Unless goverment outlaws or taxes poly to extintion. Epoxy is not going to be the future for certain.
One good thing moulded boards do is give an exact copy of a certain board, but you cannot get variety.
Not enough people are using hand shaped epoxy like Greg and Steve Forstall.
That stuff has been around awhile and has not taken over yet. Instead, the public jumped on popouts. Why?
as far as what effect will 400,000 boards have …
you will get masses of surfers hitting the water ,
Hitting the water … yes … staying in the water not so many. Sure it gets crazy during the summer (even though the last 5 days I’ve been out at SanO I’ve had a peak to myself), but from here on out the numbers start to drop. I think a lot of people are buying boards for the image, but find out that surfing is a lot harder than it looks and give it up.
the public jumped on pop outs coz the public was given pop outs …
this has been a long standing argument of mine …
if one guy is flat out and has work for a year and retailers are still buying his boards even in the face of cheap imports …
then the next guy shuts his doors and gets a lawn mower or a job outside the industry …
wouldnt it make sense to investigate what the busy guy is doing before you closed the doors ??
the public jumped on pop outs coz they are there …
the custom epoxies require a local craftsman to build it , and to date they(other regular board builders) have rejected that path , hence an open door for the pop out to satisfy a growing market demand and interest …
regards
BERT
Bert,
The public has been given epoxy before and so far it has never taken off until the popout boom. I like the stuff on certain type boards. Forstall did me a 10’ that rides like an 8’6’', but you don’t see shops getting into it in mass. Mainly I think because they can’t get enough of them and the board makers that do thme make a living just fine on their own.
I say the future of the surfboard does not rest with the retailer at all. Surfshops are getting so big they have lost the magic feeling of being in one.
I would just as soon see the sport go back to the subculture it always was.
Sorry for the questions guys and I checked the archieves but here goes.
I am 76" tall, 210 lbs and an average mower getting better. Are these fins o.k. with these set ups???
below my shortie
below my retro fish
And my most used ride below
Peter,
If you are talking about Surftech, when you say pop out, then the answer is pretty simple. Surftech offer a much bigger margin to retailers so retailers are going to push them over their other stock. Surftech are also branded by name shapers so surfers think they are getting a “proven shape” by a world class shaper. We all know, that this is, of course, horseshit, a molded replica of a PU/PE shape won’t surf anything like the board its based on.
There’s been other thing going on as well as China and that’s the wal-mart model for retailers. Computer based supply chain management has meant chains of stores can operate very efficiantly and use their buying power to extract low prices from manufacturers. Now companies like Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Billabong have don’t want retail chains screwing lower wholesales prices out of them - so they are setting up retail chains. Those companies are also recruiting shapers and producing boards - so there’s an oppurtunity for some to keep their lifestyle and a bit of the culture going.
There’s another oppurtunity too, custom boards are a bit of a hassle for retailers but you could set up a network of retailers, custom shapers and a factory all using the same design software so surfers could walk into a shop, get on the phone to a shaper, watch over the net as he designs their board. Pay in the store and pick the board up in a couple of days. Hmm maybe someone is already doing something like that…
Today I went with a friend to meet with a local shaper to order a board (for the friend). No names, but the nor cal guys will probably figure it out. The experience today has reminded me that there is something very attractive about going to a guy’s house, sitting down at a picnic table outside his shaping “shack”, yards away from one of the state’s premier surf spots, and talking about what kind of board you want, where you surf, how much and what you are looking for in a board. Then walking into the shack and having this legendary Velzy trained shaper pull a blank off the wall and mark a template on it and stand it up against the wall and look at it. You stand there and imagine it being carved out of that blank of (in this case Walker) foam, and becomming your dream board. You trust this shaper completely, as he has been shaping over 50 years. He tells you two to three weeks and you know he’s not bullshitting you. Total for a 9’0" with 6+6 top, 6 bottom, uv poly resin with a wood tail block and a single box and fin designed by the shaper is only $635.
