hearing someone who knows what they’re talking about say “Man those rails look sweet”
so sad no one admits it
but its ego stroking super ego
trying to become something your not
but want to believe you are
if it was never about fame glory and the stroke
you’d never have to go beyond the first one
as you’d just keep tearing apart and refining “the one”
it’s the illusion
that “the lifestyle”
is more important
than it really is
look deep
think twice
then shed a tear
for all the tired masters
dying or dead
from the poverty caused
by our selfishness of ego
I’ll second that, Oneula.
Nothing gives me a boost like stepping back from a beautiful surfboard, just finished, and saying to myself, “holy crap, did I just do that?”. It is the only art I have ever created in my life that I’ve felt was worth a damn. I can’t draw a smiley face; my writing skills are better than average, but I’ll never be published; I can play a few chords, but my compositions are crap…
When I make a surfboard, however, my creative need is fulfilled (at least for a day or two), and I feel like I’m doing something that, while not unique, is rare and special. And I’m proud of it. And it is an ego boost when others, especially those who understand the processes involved, tell me that it is a good job. Catching that perfect wave for that perfect ride, knowing that I shaped the interface myself for the pure pleasure of the craft… That is fulfilling.
The surfboards that pass under my hands are the most beautiful things that I have ever created.
That’s why I do it.
Well, that and the fact that I can’t afford to buy all these boards, I can’t get a custom compsand from anywhere else, and the last time I spent $850 on the full-blown tricked-out custom shaped and glassed by others (true masters of the craft), I didn’t like riding it and it sits on my rack.
I understand your feelings about the old masters, but we garage shapers aren’t the ones killing them. For every one of us shaping in our back yard instead of buying from Chandler as he tries to make ends meet, there are a thousand other surfers out there buying CIs and Losts and Surftechs off the rack. I understand that you feel some responsibility for their plight, especially as you look them in the eye every day, but your guilt is misplaced. Surf corporations, not we garage shapers, are killing off the small-time old masters. A sense of trendiness, of needing to belong, are driving the sales of all-the-same-boards-in-every-shop. The home shaper, the hobbiest, is the antithesis of that mob mentality.
We are the underground, and we’ll keep the art alive even when there’s not a living to be made from it anymore.
Interaction with nature by means of something that came from your own mind and built with your own hands.
Pride.
I have always been the an athletic person. I’m very average at everything I do…I can play any sport and be pretty good at it…but never great. The one thing I can do is use my hands. Fix things, build things, make things…I have that ability.
Perfect example…Last night I drove my Harley into NYC to meet my cousin at a bar. He is a gym teacher in Brooklyn and coaches wrestling. He also keeps up with wrestling…training with some world class fighters/wrestlers/graplers in new york city. He was telling me a story about the past weekend. He placed 5th in the Empire State Games in New York. He placed first in about three tournaments just to get qualified. I wrestled in High School/College…did pretty well but nothing to write home about. As he was talking to me I was thinking about how jelouse I was…how athletic he was…how he has this amazing ability.
We walked outside to start up the bikes to leave…my lights wouldn’t work. After a little trouble shooting, I ripped the wirring apart…found one of the wires grounding to the frame, fixed it and we were on the road. As I was getting on the bike he says…“wow, I’m so jelouse…I wish I had the ability to do that”. We get to my house and he is telling my girlfriend how I had the bike in peices in the middle of a New York City street…how I fixed it with my sock (haha, its all I had)…how he would have been stranded for the night. It made me feel great. I relized that I do have a great talent…to problem solve/fix things…common sense (sometimes it isn’t so common).
Thats why I build…nobody will ever say…"wow, you’re an amazing surfer’…but people do compliment me on my board all the time. It feels good…Pride.
Quote:
Why?
Because of freaking Swaylock’s. I came here looking for ways to fix a ding and fix a broken board. Next thing you know I’m down at Basham’s trying to fit a 6’2C in my car. I figured it was way more fun to make a whole new board at cost than it was to fix a scraggly old board. Damn, I hate you Swaylock’s.
-Rio
Quote:
Why Do we do this ?
For more surf ?
Less expensive equipment ?
To better know the sport ?
