I statistic I read a while back that just popped back into my head today, was that before Clark foam shut down, they were producing up to 200,000 to 250,000 blanks per year capturing up to 90% of the foam blank market in the US in Clarks hey day?
With a population of around 300 million in US this could be taken as one new surfboard being bought per approximately every 1000 people? One? Per thousand? This being the case it almost scares me just how small the surfboard industry could be?
It’s almost feels like the industry that never was. Would you have to be one of the dumbest people in the world to try and make a start now towards becoming a surfboard manufacturer someday? The things you ponder sometimes…
Life itself has changed, the speed and $ consumption of just living a modern life is so high that a job/business needs to provide more. More for the owner, more for the staff, more $$ for the government. More more more !!!
Making surfboards used to be steeped in the counter culture and layers of mystique and hedonism but now its a global ratrace. Its all about the $$. So based on marketability surfboards arent the way to prosperity but if you must make a surfcraft, bodyboards have a greater number of potential customers.
How you surfboard guys keep your heads above water is amazing!
I've made 4 or 5 boards. 1 was fucking magic, another is pretty good, but the rest were not too good. So, i will always be a board buyer. Not often, but shit, if i had the cash, i'd buy a Dick Van Straalen twin keel fish, or a Jim Banks fish, or a MR puffer fish, or a Mick Carabine log, or a ........ you get the point !!
I would buy boards if I could, would love a yorky, would love to get one from a mate of mine, but alas I cant like beerfan, so im trying to make my own.
You could probably look at any labor intense product and see parallels with the surfboard industry. It seems like over the last 5-10 years more and more jobs have gone overseas. This makes a lot of people unhappy but the simple laws of economics have forced this issue.
There’s still something unique about the flow and curves of a quality handshaped board. My wife thnks I’m goofy (she’s probably right) but I love looking at the lines of a nice board.
My name is Lance, and I am a boardaholic. My addiction to custom surfboards is intense, and frankly, I have been struggling with it for almost 5 decades.
But I’m staying strong, rotating through my considerable current quiver depending on the conditions, logging all the water time I can, and trying my damn best not to drool over internet board porn.
I’ve now gone almost two months without ordering one, currently have 4 for sale, and I’m feeling better about where I’m at.
But maybe when a couple sell, I can order another new custom, no more, just one. Maybe like that quad moontail stubbie I saw in action this morning in the cove. Or maybe another diamond tail thruster. Or should it be a RP for that one ledgy reef…hmm…I’ll have to think very, very carefully about this, what shape, dims, rocker, foil, glass job…and…
There are currently 21 surfboards in my house. I'm sure there are people out there with far more than I'll ever have. I've never broken many boards but imagine the numbers when you factor in broken boards. Even here in my little east coast town the trash cans are often filled with broken boards after a big hurricane swell. Some friends went to NewEngland last fall to surf a ledge durring a hurricane swell and there were 8 broken boards in one day among the small crew that travelled up there. How many get broken on average per day when the North Shore is firing??? It all adds up.
I’ve been building my own for about 8 or 9 years. After my first build I was so stoked that I have not bought a board from a pro since. I can afford professional boards and I don’t save any money by building my own because I can’t stop making them. When I was buying from pro’s I would own 1 or 2 boards for summer and winter. Now I have 15 boards and am thinking about the next three I want to make. Not a pretty picture. Maybe I should go back to pro boardsand save some money. Maybe surf better, too. I’d probably start with a Jim Phillips. Mike
Wish that was the case here in PR, if I ever find a broken board in a trash can I will fix it and try to sell it for $75. Would help pay for materials for my next shape. Fix a few and I could buy some blanks. I have surfed some snapped then fixed boards that worked very well, they are good to carelessly charge sand bottom gnarly tubes and closeouts.
Who Buys Surfboards? The surfing craze is over gone are the days of people on vacation from Ohio or Arizona stopping in the shop and buying that sweet board so they to can claim status as a " Surfer"
The Economy has hit the skids. The Wannabes are posting that sweet $1000.00 Board on craigslist at $500.00 with no offers. Some Surfers look at their old trusty ride and do one more repair. Hoping for a few more rides before The board gives up the ghost,
Factories all over the Far East are turning off the lights. Warehouses filled with plastic are selling boards for cheap just to cover cost. Factories at home are now are in slow motion. Are those cob webs on your shaping rack?
Kids don't have much money so Mom and Dad buy them boards. Surfers of some skill that would like a Bro Deal. Some with better skills that expect a Bro deal. Others with long time friendships and soul get the Bro deal. Pros don't buy boards. It's a small small market filled with all degrees of talent some with the gift of gab and hype, some with a Planer and Knowledge.
In The end Board will be made and sold. A better business plan is to sell tee shirts
Who Buys Surfboards? The surfing craze is over gone are the days of people on vacation from Ohio or Arizona stopping in the shop and buying that sweet board so they to can claim status as a " Surfer"
The Economy has hit the skids. The Wannabes are posting that sweet $1000.00 Board on craigslist at $500.00 with no offers. Some Surfers look at their old trusty ride and do one more repair. Hoping for a few more rides before The board gives up the ghost,
Factories all over the Far East are turning off the lights. Warehouses filled with plastic are selling boards for cheap just to cover cost. Factories at home are now are in slow motion. Are those cob webs on your shaping rack?
Kids don't have much money so Mom and Dad buy them boards. Surfers of some skill that would like a Bro Deal. Some with better skills that expect a Bro deal. Others with long time friendships and soul get the Bro deal. Pros don't buy boards. It's a small small market filled with all degrees of talent some with the gift of gab and hype, some with a Planer and Knowledge.
In The end Board will be made and sold. A better business plan is to sell tee shirts