The Future of Surfboards

General Discussion
141
Quote:

I’m all for what’s going on here at sways it’s progressive, educational and enlightening

This is going to be quick and dirty post as I have to borrow a computer to put anything up here these days…those grand and glorious tech wizards at MicroSerf apparently having reduced machine maintinence to a simple “wipe the hard drive every two months”. I’ve been able to watch from the sidelines for a while though.

Surftech style board production vs. cheap price/crapquality import polyester boards: Taking Greg’s word RF is working on the whole package in some CPI manner (Continuous Process Improvement including design) that would seem to be a legitimate endeavour. Costo cheapies are nothing more than proifiteering. Saying it’s for the good of the sport by bringing in new people is sales justification BS…every time.

Improvement is of course necessary. Softboard technology is only recently being expanded after being around for 30 years. Thinning a softboard out and slapping on three fins for stability pretty much made the class of equipment toothless. Same could happen to any new technology.

Sales people vs. R&D and Manufacturing: Without a good sales guy the R&D money goes away and the phrase “Would you like fries with that?” rears it’s ugly head. Without a good product the good sales people go away. The problems begin when the sales guys determine the product features. When it works best the sales people are conduits and advocates to and for the company and customer.

Swaylock’s Magazine? Not enough interest, too much competition, too costly for a magazine. An annual “yearbook” is another story. Magazines for the most part, and not just surfing, are nearly dead at least if you are looking for actual information. Even general websites can’t compete with this type of internet forum. This is truly the cutting edge especially in surfing media, right here and right now.

There are two factors influencing the “surfing world” right now. I personally believe they go hand in hand to a large degree. One is great economic times. I can’t figure this one out. The guys in Southern California will know what I’m talking about. There just seems like an endless supply of money or credit out there. What was considered a luxury or fantasy when I was a kid is now considered a necessity. Parents never seem to say “no” to the kids. You’ve all heard the term “On Demand World”. The “kids” demand it and then get it. Entitlement out of control. Going on a trip? Order up a few boards. If you are over 45 years old you remember a world where that was science fiction.

The other is the huge influx of new surfers coupled with experienced surfers staying in. Combine the two and you have growth unseen in the history of surfing. Yes, maybe during the “Gidget” period there was a similar percentage increase, but now we are talking hard numbers. Going from 10 guys in the water and 20 on the beach to 20 in the water and 40 on the beach is just not the same as going from 20 in the water to 80 and another 100 waiting or watching.

The saturation point in many urban areas calls for a seismic mind shift. There is only a small window of time where a surfer is going to have any conceiveable chance of achieving a top 10% cutting edge of performance. Everybody else is going to be recreational (I’m throwing the “lifestylers” in there as well as I detest that term). I can promise you there should be a good 30-40% market for what we used to call stock boards in these teeming areas, for people who just don’t need and won’t tremendously benefit from custom shapes. This market can be fed Surftechs or hand shaped stock boards. If a hand shaper makes stock boards for sale he or she can maximize what otherwise would be down time. Utilizing the shaping machines further helps this…and this in turn supports the individual shaper. It can help the recreational surfers. It helps the shops because they can offer variety (r.e. Greg’s comment about 100 boards and none he would want).

Gotta go. Keep the fires burning. The future of riding waves and surfing is no longer in the hands of a few in San Clemente, Huntington, Costa Mesa, Sydney, and Mona Vale.

Nels

142

epac - thanks for the heads-up. Didn’t know about Chuck Barfoot. Guess its back to the drawing board. Anybody know if the BearPaw name is safe?