Why do we do what…at some point regardless of age and experience the doors fall off for some people. Don’t know if they are lucky or not. In this case “surfing” is no longer boxed up with the windows shut and doors locked. Is surfing just the two hours in the water, or does the experience translate into much more? For some it’s two hours in the water and then an hour shopping for more equipment at the surf shop. For others it’s insane dribbling and rubbing hands up and down surfboard rails, setting a board up on a table to just look at the shape, for no good reason at all in the sense of conventional wisdom.
A quick review of the past three years shows I not only haven’t made a standup board but haven’t really even considered doing so. I have standup boards made by people who’ve been refining their crafts for decades. I’ve made personal handboards and paipos and bellyboards. They are crude beyond belief…but I have my crude moments too. When looking at the end products, starting from materials and ending with decoration, it’s pretty obvious that what I’ve wanted just isn’t available to buy. Could I hire someone to make some of it? Certainly, but what’s the point of that if I can do it myself a lot cheaper and have all kinds of fun while at it? I could commission a bellyboard and pay for someone to experience the learning curve, and wait for weeks to get it, while it takes time away from more lucrative jobs for the shaper…but that experience for this type of equipment reduces the opportunity for investing in my own stoke and increasing my time spent enjoying the variety of surfing experience.
You can’t surf all the time…making surf equipment and/or art is probably the most productive and rewarding ancillary activity possible.
Why? Because I can.
word! sparksbrand… yes,because we can,
I work better with my hands than my brain, this time it’s only foam and dust. nothing really so mysto about shaping that some would like too get you to believe.
…I tell you that I really want to surf more…but I cant cause I have too much work and Im alone to do all the steps.
so Im and others are like a gynecologist; work with and where others make fun…
Quote:
so sad no one admits it
but its ego stroking super ego
trying to become something your not
but want to believe you are
if it was never about fame glory and the stroke
you’d never have to go beyond the first one
as you’d just keep tearing apart and refining “the one”
it’s the illusion
that “the lifestyle”
is more important
than it really is
look deep
think twice
then shed a tear
for all the tired masters
dying or dead
from the poverty caused
by our selfishness of ego
Oneula, I think that your vision is very pessimistic, especially the “trying to become something you are not but want to believe you are…”
As you probably know, kids grow up like that: watching their parents act and trying their best first to do the same, THEN to do something different from what’s been learnt.
I agree with you that we probably all, at some point or another, believed we would become the new BREWER or DIFF or whoever and that kept us going for a while. Then comes a day when (if you admit to face the truth) you realize that the goal is way out of reach and you just decide to be yourself. We all need models to copy before flying on our own.
And, yes, it’s an ego thing but what’s life about if not an ego trip? Surviving is an ego trip. Either you decide it’s worth it and try to do the best you can, or you just shoot yourself (which may be the ultimate ego trip when you think of it, but I personally chose the other one.)
And I’d rather have my kids shaping surfboards in the garage than have them do drugs or alcohol or whatever…
I’m just hopefully trying to speak for the silent minority out there too busy working
Just go talk to the guys deep in the pits…
guys with 10,000-20,000 boards done and 30-40 years of experience
and listen to what they have to say.
every dreamer perpetuates the “bro deal”
“bro deals” drive what shops will pay
what shops will pay drive what builders get for their goods
when the experienced ones complain of not getting properly compensated
they get replaced by another dreamer
and this cycling out of those who finally see the big picture is happening sooner
so everyone branches out
then they group back togethor again when they can’tmake it on there own
eventually they give up when they fiannly see the light
how many really good ex-builders are mowning lawns inorder to put food on the table and raise a family
how many new dreamers ride the ego stroke to glory only to end up another ex-builder mowing lawns
it’s a very ancient and continuously growing line of less and less knowledgeable stroked egos
now the dream has been exported offshore and everyone complains why?
when the problem is deeply rooted within the industry at home
everyone knows about it
except the dreamers
until they become part of the machine
then they complain
but the dreamers keep coming
making your own for you and your family for the joy it brings you is one thing
letting the bro deal ego stroke turn you into a dreamer is another.
somewhere the ancient art of trade apprenticeship and being a journeyman got lost when it became easy…
but that’s the power of the 'net
and the mighty dollar
cause those really profiting from it all aren’t the guys who have to make a living off of it day to day living hand to mouth.
just go look at the shapers tree
very few ever compensated for the value they brought
Quote:
I agree with you that we probably all, at some point or another, believed we would become the new BREWER or DIFF or whoever and that kept us going for a while. Then comes a day when (if you admit to face the truth) you realize that the goal is way out of reach and you just decide to be yourself. We all need models to copy before flying on our own.
