How many of Swaylocks contributors earn their incomes solely from shaping, glassing, fins, etc? Are you are self-employed? Im only interested in the committed and possessed- those who have chosen to persevere through both the blessings and curses of life as highly skilled artisans. Id love to hear your stories.
I financed my business originally by selling drugs, saved up enough, quit and started shaping, do some odd jobs in slow times like websites and computers other than that its all surfboards… Contact me for the movie rights es team manager www.paradoxdistribution.com www.hardinsurf.com www.ovellesurf.com http://paradoxdistribution.com
hey didnt anyone ever tell you drugs arent cool (joke, good way to start a buisness )
thats rad surflab. i guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
I was hoping for more responses! Am I correct in deducting from the (lack of) answers to my question that most of you have full-time “normal” occupations? Just a group of hobbists here?
Bianca, In truth, a lot of the people who shape and work on surfboards have other jobs to make a living. Some are lucky enough to be able to do it fulltime and survive, very,very few get rich in this profession. I myself have a full time job as a computer systems engineer and shape and repair boards at night. I started shaping boards for myself,then friends and finally selling them in a local surfshop. Even with a few of the local shops feeding me repair work and shaping what boards I can to sell I’d still end up having to work another job to feed my family. Most people here do it for the love,not the money.
“I was hoping for more responses! Am I correct in deducting from the (lack of) answers to my question that most of you have full-time “normal” occupations? Just a group of hobbists here?” There are more novice/amatuer shapers in here BUT there are many Pros as well as a few legends/long time shapers that come here to exchange information and pass on some of their knowledge. Greg Loehr, Greg Webber, Matt Biolos, Feral Dave are some of the Pros I can think of that come here. Perhaps you should edit the title of this thread and you might get more responsess.
I must disagree. If you truly do love something, then you give yourself completely to it, come what may. I understood Biancas question as, "Are you thoroughly devoted to your lifes passion as skilled artisans?" Not as, “Are you getting rich?” The highest levels of character and excellence always arise from passionate sacrifice.
if you devote your life to something,making it perfect in your eyes, then that time and devotion will pay off if you want it to. $ is part of life and could be yours with devotion…what a great word
“Im only interested in the committed and possessed- those who have chosen to persevere through both the blessings and curses of life as highly skilled artisans. Id love to hear your stories.” Money talks…
Strictly hobbyist. As long as it takes me to make a board, to make what I make at my regular job per hour would result in an expensive board. Hats off to those that persevere!
im wondering what stories you want to hear? my first reaction was to tell about this one time at band camp…, however i think you had a serious enquiry! im believe that several of the posters here are full time commited professionals. im honoured to be able to share some of thier knowledge here and hopefully pass on some too. its hard to find the time between working 12-14hr days in a dusty toxic enviroment… getting a surf in and spending some time with friends and family! not to mention having enough relaxation time to contemplate, develop and be inspired for new and improved things! ask away… ill do my best! dave http://www.feraldave.com
i started shaping because i always liked the challenge it presented. prevously i had been a photographer and it too had been a never ending challenge. i felt with shaping i could find daily challenges and use my abilitys to visulize the end product and create it with tools as i had with the camera. i was under the impression that i would get lots of time in the water surfing too! the more i did the more i realized i didnt know, so the passion grew as did the bills! so nowadays im awed at the possabilitys of what we can create, what we dont know, how our current processes are so restrictive and how much work i have to do to make a living!. i saw many companys/shapers just get every thing ghost shaped and i wanted to be different. so i promised myself that if i signed it then i must shape it! sometimes i regret that promise ( when the surf is pumping and i have many to finish) but i know i wont eventually! the biggest help i have had over the years was a computerized planer eg a machine! this saved my back and bones and gave me enought time to surf! the beauty of the machine i use is that it just like a planer only more accurate and it saves all the files to be cut again and again if it works well! i can modify anything i would just as if i was planing the blank by hand! i dont want to get into big discussions about the benifits/negatives of popped out machine shapes so… dont ask please! so hopefully that will answer some of your questions bianca! http://www.feraldave.com
initially I was tempted to write of some Fantastic obtuze imaginary life story…the question You have posed is autobiographical at least worthy of a volume including the death of larry felker…the people who you are talking to are for the most part those who rarely open up to anyone let alone divulging the twists and turns of the highly sophisticated procrastinatory axis of their lives … if anyone in power ever found out so much of their lives was devoted to this Zen activity their would be heck on their necks…The oppertunity to be mis quoted and be held responsible has also been historicly common…this fear looms large as well…tell me your story…read the tomes of He Bull,the Doyle ,THe Hackman, ricky Grigg the entire expeerience becomes transparent as in transparensies…Pee Wee said it best at the end of pee wee’s big adventure I dont need to watch the movie…I lived it…to get these guys to spill their life spume would take more than you wish to offer and more time than this venue allows…filling up this little square with letters into words takes as much time as doing a gloss coat or driving to the beach… exposing oneself to this small group of likeminded a teers you can skip a lot o’ explanayions an’ drop a few inside jokes and asides whereas talking to an anthropologically posed loaded question from an unknown source makes it compound difficult not knowing wether these answers will become a screenplay staring Alen Alda’s son…a thomas wolfe chapter or an article in the Saturday Evening Post… Dora was the king because He got the Questioners to buuy fantastic dinners and fabulous bottles of wine all the while surely taking poetic licence rivaled only by Ned Buntline or Brett Harte …These diviant life styles are preserved in stealth and covert lifestyles wraped firmly about weather changes and fantastic Imaginations glued to the next possible wave…stories … stories…to hear the stories You must sit quietly arround remote camp fires and wait for the old warriors to slowly spill their truths to those whom they deem worthy. The mere posing of a question would only be effective to unlock the spew of an old rooster ready to eat lunch…on you… unless of course your captivating beauty was a factor making any man wish to talk for hours any way …oh yeah ask Lunchmeat …your friend ambrose…if you want to talk to lunch meat I have his phone number memorized…mesmerized…Mesmer was a guy!
OH YEA WHO ARE YOU ? and are your intentions honerable?.Do you normaly read one their Miranda rights… no I haven’t seen Dora …except in my reverie an he’ wearing that bitchin buckskin sport coat with the natural edge pockets…go miky your wave… by the way MCD does not stand for a clothing division and they are lucky they wernt taken to task for that …RIP Mikilos Chapin Dora may your memory be special to those who keep it alive…ambrose…just another leo
‘These diviant life styles are preserved in stealth and covert lifestyles wraped firmly about weather changes and fantastic Imaginations glued to the next possible wave…stories … stories…to hear the stories You must sit quietly arround remote camp fires and wait for the old warriors to slowly spill their truths to those whom they deem worthy.’ truth wrapped in metaphor around a paradox. ambrose, luv yer imagery!
Leo. That explains it.
I assume that Bianca was asking a fairly straight forward question.Next thing you know its a a bunch of stuff that looks as it was written in a creative writing class by a bunch of bad writers trying to impress the teacher.So how many thesarius dictionaries do you guys have of hand whilst posting this stuff?I found it humorous at first but you guys are starting repeat yourself.Maybe night course in English at the local Vo Tech school will help.