Melbourne, Florida 2/3/2006 - A new generation of surfboard builders has arrived. Last month, two well-known shapers from Satellite Beach embarked on a mission, to become the East Coast?s largest Epoxy surfboard blank manufacturer.
The Board Factory, located in Melbourne, is a full service surfboard factory that will fill a void in Brevard County. Local surfboard builders can now have their EPS blanks delivered locally to their door with no freight charges.
All blanks are cut to shapers rockers and thickness profiles producing very close-tolerance blanks. Custom Rockers are also available. Wood and PVC stringers are available.
EPS foam is not new to the industry; it has just more recently been thrown into the spotlight. The strength of epoxy is well known in the surfing industry and the materials are safer for the environment than traditional materials.
The Board Factory also offers shaping space to board builders and has a complete glassing factory, for boards that are shaped elsewhere. In addition, custom, hand shaped boards are available to the public at a wholesale to consumer price.
Logistically, it is a much smarter move for smaller companies and local shapers to buy locally. Most of these companies do not have the ability to order a crate of 800 blanks from another country.
We have a very large supply of blanks in stock now. Currently shipping anywhere in the US. Please check the website or call for more information.
$120 for a 9’0" blank!!!..that’s a little steep. how much is it after the swayloholics discount? how much more will you give me for being a starving college student who’s in debt up to his eyeballs and hasn’t paid rent in the last two months??
Rent the facility (or buy), pay employees wages and benefits (if possible ha ha), utilities etc. , design blanks for production, pay designers ( ha ha ha) buy materials in bulk, store bulk and inventory; advertise so you can sell to cheap surfboard builders.
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$120.00 - how much profit is in there?
Oh yeah, extend credit to some who can pay…I don’t think so.
Solstice - save your money and pay for the good. You will shape better, surf better, and have a good relationship w/ your suppliers.
cost me $85 from clark…i’m curious to know where the $30+ cost increase comes from. is it in the product itself (does EPS really cost that much?) or do they just have too much overhead? and even so…35%!!!
cost me $85 from clark…i’m curious to know where the $30+ cost increase comes from. is it in the product itself (does EPS really cost that much?) or do they just have too much overhead? and even so…35%!!!
cost me $85 from clark.......i'm curious to know where the $30+ cost increase comes from. is it in the product itself (does EPS really cost that much?) or do they just have too much overhead? and even so....35%!!!
no way…really?!..i’ve had my head up my ass for the past month and had absolutely no idea that clark closed their doors the day before i was going to put in an order for 16 new blanks.
just because clark is closed, doesn’t mean everyone else gets to gouge. if prices are up because the cost of producing EPS is higher, that’s cool. if they’re up because you’re a smaller company and have a higher overhead to cover per board, that’s cool. if they’re up because you’re playing off the clark panic, then that’s not too cool. i don’t know much about EPS production. i don’t know how much you pay for your facility…rent? utilities? and i don’t know how many blanks you sell each month. but as for me, personally, i’m not willing to pay a 35% increase for a blank right now, whether EPS or PU…and especially not for a foam that’s inferior to my vision of the end product i’d like to achieve.
Clark hadn’t raised prices in over 5 years even though chemicals had doubled. They had the lowest prices in the known universe for blanks at closure. Makes you think whether this was a long term plan on Clark’s part. Why else would they hold prices for so long especially when costs are going up in dramatic fashion?
Our price for EPS blanks pre closure in FL was about $55 for shortboards and we were struggling with that. After Clark closed we went to $60. I don’t think raising a price $5 or even $10, that we should have been charging all along, is gouging.
Pricing is pricing. Pay what you have to to get good material and pass it on. The market will figure all this out in time but don’t expect to pay Clark blank prices ever again. You know, in all this mess I haven’t seen anyone who I think is gouging. The entire surfboard industry should be commended for their tempered response.
howzit, greg…i wholly agree. walker ran about $10-15 more per blank than clark, which i attributed to operating on a smaller scale. i know virtually nothing of the production cost of EPS blanks in relation to PU, but i imagined that if anything they’d be lower. $60 sounds perfectly reasonable for a shortboard blank. $133 for a 9’6" before the added cost of a custom stringer sounds a little steep. if it can be attributed to a higher cost of production or operation than i previously, then it’s understandable (although no one has yet made any suggestion that this is the cause). on the other hand, if it’s because the blank producers are marking up longboard blanks because they’re confident that people will pay it post-Clark, then i’ll buy my own boat-sized chunk of EPS and cut it up on my own time.
