meecrafty had a very valid point …
if you look whos advertizing in most mags these days and youll find sandwich boards are contributing heavily to paying the wages of the publishers …
for some of us seeing the sandwich , eps/epoxy thing going mainstream is a vindicating feeling , guys like greg copped 20 years of being treated like someone regarded as extreme and left of field in regard to design and construction …
yet now what greg was derided for has become mainstream construction technology , even if not everyone has caught on yet ???
what the public gets is always going to be 10 or 15 years behind the times …
in the very town that i developed my stuff , im hearing feedback from crew frothing over surftechs and i just shake my head in disbelief , because the very same tech there now riding , has been under there noses for 15 years and they wrote it off coz it wasnt mainstream , and yet 15 years on ,there riding the lowest common form of the construction they could have been on all those years ago , and custom as well …
so what does that mean …
it means the surf media have to take the safe route that pays the bills , if were seeing it in the surf media its gone mainstream …
a guy like stretch has done the hard yards in comparison to the others who have done no development yet still benifit from branding the technology …
i think surfing magazine have really done the right thing , by recognizing that the technology is indeed becoming mainstream and rather than award honours on only those that brand the tech theyve been forced to recognise those who developed it …
it would be outrageous if a shaper who merely branded a technology would be awarded before the actuall people who did the hard yards and had to put up with the crap that came with being the odd one out …
by not giving recognition to crew like stretch you would seriously erode your credibility as a surf journalist , for not knowing the real story …
the surf media do have a weighty responsability , its good to see that some take it seriously …
but like meecrafty alluded , there is commercial interests to the new technology and the surfmedia also need to recognise who will be helping them pay the bills in the future , so theres a number of realities attached to the tech becoming mainstream …
plus the only way there gonna get on the short list for a custom sandwich is be nice to the few crew who build them …
congrats Stretch , plus Greg for not backing down like so many others have over the years , when the established industry tried to apply the thumbscrews …
dirty harry said " go ahead ,make my day "…
gregs could be " go ahead ,mow my lawn "…
change was never made by those in the mainstream status quo group …
its time to let the sheep mow the lawn …
good stuff …
regards
BERT