This is something very pure about that whole experience. And it’s nice that it doesn’t have to involve talk of a bunch of high-tech stuff and discussion of “building” a board of various layers of fancy materials.
But the post above about age demographics is an interesting one because this sort of experience may indeed be dying out. The shaper above is 67 years old for pete’s sake. Those sort of guys aren’t going to be around forever.
For the younger generations, perhaps a surfboard will indeed be a piece of high tech “sporting goods” and no longer something more like sculpted art.
Are those numbers real? How long can they make that many boards and not put a glut in the market? Yeah, a shop can get 'em cheap, but if there’s no buyers, what good is that? Will there really be 800,000 surfboards, or more, sold over the next two years to consumers? Or will the shops be stuck with them, hoping someone will buy them off the clearance rack? 200,000 is a lot of surfboards, let alone 400,000. Is there that many beginning surfers out there? I mean, how many of these imports do you see in the water being ridden by competent surfers? I could be wrong, but I think the reason many of the older brands were/are successful is that their ability to manufacture a certain number of boards doesn’t go way beyond the number of end consumers out there. It will be interesting when the latest surf craze fades to see what happens to these overseas factories.
Creeping up on the midnight hour, what’s left of a full moon in the sky, a bit of wind blowing out of the east…summer just about over now and it’s almost “beach time” again…
There is another aspect to all these visions, and that is once the “craze” in “western countries” fades a bit and the offshore factories are sitting with excess capacity they can always cut their own profit margins and flood traditional “Third World” countries with their product for a while while they retool for whatever is next. Cheap access to imported equipment will pump up the numbers of people surfing all over the world. The bright side is we can travel light and just pick up a board at the destination for not much more than it costs to ship one from home.
The dark part is that with all that potential congestion we’ll all be resorting to medication to get through the day.
"For the younger generations, perhaps a surfboard will indeed be a piece of high tech “sporting goods” and no longer something more like sculpted art. "
This is one of the truest statements made so far, Slim. As evidenced by the lack of style or art in the younger generations’ surfing.
There’s a Honda Element tv commercial currently circulating in which two guys drive around, surfing one day, mountain biking the next, kayaking, rock climbing, etc. After each endeavor they put a new sticker on the back of the Element to show that they’ve “been there and done that,” like those senior citizens who drive the country in their RV’s plastered with stickers from the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, Yosemite, et. al. The suggestion is that surfing is just another extreme sport and every one should have a board in their garage next to their kayak and mountain bike to prove that they live an exiting outdoor lifestyle.
There is no longer any mystique associated with surfing and surfers are no longer considered individuals involved with a unique and special activity. We’re lumped in with rock climbers and skateboarders and moto riders.
Bert offers as evidence of the superiority of his boards, the photo sequence of an upside down, falling off longboarder. The implication is that this is progressive surfing, only to be achieved on one of his boards. I call it an abomination. It is stunt riding (not surfing), utterly lacking in any grace or aesthetic appeal. It is the equivalent of chimpanzee riding figure eights on a bicycle, cute but not quite the same as watching Lance Armstrong ascend the switchbacks of Alpe d’Huez.
Surfers these days (and all these “extreme” sports) are so fascinated with the whole aerial thing (in which a lightweight board surely helps) but not one of them can pull off a double with the grace and style of a diver or gymnast. It’s akin to watching Olympic sprinters charge down the track wearing swim fins on their feet. Impressive that they might manage to complete the 100 meters without falling on their face but painful to watch. Surfing these days is all about making something simple and pure look choppy and difficult.
Surfing used to be special and unique. Ordering a custom board, talking to the shaper was like going inside the shaman’s tipi and trying to gain a glimpse of his wizardry. I know I’ll probably be ridiculed and labelled as an old fart, out of step, and a hopeless retro to be cast aside, but I really pity the “new school.” They’ve missed out on the whole ideal and appeal of what surfing used to be. It’s all progress, man, move ahead or step aside, they’ll say. Yeah, well, paving over the wilderness is progress too. Sure, it allows for us to drive fast in sporty cars but it also takes out the “wild” that used to be in us.
