Board buyers guide- because this is where good shapers discredit themselves. It seems all the boards are guaranteed to be “fast and loose” and “like the tube”.
Wetsuit buyers guide- After several years I actually began to find amusement in this one. Lord knows I hate trying on wetsuits- you get all hot and sticky and they don’t want to come off- you know the drill. But, if you look close enough at the pro’s faces, they each have their own distinct “Ok I am smiling, take the picture /when is this f**king thing going to be over” look. I think the only worse sponsor obligation is having to fly from CA to surf a community surf contest in 1 foot Wrightsville Beach followed by autographs in June.
Boardshorts??? Are you f***ing kidding? My unsolicited advice to the big three- Dilladong, Wacksilver, & Slocum, would be to once again produce boardshorts in pleasant solid colors such as red, black, blue, green, etc. Yes I know fashion repeats but this screeching return to zinka/Richie Collins era neon designs is not cool. Futhermore, you’re pricepoints of $45 to $50 bucks for a piece of nylon sheet, shoelace, and a strip of velcro is ridiculous. Its not my fault you spend $40 or those dollars pushing the “lifestyle” in your corny advertising. Until you meet my recommendations I will continue buying boardshorts in Kuta for $5 bucks a pop. That’s right, for $50 bucks I can buy about 10 of them so even though they don’t last as long its no drama. The next target of my ire will be the mountain bike industry- talk about an one of the most unwarranted price markups around!
Surf media BS: A mini-mal with a swallow tail is a fish. The surf industry cares. A press release is an article. There's a company called Nanbei in china that make boardies, rashvests, wetsuits etc for some of the main players in the surf industry. You can see some examples at http://www.nanbeichina.com/ When I was looking into having shorts made up, the price for some the same as the Quiksilver boardies they make was 6 US dollars a pair and they were quite happy for me to choose the country of origin I wanted sewn in... though these shorts didn't have Dobby (the house elf?) stitched into them
1. That surf 'culture' actually exists other than as a fashion statement.
2. That at your local break you will ride uncrowded waves like those they show your hero riding in some mysto fantasyland.
3. That you will become a CHICK MAGNET... and be able to surf (in those non-existant waves in #2) just like your hero if you buy his model of board, wear his brand of trunks, wear his brand of sunglasses and of course his brand of sandals.
Convincing people that a shortboard is justified most of the time on the east coast of aus. I see so much chop hopping and monkey bouncing as a result.
I was spending time point breakin down California’s southern peninsula and during the southern hemi in May, the proprietor of the surf forecasting service shows up with a brigade of pros to photo/video for his website. As the swell came in, the current pushing down the point was horrendous. If this wasn’t bad enough, mr waveslime brought jet skis out as a ferry service giving the pros rides back up the point into the line up.
to go along w/the buyers guide problem (advertorial paid for placement/plug anyone?) and of course the board short category is…the $100 boardie. Now, wait, I KNOW they will NEVER chafe me (since I’ll wear them to walk around at the beach, I guess), but the chance of me trunking it in the same short for more than a day or so is silly. Then again, I wore shorts my whole surfing life (27 or so years?) and RARELY have I had a horrible rash. Oh well, if I had my mom’s CC# for my surf camp in SDiego, maybe they’d be on the list of “necessities” for campers?
Katin does great heavy basic nylon shorts and are a bit better at covering your junk than Birdwell, but both good co’s.
also, what about the dig shit crusted bottle opener on the bottom of my flexible sandals? that sH#t"s WACK also.
also the Marketing fool (wealthy all, no doubt) who figured out that selling ANY surf product more than 10 miles from the beach was a legit thing to do…