Quote:
Solstice - save your money and pay for the good. You will shape better, surf better, and have a good relationship w/ your suppliers.
sorry, e-pac…but i’m not going to allow myself to get ripped off so that i can delude myself into thinking that the guy who did it is my friend. if a supplier doesn’t operate with clean hands, then i want no relationship at all.
for those who seem to be missing the point, my comments on this thread have been a search for someone with first-hand experience to either tell me that the cost of producing EPS is higher, or that these local EPS distributors have a higher overhead that needs to be covered by a lower sale volume. something which no one has done, and some seem to be avoiding.
i had previously been quoted $90 for a 9’0", but each side was cut from a 1’ wide block…which posed a problem because i want the blank glued up with a wedge stringer. i suppose i was expecting a similar price from someone cutting from a larger block that could accomodate a wedge stringer. needless to say, when i saw the new prices…i was a bit surprised.
I’m thinking that in light of the Clark debacle it may be time to bring my own personal foam solution to the market.
For many years while engaging in the post breakfast dump I’ve noticed that some turds float better then others…it’s just a fact! Well I’ve decided to move to the desert where rent will be cheap and I can eat tons of bran muffins, build molds for forming my superpoo blanks and offer them to the surfboard industry asap. Of course the price is going to be much much higher then clark because well my crap is worth alot. I’m thinking a longboard turd model will be around 30 bucks more then the clark version based on what I’m hearing from other goons looking to make a buck. Pretty soon I’ll be up to full “production” and I can start offering fun shape size blanks for all of you youn guys…these blanks may require extra spackeling though fyi…
Hey greg what do you think of my special poo process? will it work? can I charge 30 bucks more because I feel like it???
Interesting read. Hope you dont mind if I chime in. I’m paying $130 for PU Longboard blanks at this time and the availablilty is somewhat limited. I think it has something to do with container size and how many longboards can fit in vs shortboards. As far as the EPS blanks we used to be able to get CAD blanks from Insulfoam. We would have to order blocks at a time. The price post Clarks closure doubled on us, and 50% of the time the blanks were not exactly what we ordered (2d CAD rocker/outline drama) we also tried to save a buck and have been pulling our own for sometime and figured out we spend more time and money dinking around with Hotwires, templates, stringer material and glue. Need to inventory large blocks, hotwire each one by hand, then cut stringer and glue them up well. Takes up to much space and time. Not to mention all the contraptions we have tried to engineer to make a straight stringer split. DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA… So we finally thought hey we will spend 14k and buy a CAD hotwire machine! More money, time, space, maintenance. After heavy consideration and figuring we would make a whole 20/25 bucks a blank. we said forget it. Not to mention nobody wants to pay more for an EPS blank. All the time spent with the blanks I could have glassed some boards up. I think that $120-30 would be fair for a quality eps longboard blank. For us we will be buying moldedc EPS blanks from Marko . Sometimes paying a bit more might make life easier. Hope this info helps
oh yeah I forgot to mention the time and money it costs to deal with the waste. lots of Eps chunks laying around everywhere.
I can’t speak for theboardfactory. But for us here at Home Grown Foam,USA inc.
Our costs are a little more than Clark. Because we don’t buy our materials in as big of volumes. But we feel we have a fair price. Like for the 9’0" it’s going to be around $100.00. And we take our blanks one step further than other Eps blank makers. They are cut out and decks are domed to resemble how blanks came out at Clark. Which saves the shaper time. Time is money in a production world. And for the backyard guys it is not as intimidating as just a square block of foam with a stringer in the middle.
Here is a price list for the blanks from our website. It seems to be right in line with with the rest of the industry.
Up to 6’11$60
7’0-7’11$77
8’0-8’11$93
9’0-9’5$117
Quote"for those who seem to be missing the point, my comments on this thread have been a search for someone with first-hand experience to either tell me that the cost of producing EPS is higher, or that these local EPS distributors have a higher overhead that needs to be covered by a lower sale volume. something which no one has done, and some seem to be avoiding."
Response
The cost of production for a longboard is simply more than that of a shortboard. We do not have any additional overhead. We actually have a very large facility and very low overhead. We do use one of the highest quality foams, 75% closed cell S bead EPS Foam 2#. Basically our prices are very fair, as you can get any shortboard blank up to 6"11 for $60. The 10’ blocks are substantially more money than the shorter blocks, as well as the stringers over 8’.