I thought nobody would pick it up. Glad you did, Mara.
What you added made me think of something else. I’m talking outloud, though mostly to myself here.
First, we could probably conduct a survey or do a research of all the shapers and break it down by age and years shaping. Thne graph it. My hypothesis would be that the average age of shapers today is around 52. And I bet that there would be a drop off in young shapers with almost no pro shapers under 35. With no trainees in custom boards the sport will need popouts. It already does. So from here to the future, who is going to shape the boards for the rapidly expanding market?
There are no trainees. Have the schools and colleges dropped the ball? I’d say so. Bu tshapers also have ot trained their replacements. Pehaps out of fear of possible competition. As for schools, they have been denying surfing for so long it has to have had a detrimental effect. Like prohibition driving whiskey production offshore or underground, schools have probably helped push surfboard production underground and offshore. By not accepting it as a viable business or technical skill or market, schools have denied undertaking the task of training a new crop of shapers for the next generation. Believe me, China did not miss the opportunity to exploit this oversight. Why did we? In fact many people don’t have the slightest clue what their purchasing of Chinese Wal Mart made goods does to the US economy. Probalby the same people driving the family SUV solo.
It’s sad that a way of life for some shapers will perhaps die with them. But on the other hand, and it may sound like a pitch, but Bert and Greg are working hard to see that there will always be custom shapers.
It stokes me to see Halcyon teaching fine points of his fin shaping technique. It stokes me to see Ben ask. Could this be a turning point? And how about Ceritos College? Perhaps we have hit rock bottom and the only way to go from here is up. Is there is a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. Or perhaps that light is the end. Know what I mean?
This thread sure sounds like rock bottom to me. Both the PU/PE and epoxy sides are running scared. And for good reasons on both sides. The common ground is a plea from them for their survival. Common ground is custom shaping. Both are arguing for custom shaping. Keep custom shaping alive. The only difference is choice of resin. If all it takes is a shift in resin technology then so be it. Both sides should unite. Here is why.
Here’s the alternative: Mass production. RF has a very good idea how to do what he is doing and he is still in the infancy stages of his business even though he is 15 years down the road from when he started. Heck the auto industry is over 100yrs old and mass production less than that, but that just signals the starting point. Sure everyone says that right now there are limited shapes to choose from. But that is shortsighted. It is a temporary situation. Like the model T. In the beginning there was one one Ford in one color black. Been to a Ford dealer lately? Thousands of combinations of models options colors etc all called FORD. And that is just one of a bunch of auto makers. IN the beginning of the US auto industry there were around 250 auto makers. Then there were three. But the US market today supports a limited though perhaps growing number of different auto manufacturers. That is if the Chinese decide to enter the fray. Then less for all. But the numbers don’t lie. Think US auto mfgers are having the same worries swaylockinas are? Right now? U betcha.
http://www.economagic.com/aama.htm
Here’s what we’re up against.
Plugs don’t die very fast and can be stored and accumulated. Their numbers can grow. So evenually RF or the Chinese will have in his/thier posession a plug for just about any combination of specs you can imagine.
And look again at the auto industry. They make molds from steel and can pop out millions of fenders with each. So RF only has to take some profits and buy some cnc machines and start aluminium mold production and he can make tens of thousands of boards with each mold. When he gets to the millions stage he will make his molds in steel. Or he can just keep making resin molds from his plugs. Scanned images of the plugs can be updated and stored indefinitely with almost no physical space required, and using Leohr’s scaling methods the plugs dimensions can be altered to new dimensions. Or perhaps he can mold molds out of recycleable materian and regrind it and use it to make a new mold for each production run. So much growth is possible with RF’s cash flow.
And he can even ask the shapers to add to the flow to add to their quiver of shapes to offset the cost of the programming and mold production. Any way you look at it, mass production is poised to win.
