Generally speaking surfboards are made today exactly the way they were made in 1962. Shape the foam, cover with fiberglass and resin. There’s new epoxies, better resins (arguable), more dependable glass cloth, and foreign production line mentality has replaced the garage where the Nolls and Velzys started, but again, generally speaking, boards are made the same. When just about every item we use in life has been reinvented or just invented, our world has become remarkably advanced over the past 42 years.
So why has the surfboard remained relatively unchanged? Will boards be built any differently ten years from today? Hollow boards, injected plastics, what’s coming next? Are we where we are because it has remained a relatively small ma and pa cottage type industry until recent years? Should it change? Are there more shapers, better shapers today? Are most shapers making a decent living at it?
This is the thread (so to speak) with which we’re all bound here on swaylocks. At the risk of this going into just another Surftech Asian thing vs custom crafting conversation, looking at the big picture…What are your thoughts as to where the business of shaping boards is going and why?