Who knows about SurfTech Surfboards? We live in Cocoa Beach,Fl where is the nearest dealer that knows what they are talking about
The nearest SurfTech dealer that knows what they are talking about is somewhere between the moon and the stars. Or in the back of almost any shop laughing after every SurfTech or chinese pop-out sale. Rob Olliges ps. probably one of those threads we are supposed to ignore. Couldn’t resist.
just in case you are serious. Probably Ron Jons - or - look them up on-line. Also Bic boards. So tough you can practically hammer nails with them. I don’t know if surftech makes a soft top though. Learn on one of these, then graduate to a custom board. have fun, EJ
But I’ll amend my statement to say that damn few shop salesmen know what they are talking about. do your own homework - buy what you want.
regarding the new “pop-outs” eg, surftech, boardworks , etc. it seems that a LOT of the resistance to these boards is based on the fact they are made overseas, be it asia or europe.i wonder what the response will be to a high-tech pop-out made here in the USA?(i suppose we’ll soon find out as it will hit the market soon…)
The basis for the pop-out resistance is that they stifle innovation and could keep possible innovators out of work. Now there have been pop-outs in the past and they are usually beginners boards. Why worry about them now? Well the cheap polyester boards are putting incredible price pressure on everyone else (SurfTech doesn’t do this so much). It is however the collusion of SurfTech’s incredible marketing and the monolithic “surf media” that is scary. In the long run it will harm the so-called surf media. SurfTech is a vertical integrator. Why souldn’t they establish a holding company and purchase Primedia’s interest in -er and -ing? I’m certainly not the first one to think of this. What better way to reduce their substantial marketing cost. Hell, even Grubby Clark is worried. However, if the exchange rates between Australia/pan-Asia/and the US ever become less favorable then SurfTech’s (and also US retailer’s) profit margin’s will diminish. It’s just the variety and innovation that occured between 1967 and the late 80’s that’s missing. The waves, however, will keep coming. Rob Olliges “Only dead fish go with the tide.”
I actually have one. It’s a functional shape, doesn’t need wax and has a decent fin set up, unlike most of the other soft boards. I bought it for my daughter and tried it a couple times myself. Lately it’s been used to freeboard behind a ski boat. The downside is… 1. Instant kook status at any competitive break - you will be sized up long before you even hit the water. 2. You may be accused of being an anti-patriotic scumbag or some such thing because it’s made overseas. 3. The soft foam is prone to gouging and isn’t easy to get a decent looking repair.
I have a 5’6" softtop french fish…actually it is my 5 year old’s, but I ride it all the time. It works great in tiny shitty waves all the way up to about 8 foot faces. The soft top is a trip, I like it for the super late belly drop free fall into the pit pull into the tupe move…or a stand up drop in down the line pumping drive into a super tight radius one fin cut back. I think surf tech sucks in general and epitomizes many of the problems with the world, but i’ve had a hell of a good time on that little storm trooper of a board…it’s a french, it’s a soft top, it’s a twin fin fish, its a clone…i’m not afraid to ride something different…If there is a surf tech board with a soul that is it. In the mean time…i’ve made a soft top or 2 of my own. Live and learn. By the way, anybody know how they get that soft foam to contour to the epoxy board so well?
Rash Tops. Don’t covort with these without protection.
THe best place for SurfTech boards and a salesperson with surf knowledge is at the Longboard House in Indialantic. Great guys there and willing to answer all of your questions. I bought a McTavish Carver model and love it.
Re: SurfTech softops Rob Olliges – Tuesday, 29 July 2003, at 6:35 p.m. The basis for the pop-out resistance is that they stifle innovation and could keep possible innovators out of work. --------------------------Please, let’s get real here. The innovator’s that are still alive are the ones making their boards. Surftech is still adding new models to there lineup. The fact that there sales are light years ahead of Rob Olliges surfboards might be a little thorn in your side. Well the cheap polyester boards are putting incredible price pressure on everyone else (SurfTech doesn’t do this so much). --------------------I don’t think so. Polyester board makers in the USA are the cause and effect. The market is flooded, completion is cut throat. Backyard builders have no profit margin. Those cheap Costo pieces of shit will only serve to get more kids surfing, so you guys will have new customers. It is however the collusion of Surf Tech’s incredible marketing and the monolithic “surf media” that is scary. In the long run it will harm the so-called surf media. SurfTech is a vertical integrator. Why shouldn’t they establish a holding company and purchase Primedia’s interest in -er and -ing? I’m certainly not the first one to think of this. What better way to reduce their substantial marketing cost. -----------------Don’t read er or ing , simple. Hell, even Grubby Clark is worried. All the dinosaurs are going to become extinct. . “Only dead fish go with the tide.” -------------------Innovation = evolution Surftech has moved things forward, at least
Is this one we ignore, or not? Kind of like flogging a dead horse. Or fish. Rob Olliges
Rob-O is right. Companies like Surftech have moved nothing of any core relevance forward, except corporate profits. Of course the mainstream surf media and the soft goods- accessory industries have tagged along like the parasites they are because each one represents and serves to perpetuate the same goal: status quo. This discussion may be without force unless you are old enough to have lived through the incredible changes that occurred in surfing from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s. That era was a legitimate, worldwide revolution, generated and driven forward at ground zero by a non-corporate outsider, George Greenough. A diehard, backyard builder whose brilliant surfing was many years ahead of its time. His primary concepts and designs have yet to be understood and applied by mainstream surfing. Ironically he used the means of molds, too, but for entirely different ends. The inspiration and honesty of George Greenough have always been based upon the realities of feeling and performance. It is virtually impossible for sweeping, legitimate change to arise from within a corporate entity whose profits are dependant upon mass-production and low wage labor. The primary functions of such corporate structures are diametrically opposed to the type of radical, personalized changes that characterized the shortboard revolution. Modern surfings brief history already bears clear testimony to these documented facts. It is foolish in the extreme to forget that history always repeats itself. I believe that any truly meaningful chapters in surfing (for profit or not) will continue to be written and defined by those few individuals who have chosen to sacrifice their time and money, quietly laboring in garages, shops and the outdoors. They are the tip of the arrow. Deeply inquisitive and skilled, they have literally been captured, inspired and directed by their initimate knowledge of, and passionate love for the sea. Todays dreams are tommorrow`s reality.
“…shapers must let go of their conservative natures with respect to surfboard building. Here lays the largest obsical to the introduction of this new concept/materials/designs. Perhaps if the potential of increased margins to a shaper don’t convince him, the threat of masses of offshore boards will. The only way to combat Asian domince of the surfboard industry is through taking adantage of the long supply line they must deal with. Once designs become static as they have been for more or less, the last ten years, the offshore manufacturers have the ability to manufacture en-mass and be assured that their products won’t go out of style before the get to the US or Aussie or Europe and get sold. Look at where the sailboard industry went with respect to design and manufactureing and look where it is now. It’s dead largely becuase the shapers were taken out of the deal and replaced by “designers”. The writing is on the wall and the only way for US shapers to hang on is to make design change so rapidly and so pervasive that offshore manufacturers are loath to risk huge runs of potentially outdated boards…” (Stan Pleskunas) http://www.swaylocks.com/cgi-bin/discussion/archive.cgi?review=31201