The skateboard industry has alredy adopted much of the auto model both in materials and technology acceptance and mass prodction. Look where it got them.
Know your adversary.
But the post above about age demographics is an interesting one because this sort of experience may indeed be dying out.
yeah its been dead for me for a long long while now…
if that pure, soulfull feeling is what your after, buy a blank(s) and some hand tools and start shaping your own…you’ll be addicted very quickly to this craft and soon realize that whole “shaper mystique” is nothing but hype…i made an excellent shape on my very first try
you seem like the perfect candidate for a soul shaper…
why haven’t you started?
in which photo is he having the most fun ???
somehow i cant say i would rate this guy as clumsy …
justin has the ability to draw an audience …
because he will do your regular styleful longboard moves , the drop knee or the hang , and then BAM a lightning fast pocket snap , or bust the tail on a vert reo , then straight into a clean arc with a soulful walk into a hang 5 or 10 , then wind up some speed and bust an air …
just like the honda add …
we want more …
i dont wanna see the same stuff i was seeing when i was 5 years old …
inspire me , excite me , show me something different …
your not going to get any of that on the boards that were ridden 30 years ago …
i really pity the old school , imagine how much more fun they could have had with decent equipment …
ok lobster , i threw that last comment in just to get a bite …
ok so maybe we dont enjoy watching or doing the same style of surfing , but we both still enjoy the waves just as equally i think …
i have a friend , a legend board builder , he is also 67 , now we both admit we are at the extreme ends of the scale when it comes to design philosify , he builds cruisers with the emphasis on glide and i build the lightest most high performance stuff i can …
one of his boards would weigh 3 of mine …
but we can talk design and surfboards for hours …
and the thing i fully agree with in the sentiments of both slims and your last posts lobster , is the concept of talking to your shaper and getting that custom made board , getting it built for you …
now both len and myself are at the high end of the market and even tho we build completly different boards , we actually share alot of the same customers …
custom , quality and built to last …
how len builds his boards is how a polyester board should be built , that works within the range of the materials , it harmonises with the limits of what urethane and polyester can offer …
so whether your getting high tech whiz bang layers pressed together or a piece of foam sanded down , your still getting a custom made board …
your still using the knowledge and craftsmanship of the guy who is building your board …
last time i spoke to len , he said i was no different to him …
he was a pioneer of his day , learning to use this new foam stuff , working out production techniques , learning about the nature of the materials and how to best apply it to create a surfboard , pinlines , glossing , etc …
he then adds your doing all the same things with different stuff for a different generation …
he says to me , i dont wanna try and do what you do , im retiring in 3 years …
this is another one of those points …
its all about custom …
if all we are doing is producing numbers of surfboards and some kid will just come along and pick it off the rack , well it might as well be an import …
if we offer a quality product with personal service , then at least weve still got something people want and a reason for them to choose our board over an import …
and thats where we need a distinction , coz if we make customs and no one can tell the difference between that and an imported rack board …
it doesnt look good …
the production houses of the past are gone …
the only thing we have left is our ability to stand out with something different …
and if surfing is progressive and changing , and styles of boards are changing and the market is going from one thing to the next and custom shapers are adapting to the next best thing …
then we have an upper hand over imports …
when was the last time the surfboard became a comodity and you could get them in a department store ???
was it mid to late sixties ???
how come since then from 70 to 90 was it so hard for a moulded board to penatrate the market ???
