Interesting Read on Popouts

pretty good article. what are some of the asian producers?

 

surftech, firewire, boardworks, & global surf industries (GSI) are the biggies. most of them have contracted w/ other brands to produce boards w/ their label on them overseas (think surftech/tuflite channel islands boards). a lot of the popular beginner/perpetual kook boards are GSI: blue, 7S, NSP, etc... what's even worse than that, in my opinion, is that some shapers will maintain a factory in their home country, but outsource the bulk of their production to one of those companies (usu. either GSI or surftech) so that they can still say their boards are domestically made (webber is a prime australian example of this, & strive surfboards of santa cruz is a good USA example).

a few of the top brands to sell out to surftech:

byrne
g & s
HIC
JC
mark richards
mickey munoz
pearson arrow
robert august
rusty
stretch
t. patterson
yater
bushman
**** brewer
harbor
hawaiian pro designs (donald takayama)
hobie
jacobs
joel tudor
M10
matt kechele
mctavish
velzy
t & c
wayne lynch
xanadu

 

wow, i had no idea there were that many. it's terrible, but the shaper's primary goal is to stay in business - so you have to understand to an extent.

how did you know all of this? you run a shop?

 

It's amazing how many surfers do NOT know this. I walked into Faria's on LBI one day and the board guy started talking to me about Firewires. I said, 'It's a same they are made in Asia". He proceeded to tell me that they were made in San Diego (or he at least claimed that was what the rep told him). It's actually written on the damn board "made in Indonesia" and he's trying to tell me it's made in San Diego.

Support surfer labor. There are plenty of US surfers who are willing to take little pay in exchange to lead the surfing life they desire and put their heart into build beautiful boards.

 

that was just surftech- 1 company. GSI & boardworks have countless more. firewire has a collaboration w/ ...lost, arbor, & a few others. they even attempted a collaboration w/ hawaii's greg griffen. tho their r & d is done in san diego & australia, the bulk of the manufacturing is done in thailand & indo. they're nothing more than high-end popouts.

i do work in a shop, but you can find all this info on their websites...just google "surftech" or the like...it'll come right up.

 

I couldn't compete. I only do about 25 boards a year now. Buy local or at least American. Not only surfboards. Everything you buy. It is the downfall of America. Wake up.

 

your boards are gorgeous pieces of functional art, jim. glad to hear that you're still semi at it.
the backyard board builder will never go away...the big companies may produce mass quantities for the average consumer, but it's the little guys who drive design progression & experiment w/ different plan shapes, foils, & fin set ups. not one single large-scale board manufacturer has ever delivered a brand-new concept to surfboard design. the little guy will never go away.

 

Shapers shouldn't be willing to be paid crap for the work they put into a board. It's that mentality that leads shapers to sign with GSI, Surftech, and Boardworks. They need a source of income to supplement their meager wages and to support them when they want to retire.

 

Hopefully in the winter you can make me a cpl

A keel fin fish and the longboard we talked about.

 

it's tough for ppl to shell out 5-600 for boards though, especially when you know ppl that are getting hooked up for 2-300...

 

So is challanger, Bear, canyon,

Jacobs isnt a pop out brand . I cant belive Tudors stuff is very disapointing but his Kook box stuff is pretty sweet from what I see

 

I feel you get what you pay for. you Buy a 500 dollar Challanger Pop out and are unhappy with it and you wonder why . I dont feel guilty one bit throwing down a $1000 to $2500 on a custom longboard or 700 on a custom Shortboard

But dont get me wrong Having a hook up with a shaper is pretty sweet and eaiser on the wallet.

 

it takes many boards, conversations, & likely years of NOT getting hooked up to get hooked up. the guys paying $200-$300 are prob. lower-level team riders. the cheapest board i've gotten in the last 5 years (since clark foam closed) was $400. but i generally get tints, gloss & polish, etc...on my boards. that all costs more, so my boards tend to run in the $450-$550 range. but they'd prob. go for $600-$700 on the racks at the shop.
like matt said, you get what you pay for. i would still go w/ primarily custom-made boards, even if i didn't get a bit of a deal. it's worth the money to have well made boards that double as functional artwork.
& honestly, as a shop employee, there's nothing worse than dealing w/ a customer who feels entitled to get a "bro deal" on various things. i scream inside every time someone asks if i can throw a trac pad or leash in for free if they buy a board or if i can knock $100 off the price. you either need/want the board or you don't & you can either pay retail for it, or you can't. if $100 is going to make or break you, go order a custom & avoid the (ridiculously small) retail mark up.

 

i just typed what i saw on the website. maybe the partnership fizzled out.

the kookbox boards are pretty nice, but over-priced, IMO. boutique boards, i think. i'd love to try one of the twin fins, but at nearly $1000, it can stay on the rack.

 

Chinese boards are the supreme junk. Just like their tools - they look great till you bust your knuckles open when they fail. Beware - some imported boards are conveniently failing to mark somewhere on the board its origin. Some of the GSI & Surf Tech boards are well made if you like epoxy. Support your local shapers or someday imports may be your only option.

 

Every single board I have ever owned and had built for me has been Made in the USA.

 

Ditto. And to add to that, if more people had the DIY ethic, they'd be building their own boards, and adding some understanding and appreciation of the craft to the equation. But that's a whole different level of anticonsumerism, that sort of seemed to die out along with the coolness the Sex Pistols and places like deviantArt.

 

yeah definitely. I hate being told "how to surf" by a 12 year old on an Al Merrick that his parents bought for him...