Personally, I harbor no illusions about becoming a true shaper. I’m in this as a hobby. I’d like to see how I do, but I’m just dabbling. I started out fixing my own damage. As I acquired tools and skill, I started to dare to think I might take a shot at building a whole board. That’s about where I am. I know that even if I have the talent, it would take hundreds of boards to start to refine my technique and style. That’s not going to happen. I’ll make a couple for my own satisfaction, but if I want a really sweet ride, I’ll talk to and pay the pro’s. I have boards from top shapers and I love 'em. They’re great boards. They are true craftsmen who’ve earned the title the hard way. I’m happy to buy excellent boards from the experts who’ve spent their life becoming experts. The rest is for fun.
http://www.theshaperstree.com/
Some people ask “why?”… others say “why not?”
Bob ‘Ole’ Olson of Maui started shaping 1948 in California
i like to surf, and do other stuff as well. i have shaped a couple of boards-didn’t turn out too bad either.however, the boards i like to ride are difficult to shape-thus, i leave that to the ones who know how to do it.shaping a board gives one an appreciation for what a true craftsman can do and the time and skill it takes to make a board, and make it right.i think every one that surfs should buld at least one board for themselves to realize what it is all about, then thank the guy that makes their board.perhaps some day i will have to make boards for myself, but until then, i’ll leave it to the guys who have spent years doing so and enjoy each ride on what the created for my personal pleasure…
I make no judgement of other peoples reasoning, they are they and I am I.
Making a surfboard is a culmination of your design talent, your ability to transform a block of form, or a partly shaped blank into a work of art, that you have created and will give you the ultimate pleasure of riding something and enjoying something you have built.
Some guys build planes, some cars, others furniture or pottery, some paint. There is no buzz like the buzz you get when you have built your own board, get in the water the first time, catch that wave and feel it take off with you. A bought board just does not do it, whether a surftech or any other. It’s your work, you made it, probably sweated, got the scars to prove it too…plain and simple.
And then the brain gets a thinkin…what if I pushed the rocker here a bit, thinned it out a bit here, increased that concave a bit…creativity…it’s a magical thing!
My first boards were made because I couldn’t get what wanted (so I made what I needed). After that, it surprised me that most surfers DIDN’T make a few of their boards.
Now I look at it as a really fun challange; can I make one that works as well or better than the pros (not yet).
Ego? I’m sure there is a little. I felt pretty damn good about surfing some really big, challanging waves in Indo on a stick I designed, shaped and glassed just for the purpose…I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
And there you have it. It’s always that, “compensation” factor.
Though, as a wise man once said, “make your dream a reality”…
I’ve always been a “jack of all trades and master of none”, I’m good with it.
Sure, it’s gotten me into some binds, but I’d rather bring in less $ and do things myself, than work for more $ and pay someone to do them for me. Learn a lot along the way, living life.
If that makes me a dreamer, then, so be I.
Each has a destiny. I am tasked to find mine. I know this is real, so I must take care in what I choose. Finding the truth requires a foundation, for you to be rooted in truth. You see it everywhere, the order upon which things depend upon and provide support. Trees root upon the ground. The ground part of the planet. The planet floats in space, its root is the physics laws that bind it to the star.
I am still searching, not for truth for I have found that. It is a question of application of such truths for me. Perhaps it is not just the ends, but the means. And sometimes pieces in my life don’t just fit. Why would I do this, when I have studied for years in that? But they are there for a reason. Spending time in the trenches . . . depends on which trench you choose to be in or have fallen in. But things are beginning to come together for me. A saying, ‘user mileage may vary,’ but it is more like: ‘user mileage and road taken is unique to each user’.
I am tasked to find what role I play. Each person is unique, likened to a body part. The ear is no more important than the eye, nor can they be seperate, but part of a whole. A body consistent of eyes is not the whole (plus it’d look gross). Just as each individual is. My existence is held away from nothing just from a thought that comes the root and center of all. And that thought is what gives life . . .
Each action I take, everything I do is to one end. To glorify not me, but that which has created me and all the universe. So I must seek my role, seek my destiny, take my place in the great cosmic play that all life is a part of.
That’s why.