surfboards were changing so quick , that a board that had a plug taken from it one year ,was obselete the next …
but surfboard design and construction have stagnated to a point where status quo boards can be reproduced on mass , now whether there done in china or here , the principles are the same …
i think greg said it im not sure …
but when you have costco and walmart selling boards , it means there confident there not going to change anytime soon …
the commercial aspects of the industry want to keep the status , coz then they can load the imports into the market …
was talking with a retailer today … he said if they want a particular surftech model and there out of stock , it takes 6 to 9 months to get another , if styles changed in 9 months , someone one is holding thousands and thousands of boards that are obselete …
in the early 70s you couldnt give a longboard away …
department stores got burnt holding hundreds of boards that were out of fashion …
for the next 20 years you didnt have a chance with a moulded board , because you had a vibrant and progressive industry …
adopting new materials and techniques into custom board building is just as important as new shapes …
if we are not continually improving and stimulating the market with new concepts and designs , then we leave room for mass produced and moulded boards to have an impact …
so as much as the status quo is still fine by some , maintaining that staus quo at all costs , has been the biggest reason the industry is going under …
board builders are losing market share , coz development has stagnated and moulded boards can enter into a static enviroment …
so lobster and slim , you guys obviously have certain styles of boards you like , but it is really important to this industry that it keep progressing … coz if it doesnt constantly evolve and improve , the copy cats get a chance to make what we make but at half the price and the industry is sunk …
if things were changing so rapidly , no large scale commercial interest would have the confidence to sink millions into tooling up and producing a generic product that could be obselete before it hit the shelves …
its new its blue , o its not custom …
its light its brite its tufflite, o its not custom …
i can see completly why custom board builders arent into some technlogy and how they say that custom is where its at , i fully agree with that , but that is no reason to not improve things either …
thats where the customer is at a crossroad …
moulded technology has surpassed custom technology …
if the customer could choose custom in the latest technology and that technology went into a rapid evolutionary phase …
custom board builders 1
moulded imports 0
if designs were changing and trends occurring , no one in there right mind would throw hundreds of thousands of boards into a market place if they werent sure they could sell them …
then the only constant would be a learners board ,and they go back to being the kooks and entry level board, that moulded board always were…
ive really had to put some effort into justifying a few short statements …
but the reality is now we have cheap imports and better technology that hang over us like a guilotine , as soon as we show any signs of slackness and stagnation creeps in , down it comes …
thats why its super important the surf media feed us and other up and comings in the industry a healthy dose of vibrant change , and not attitudes that reflect the belief that there is no benifit in pursuing new designs and materials …
regards
BERT
As for schools, they have been denying surfing for so long it has to have had a detrimental effect.
Somewhere in here…we know schools aren’t in general doing a very good job actually educating people…prepping them for work maybe yeah but I notice there is a real (and to be fair needed) emphasis on prepping people to make money…like my alma mater is really big on selling “leadership training” but not everybody can be “the” leader, and I don’t get a sense that they sell the notion that there are many ways to lead beyond being the CEO or CFO…like noticing that the people studying “ethics” seem to be the most self-absorbed people on earth…makes you relax when you go into the hospital, eh? Heh heh heh…
Surfing doesn’t help itself. For a lot of us if not most of us, all ages, it seems so special we tend to think of it as something apart from the mainstream. This whole thread seems to comodify the whole notion of a surfboard…which surfboards are, of course. If surfers don’t look at surf equipment as commodities, we’ll be smoked by others who do. Widgets, baby!
I might note here that if you look at one of Greg’s posts you’ll see his location listed as being in Arizona. That rather denotes a level of commitment to an ocean related product beyond the norm, as do his and Bert’s commitment of their careers/working lives to a school of thought quite at odds with what had been conventional wisdom.
So RF only has to take some profits and buy some cnc machines and start aluminium mold production and he can make tens of thousands of boards with each mold. When he gets to the millions stage he will make his molds in steel.
As in “War Of The Worlds” we might take comfort in the notion that the simple things may kill the rampaging alien invaders. If the boards last longer, the tooling lasts “forever” in SPC terms, rock-bottom low cost boards flood every nook and cranny of the planet creating exponential beginner growth which will eventually result in the mass majority of surfers worldwide not knowing anything about the little nuggets of surf culture which created the whole thing… but rather will have been applying their own cultural whopee to the experience…well, then who gives a hoot? Sales will inevitably plateau after that scenario, every place on Earth will be crowded, daily memorial paddleouts will be tightly scheduled to minimize impact to available resources, surfboards will be lasting longer so there will be a glut of used product, “manufacturing” factories might go under…all the tooling and molds will be gathering dust for a few years until a retro phase starts again and people fondly purchase the same Surftech of their youth and feel just as good about that as one of us would about scoring a Velzy or finding our first board again at a garage sale!
