It seems like the designers who are selling out to French/Cobra/SurfDreck are former shapers who are getting on in years and perhaps sense an immediate need for a retirement fund. No problem there. French is offering an easy solution to an important personal problem. What if Grubby Clark had been paying these guys small royalities over the years for designing blanks? Rich Harbour, bless his knees, no longer wanted those cobra fangs poisoning his soul and ruining his name. And he’s very proud of the work he’s done for Clark’s 9’4"-H blank that he and Roger Hind profiled (“I am proud of many things that I have done over the past 44 years, but this is one of the best.”). If Clark had been paying these guys from the beginning we would have the pioneers being rewarded in respectable ways, Clark would not be part of the problem, and Surftech would have had to develop some other way, if at all. What happens when Clark’s gone? Is the entire US surfboard industry dependent on a small family(?) run monopoly? Rob Olliges