brainwashing is falling to the wayside by it own success with all the new non-core players entering the market to dilute it’s value even more. Soon it won’t matter if it’s a Steve and Barry pair of Laird shorts you’re wearing of a QS-bong pair because they will all have the same intrinsic value to the buyer. I can walk in and buy Da Hui surf clothes in Costco these days and Realm(Curren) labeled china boards too. Maybe one day you’ll find Surftechs, Boardworks, Bics or Southpoints in there too. Will it really matter in the lineup if you don’t know any better?
The self contained dedicated companies will survive while the entrepeneur, and speculating investors will move on to somewhere else and when their money goes so will all the infrastructure that it supports like all those in the industry living off former fame and connections. It’s been a cushy ride for most…
It’s probably mean to say but just like all the other bubbles crashing around us everyday, it probably good that this is all happening to wake us up about how foolish we’ve been acting and how naked the emperor really is.
Too bad we just never learn.
Its groundhog day over and over again.
Maybe a generation will finally wake up.
Sustainability could be a motivator for change
But then that’s the buzzword nowadays inflating the growing green bubble.
At least it has better ramifications that the today’s “get yours and get it now” thinking.
Hi PaulCannon -
I’m not sure but at that price, suspect it’s a copy. The arrowhead(?) logo looks similar but on their website, Firewire boards have the “Firewire” namebrand logo down the rails as well.
One of Bert Burger’s apparent early concerns with Asian outsourcing was the possibility of reverse engineering and copycat product. It’s probably in the archives somewhere.
hey john
thats gota be a copy cheek the pinlines (ow)
ill bet nev would not want that out in the public eye
huie
to john and huie
i was wondering if they were not factory seconds moved on through another company
but same manufacturer
anyway
they might be better qaulity?
possible if firewire using urethane for skins
how about it was just a photo he collected off the web… if you dig deeper he had one of my boards up there with the logo photoshopped of… he forgot to take of the shaped by logo and the one off handpainted spray i did on it for a mates girlfriend… and there was another board from a aussie online shop with its logos taken off too. maybe the firewire was a part of a rejected batch from the chinese manufacturer and the guy wanted to recoup some losses.