And look again at the auto industry
The U.S. auto industry is is a cautionary tale…maybe ripe for comparison to standard surfboard design/construction intrangience in the face of changing environmental and safety regulations. Or maybe the Surftech style of business? Yes, the manufacturing methods have been innovative, but the design and creative part has recently been excrable. The U.S. certainly went through a lot of problems when there were market oil shortages in the 1970’s and everybody drove big, inefficient cars. Like many I was stunned to go to Europe and find out that companies like Ford made good compact fuel efficient automobiles for that market which were never available to the domestic customers. A few good shocks like that and customer loyalty goes away…why should we bend over for the sake of their corporate profits when more intelligent alternatives are available? We’re in the same situation again, with price of oil skyrocketing and turds rolling off Detroit assembly lines. Successful vehicles seem to be surprises or semi-retro designs…
What we have in the large-scale contemporary “surf industry” today seems to most rival the U.S. entertainment industry. All artistic and craft decisions are bottom-line business calls, industry journalism seems to be little more than shilling products poorly, dissent is not tolerated within or without, youth and maintaining the image of youth is the goal, prices go up as quality goes down, and this is labeled as progress.
Bert,
Regarding the photos: I see the surfer there doing nothing that I and multitudes of other surfers couldn’t do on their poopees. Coming from a shortboard background, I tend more towards the latter two photos in style anyway (much to my chagrin). Although I must say, the last shot looks kinda ugly to me; a guy struggling not to fall off on a rather dubious turn. I do prefer the first photo as far as style goes. I’ve only been riding longboards for a handful of years and I keep gravitating towards a retro style. I just think it looks smoother and more graceful. And as I’m still a longboard neophyte, there’s plenty of challenge in it for me. Many people ride longboards but few ride them well and that’s where I’m looking to progress to in my own surfing. If I wanted to slash, I’d ride my shortboards, and still do.
I will concede however, as some have stated, that the modern potato chip shortboard is very much inferior when constructed in pu/pe. With their lightweight glass jobs and super thin foils, they’re not made to last more than a few months. Eps and epoxy is a superior construction method for these boards. However, I believe the design of these boards are even more so fatally flawed. I feel the current state of modern shortboard surfing is very much stagnant and has been for some time. The current generation has been handicapped by the cloning of these crappy boards and the arm flailing, butt wiggling style of surfing they generate. I watched a pro contest on tv the other day and besides the fact that you couldn’t tell one Irons from a Malloy from a Hobgood from a, etc.,etc., etc., it was actually physically painful to watch these guys squat and pump and chop their way from one “big” move to another. There was no flow at all in between moves, and the moves themselves were all snappy, tail pivoting, back foot weighted slashes. No carves, no gouges, no buried rails (except Occy). Sunny Garcia may have big balls and all, surfing the gnarly North Shore, but he looks like a damn ape doing it.
So, as I’ve said before, I think there is too much emphasis here on construction methods and not enough on design. And for me, there’s still nothing better than a Clark blank and polyester resin to facilitate rapid and efficient design experimentation and modification.
good post lobster…sorry to interrupt here but…
funny but i feel the same wrt watching shortboard surfing…everyone seems to be doing the same stuff…its never been much of a spectator sport to begin with…im almost strickly a shortboarder and i’ll watch longb’ng too…after a while that too looks played
but here’s what i’ve realized…it feels 1,000X better to do it than to watch it…we’ve all seen massive lip bashes on videos and tv…it really doesnt do much for me but actually doing it is friggin awesome…even when its not so massive
i dont mind much others perception of how i look, how i dress, how i surf…surfing wise, the only thing that matters is how it feels to surf… for me, it just feels better on lighter higher performance equipment…
some of the best moments in surfing is when i catch and surf the wave of the year and no one is watchin’…
Yes that was a very good post//all the way up until the last paragraph.