I remember college. A year out of it, still broke, but got a decent car. Debating whether the vespa riding guy next door who sports a moonlight esque quiver of 20 boards made the better decision than me with my 3 quiver and a decent car. Still wondering how can I get underwater basket weaving major to get that nice job that corporate organization 140 taught: flexible schedule, tailored benefits, open door policy , motivational praise . . . but all I got was sitting with every other seagull or cow at 8:30 AM in the parking lot called the 113. Top it all off the boss man gripes about me being late but consistently strolls in an hour or so. He gives an aerial smootch at the IT director, who wears a long jacket and a short skirt. She said when she got out of college she changed her name from Kitty to Karen, and traded her Jeep for a Chrysler Le Baron. The couple used to sing musicals on how our company was the bomb, but now they are uptight and angry, ticking like a roadside bomb (company P and VP decided on a new years resolution without doing a case study). I hide out in my cubicle dreaming of perimeter . . .
I at first complained about the price of surfboards. Then I realized it wasn’t going to change. Well . . . time to make adjustments. I’m going back to school.
If you break down how the process to get a clark blank . . . nuts. Lots of stuff goes into it. You wonder how he got his low prices, and dude niya could’ve gouged like Guido. Consistent chemical mix. Proper density. Stability under stress. Exposure tests. Making a mold. Stringers. Oh wait they don’t make wood strips in the consistence and grain. Now you have to have something to mill the wood right? And the quality of wood. Knot free? For cheap? Sure. Or PVC? that falls under an abnormal size. Putting rocker in the blank? CNC machines . . .
But a) clark is gone and b) have to reinvent the wheel. But everyone’s not just simply reinventing the wheel. They’ve poured Red Bull into it and invented wings. hence the cost.
They’ve raised the prices of gas. Ok what? I’m not going to drive? Buy that setup online to make my car run off French Fry oil? Wait around until they make containment of fusion feasible? But I have to, so I pay. Oil companies have had highest profit earnings for 2005. At least the blank wasn’t gouged like that.
Thank you!!! It’s just like my motto: GOOD FAST OR CHEAP, PICK 2!!! I don’t think you could beat the eps prices here in FL!! You’re paying for a quality product built by an experienced crew. That last part is the most important…We’re building DOw blanks and I can’t even get 'em built for as cheap as what you’re talking. God forbid my company makes some money!!! WTF! Charge 30 bucks more because I feel like it??? Nah, dude, because I took out a $30,000 loan the day after “black monday” re-tooled the factory, hired some quality new help, rented new space, spent countless hours on Swaylocks remembering how I did it before I got lazy and went to clark, tracked down good product, stressed my wife out, put my boat up for sale, spent all 30G in 5 weeks, stressed myself out… Busting my ass so I can give out bro-deals, or keep prices so low I can’t make good money, or even worse do all of this so some broke college kid (just like I was 5 years ago) can get materials at pre-closure prices??? No offense meant in any of this, I just think some of you are getting pretty loose with the phrase “price gouging”. Getting paid what you’re worth isn’t gouging in any way!! I mean it’s cool to be overworked, I know I am, just DON"T BE UNDERPAID!!! Again, I’m sorry if anyone gets offended, not picking on the college boy, I did it too, I bartended, shaped boards, went to college, and tried to get some tail all at the same time!!! It’s hard. Don’t need to remind anyone in Swayland how underpriced good surfboards are and why. I build surfboards because I love it, I wouldn’t do anything else, but I’m in business because I want to retire some day…
I just read what I wrote, sounds harsh and jaded, I’m sorry solstice, not picking on you just checked the bank account balance on the way to work and had to vent a little, but I meant every word: get paid what you’re worth, and get the BEST product you can get your hands on!!! I don’t understand cutting any corners in the shop, why work so hard on b.s. material because it’s cheaper??? Use the BEST stuff, make the BEST boards you can, and pay what you have to, your customers will appreciate it.
Hope this info helps
and had to vent a little, but I meant every word: get paid what you’re worth, and get the BEST product you can get your hands on!!! I don’t understand cutting any corners in the shop, why work so hard on b.s. material because it’s cheaper??? Use the BEST stuff, make the BEST boards you can, and pay what you have to, your customers will appreciate it.