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Check for trade names here:

http://www.uspto.gov/

144

Benny,

There is a shaper named Steve( don’t know last name) from the east shore oahu. with that logo name and bear claw symbol. I haven’t seen him for 3 years now, but I had first seen that logo in 1992. My suspicion is it is not registered, but I don’t know for sure.

warmest aloha,

cp

145

Howzit cmphawaii, Actually the trade name doesn’t have to be registered, if the person has tax records and other proof that they’ve been in business prior then they can keep the name. I had a friend who owned a car rental business at the Princeville airport named rainbow rentacar and he registered the name with the state and thought every thing was fine. Well it just si happened that the rental car place at the Kanapali airport had the same name and had been using it for over 10 years before my friend. My friend spent about $15,000.00 in lawyer fees and lost the name for the reasons I said about tax records. Another little known fact about trade names is if a co on the mainland has a registered name but have never used it in Hi. you can use and register the name and the other co is out of luck. A good example is Stuart Anderson’s cattle co restaurant. All of his restaurants on the mainland are called the Black Angus but back in the late 60’s Chuck’s Steak house had a restaurant called the Black Angus and when Stuart Anderson came to open one of his places here he couldn’t use the Angus name, really made him mad but he was out of luck. That’s the reason the state says before registering a trade name you need to check the phone books for all the islands for any businesses with the name you want to register. I had a co on Maui try to register the same name as the restaurant I had here on Kauai. they called the state trade name office to see if the name was taken and were told it wasn’t, well it had been applied for but it takes the state so long to process that they didn’t realize I had submitted my registration already but it was still mired in the process. Needles to say the people on Maui got a call from me and were straightened out and had to rename their restaurant.They didn’t check the phone books like they were supposed to. Aloha,Kokua

146

hmmmmmmmm. A machine that allows one to design a custom board for a surfer with a visual medium? Do you mean no more filling out basic dimensions and waiting 2-3 month’s only to get back a board that is not what I ordered/wanted and paid 450-$575. To many variables in the process with the cost of boards rising it seems to be wiser to put some responsibility back in the consumers lap, woudn’t this create a better service for your cusomer’s? Maybe help generate more customers satisfied customers? I have often wondered why big name manufacturer’s use machines? Yeah Yeah we know the supply demand issue, but I have a hard time thinking there is no soul in there boards. What is soul? Is it a shaper using a planer relying on his sweat to best try to interperet what the surfer needs or wants? Or is it taking ones knowledge of board design foils/rockers/concaves and applying them to a tool that can help increase his productivity, help further push his already proven designs, and possibly new breakthrough’s in board design. This so called beast they call APS3000 seems to have to many positives not to consider. I’m sure there always will be a place for handshaped boards. Maybe the machine could even help drive more soul seekers to a handshaper which is a high probability as there are more and more surfers, more and more machines, less and less good handshapers. I guess if I were a great handshaper I would not worry so much, but for those that are not the end maybe near. A simple way to look at it is to look at history how would the founders of the sport view a so called beastie like the APS. Hmmmm well since they used firearms generously gifted to them by the english to unite the islands. and surfing beeing such an important part of there daily lives. if you look at the way they built boards bringing down a tree, having a priest carve it, bless it etc. How much time and effort would that take? I’m sure the Kahuna’s liked to surf as well as develop new prayer and remedies for the people instead of hacking away at a wili wili tree. They probably would view this beastie as a God. I mean God man the Hawaiians had it right surfing is about recreation/relaxing/sport. Does it matter how the frickin board is built or what it’s built out of? So I guess we can all sit around and debate this issue for ever. The reality is there will be more machines soon, there will be more surfers soon, there will be an increase in material cost soon. There will be better materials available/accepted soon and there will always be two sides of the coin. The ones who like to push the envelope are not afraid of going against the grain dedicated to innovation and improving manufacturing and design and those who will not accept change driven from fear of the unknown. I’m glad we dont surf on 14’ logs. Way to go APS…oh yeah I nevah won one spelling bee brah…so go easy.

147

I think the history of meat is a more telling tale. If oneula will allow me to tell my forefathers take on the sacredness of what is now so technologically removed from the original process, I would be forever in his debt.