Then it all fell apart.
Wouldn’t it have sounded better if he had said:
If you are going ot experiment with design then experimentation should be done in the materials and construction technique you are going to use for the finished product.
For example:
Since shortboard poly design is played out or rather reached it’s maximum performance, minimum weight, and minimum strength, and since epoxy shortboard design is in it’s infancy then shortboard design experimentation should be conducted in epoxy composits.
If it’s traditional longboard pu/pe design you are concentrating on, then those experiments should be conducted in pu/pe.
And if it’s lighter, stronger, more flexible longboards you wish to experiment with, then epoxy is the way to go.
That would have sounded much better. And if this was a class in surfboard composite construction materials design and technology it’s what would probably be expected if one were to pass.
just like the honda add …
we want more …
i dont wanna see the same stuff i was seeing when i was 5 years old …
inspire me , excite me , show me something different …
your not going to get any of that on the boards that were ridden 30 years ago …
i really pity the old school , imagine how much more fun they could have had with decent equipment …
ok lobster , i threw that last comment in just to get a bite …
ok so maybe we dont enjoy watching or doing the same style of surfing , but we both still enjoy the waves just as equally i think …
i have a friend , a legend board builder , he is also 67 , now we both admit we are at the extreme ends of the scale when it comes to design philosify , he builds cruisers with the emphasis on glide and i build the lightest most high performance stuff i can …
one of his boards would weigh 3 of mine …
but we can talk design and surfboards for hours …
and the thing i fully agree with in the sentiments of both slims and your last posts lobster , is the concept of talking to your shaper and getting that custom made board , getting it built for you …
now both len and myself are at the high end of the market and even tho we build completly different boards , we actually share alot of the same customers …
custom , quality and built to last …
then we have an upper hand over imports …
when was the last time the surfboard became a comodity and you could get them in a department store ???
in the early 70s you couldnt give a longboard away …
department stores got burnt holding hundreds of boards that were out of fashion …
for the next 20 years you didnt have a chance with a moulded board , because you had a vibrant and progressive industry …
regards
BERT
BErt,
I always enjoy your post.
I love the comment on old school. I love the way old longboards look and when I knew nothing else, the way they rode. I recently took out my old Lance Carson and compared to my more modern single fin longboard and it just felt slow. I can do everything on the newer longboards that I could on the LC, but the boards are much faster. I am not talking about the rockered out things that only go up and down, but a nice medium rocker modern longboard. I have nothing against people riding them. Especially old timers who never left them and still surf really good on them, but what I see alot of with the old longboard revival is kids starting on longboards, never really learning how to surf very good, but they go to the nose on every wave. Like arials, if thats all you do, you should be able to get good at it. Many of these kids are a menace, because no one teaches them basic surfing skills and respect. I can think of a couple that stand out at my beach.
I love noseriding when the wave calls for it, but I have no desire to have that as the main focus of my surfing.
Customs are the way no doubt. It’s all thats left of a magical art form.
I think the height of progress in modern surfboards was between 1979 and 1985. Other than modern longboards, I think shortboards quit progressing as unique forms. Foam kept getting shaved off to accomodate moder surfing moves, kind of like boards built only with noseriding in mind, but progression pretty much stopped.
One good thing about the retro revival is surfers are again seeing the benefit of floatation.
As for surftech and the like: I still say surfers addiction to fads and how quick they fade, will be the end of them.
Bert- The Sleeping Dragon has awakened. China will soon produce all kinds of popular surfboards with the highest quality, in greater numbers and at lower cost than anyone else in the world. It is a fool’s dream to imagine there is protection in fiddling with design, material, process variables. Change for change’s sake will not protect any surfboard builder for long.
We can count on surfers fickle behavior to keep that from happening .
It’s already happening. Most surfers are consumers. Mindlessly addicted consumers. That trumps fickle by miles.