First the animal was “chosen” as to the god/corporeal manifestations readiness to give-up its life force for the good of the community of fellow beings. After much ceremony, and the animal was (comfortable) in the moment he would face his transition to the great mystery of the hereafter, he would be killed by a priest or killed by a specialist (butcher) and blessed by the priest. The animal was skinned and the meat was hung up to season. Then the meat was divided up, King first, then in order of importance or favors done for the ruling family, or maybe due to the desirability of the daughters in your family. (Polynesian surfers - up till Duke)

It would then be cooked on a fire, and depending on the dental structure of your clan, you could chew the meat and get the nourishment out of the meat and grow that fluke, lucky-for-us, circus-freak brain size into the mellon shape that we are all familiar with. BUT there was a moment when the earth-friendly mellon-heads could see that they would have to give-up their leadership space in the community of man and let the albino crusader/gatherers run the show. As a nod to those historical fore-beings we still practice sleight-of-hand magic to soothe the uneasiness we feel as hairless balloon-headed evo-freaks walking heavily on the creators sun and moonlit path to the edge of creation, tripping and stumbling, trying hard not to destroy everything in our careening, sleepwalking, path. (The crusader white knight - Tom Blake)

Just a little hiccup here before the real show, but we got into the pageantry of the war channel. Dried beef that could be easily transported to the front-lines made it’s first appearance, and the fullness of your armies leather meat-pouch would be the deciding factor as the lines faced each other in battle-stance. A hungry mind is a defeated one…

(The anglo pirates, Hobie - Clark, Rogers, Foss ,Walker foams and the entire poly board industry - which was actually a tricked out version of the molded board pop-out concept, but they couldn’t make enough molds to cover every aspect of consumer choice, so would you do it for me, pretty-please? You can put this cool (Clark) laminate on your board to show your status in the kingdom)

From this point on, the schizophrenic aspect of our zeppelin brain takes over completely. But all is lost? Au contraire, enter the machine, originally conceived as a “labor” saving device, The Machine would “speed” up the manufacturing process. Ground steak formed into a just-right thickness patty that allowed a perfect cooking cycle that could even be done on a flame-kissed conveyor belt, and formed in press-mold patties separated by wax paper sheets, that could either be produced in-house or shipped by refrigerated box-car then refer-truck to the mom and pop and big name restaurants in towns far removed from the meat industries mother plant. (Custom board industry including shaping machines and software etc.)

Extruded meat!! It’s the latest thing. But the meat falls apart before it makes it to the consumers hand. Hmmm… just add some soy filler and that meat-roll squirts out, intact, and Play-doh Fun-Factory style, ready to be sliced and shipped to the franchised drive-through super-sized and fries added burger shop. (Surftech and eps blanks)

And then we’re blown out of the water by some obscure, tangentially-inspired, burger-flipper, toiling in relative obscurity who has combined the old and the new, and doles out some info so us flat-foreheaders will be able to take it all in. Ouch my brain hurts. Is my vision of the hamburger’s future right? I get my meat-loaf factory direct (Insulfoam) take it to a machine shop, rent some machining time and have that trick, three-axis router, whip out just the right rocker and outline and profile and ketchup concave into my finished shape patty (aps 3000)? Then I put some extruded hard dough sheets top and bottom with a pickle slice stringer, slather on the secret sauce (epoxy) and slide that into the vacuum, brown-and-serve, bag? (Bert’s construction method)

OK, now the part that I get lost on, and we are divided, and the innuendos and my meat-pouch is bigger than yours boasts, start to flash in front of us like pop-ups on an out-of-control windows computer. My way… Me, over here. I’ve never said that any of this is WRONG, just maybe NOT THE ONLY WAY to get from point A to B. Face it guys, Karl Pope said it straight to our faces; the machined blank is a molded board offshoot, wasn’t really meant to be there, just a fluke for all the ADD shop kids who couldn’t fit into societies well-oiled contraption. Put a planer in their hands and stick em in a small painted blue wall room. Hand-machine cutter whine replaces meditation and prayers. We knew that it would be taken away from us in the long run, we never really had it - according to oneula’s post, if you really think about it. When there is a call to arms, the army gets the goodies, not the artists! The bean counters do run the show, always have, if you can show them how you can take the “human touch” out of the process by machine head with glorified calculators controlling the process and e-mailing the profit tickers results back to the bank, you’re in, gleefully watching the future pass the cavemen by…

But I’ll let you in on the cosmic joke, something for you to think about when you are bumped out of your machine time by a big order from Bruce Jones. I’m in the backyard with good friends and when my organic, range-fed, humanely killed, (bored to death by being read a couple of threads, or posts like this, from swaylocks) hand-formed beef patty hits the grill over some hickory briquets, I’m just kicking back and watching the future pass me by.

Why does this analogy work so much better? Bert Berger - Hamburger, Hein - Heinz tomato ketchup, Miki - Mickey-D (McDonalds), Randy French - French fries (freedom fries), Jimmyfreese - Tastee-Freeze, and on and on…

ps. Can’t wait to start picking off the Surftech market step-up customers. Hmmm… thanks for the “opening” of the new frontier, ride 'em vacuum-baggers!

148

I guess I’ll be learning a new career soon, Steve Ford, ex shaper and designer!

149

I think Peter McCabe uses(used?) a bear claw symbol also.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses a machine, that’s if he still makes boards. (?)

150

I went to a duncan donut shop today and they sell bear claws. Just like that balsa board…sweeeeeeet.

warmest aloha,

cp

151

daddio!!! that was deep man , real deep …

interesting comparison …i just had to read it a couple of times , its packed with satirical funny bits …

thats brilliant, drive thru service , Berts burger and board bistro …

just like ringing for a pizza , order online , home deliver or take away , with the toppings of your choice …

the full custom sandwich/burger built just the way you like it …

or go the upgrade …

better watch the subway , the underground movement has begun , and were going after the colonel , no more feeding fatty greasy poor meals to the masses …

now its lean healthy and built to taste , better for you , better for the enviroment …

and coming to a corner near you …

regards

BERT

have a nice day …

152

Aloha Daddio

you too are right on with your comments.

But for me, debates and discussions like this in this environment other than design discussions and people helping people are becoming pointless to me… And I’ll tell you why…

Just surfed 16-20 hours over the past 2 days.

In the 2 sessions on saturday and 3 sessions on sunday I rode my 9’0 KU testing the new FCS RedTip 3D, my Surftech McCoy Nugget with the Horan Starfin, my Surftech Merrick Flyer, my Mandala Quad and my Alexander Gemini.

All the boards had good and bad points but mostly none of them were perfect or “magic” in all situations. The quad fish and gemini are just pure speed with arcing cutbacks fronthand but absolute dogs back hand. The Nugget/starfin combo refused to come down off the backhand side when placed at an angle so much that I ate it going over the falls with the lip backside on almost every attempt to bring her around which never happened with the McCoy gullwings solo sent me. The flyer although good in the pocket, refused to accelerate through the flats to make the close out sections like the fishes did unless you did the infamous microchip bunny hop dance.

My take away from all this…

Hand shaped or not there’s no real magic going on there but it’s just a users interpretation at a specific time. The more we get exposed to, try out and actually do something with, the more we learn and the more we understand in order to make better judgements in the future. Technology will get us there much faster knowledge/experience wise, to understand what we should or should be doing or how we should be doing it in the future.

The bottomline to me is why waste my valuable water time sitting in front of some cazy technologically mandated device confined within a space of bits and bites than in reality don’t do anything for me when I should be getting off my ass and getting in the water practicing my craft where auch things really matter. I suddenly realized what sl*ts we are for highbandwidth, high pixel refreshes and decent screens when I was stuck in my hotel at SFO trying to read Benny’s and Mr J’s posts on my little Sidekick cellphone just drooling trying to imagine what the pictures looked like and waiting minutes for my screens to refresh.

So I sit here waterlogged and smiling but wondering why am I not building something with these hands and then trying it out instead of typing meaningless ANSI characters into cyberspace. Definitely a reality check for me.

A. more water time = less computer/online time

B. more time building something = less computer/online time

C. more water time + more time building something = no computer time

memo to self…

throw out the computer, cable and TV and get in the shop and build something real d*mmit…

I guess I should commit to line item C until I have actually made something interesting or purdy to show ya’ll.

A Hui Hou!

153

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

154

Woah, pull over, honey… What’s that? A perfectly good vacuum pump that needs a ride into town. “Where you staying, buddy?” “I can put you up in my garage, but you’ll have to help me make some surfboards in exchange for rent…”

We seem to be of the same mind…

155

“No magic going on.” Clearly, then, one cannot expect magic from technology. The energy for it has to be found elsewhere.