The Oppression Continues

I was reading back and forgot that I wanted to respond to this gem of flawed logic.

I think you are confusing income increasing for the SAME POSITION due to inflation and income increasing because people better themselves and assume DIFFERENT POSITIONS (no, not doggie style, reverse cowboy, etc).

If my income ONLY increased by 55% over the last 25 years, I'd be living in my car.

 

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You beat me to this dude. Yeah, IG for sure. And Facebook too. The weird thing is, a lot of guys/shops that have dot com websites are letting them die because they're probably getting their business through IG and FB these days.

One thing that will never die is local word of mouth, which has been around since the days of The Duke. Local shaper makes great local boards. Locals ride boards. Out-of-towners see locals rip on local shape, and wants one too. If the shaper is talented, word grows exponentially. Local shaper shapes beaucoup boards and quits laying sod.

Which is the biggest reason why shapers give free shapes to hot surfers. But that's another story.

 

Thanks, you just proved my point.

 

I feel like I'm being oppressed by reading this

 

https://www.realwatersports.com/products/lost-rad-ripper-light-speed-523
I've had my eye on this one for a while now, but I cant justify paying $1000 (shipping,tax) for any shortboart. I only payed $900 for the last car I bought so... #oppressed

 

No way I would spend that kind of money for that board. If you buy it you had better treat it like a piece of jewelry. By that I mean it only sees the light of day when you are riding it. It never gets left in the car or laying in the sun on the beach. You're either riding it or its in a board bag. If its ever dinged the session is over immediately and its fixed before being used again.

 

Take yourself out of the board market and build your own. If you can't/won't do that, you pay what you can afford. It's that simple.

 

Yep. See picture below. Cost me about $200 to shape and glass the board I'm riding. Airplane ticket to this tropical location with waves and warm clear water was $170. Boardbag fee $60 round trip for this board and a backup. Rental car was about $200 per person for 8 days. Very very nice lodging for 8 days split between two people worked out to $450 per person. Basically for not much more than the cost of that Lost you could have a board and a tropical surf trip if you play your cards right.

Granted someone who has never built a board before isn't going to be able to make a board for $200 but you get the idea.

Also, imagine if the baggage throwers had damaged your $900 board. That would hurt a lot more than a $200 board.

 

That's $500 for a surfboard and $500 for the cool MAYHEM logo

 

Those are crack prices. I cannot believe a shortboard would cost a grand.

If you really like the shape you could pirate the dims and order a "custom" from someone. Or, I have had several real winners that resulted from conversations with custom shapers. You tell them how you surf (be honest), describe what you want the board to do, then give height/weight, relay preferences, talk about the conditions you plan to use the board under (becachbreak, reef etc) then let the shaper do the magic.

 

I've charged a cool grand for a custom longboard with custom butterfly stringer, resin tint, resin pinlines, gloss and polish, etc. And without hesitation.

 

What's a "butterfly stringer"?

 

I feel like Real Water Sports enjoys huge markup for the convenience of offering a bunch of big name brands to shoppers who just can't be bothered to talk to a shaper, look at a used board, or check the racks. There are literally dozens of equivalent boards to the Rad Ripper (basically an '80s style grovel squash tail) on the racks in Delaware and Ocean City for around $550 - $650 from well known shapers...i.e. Ashton, AJW, Super, Solid, Timmy Patterson...the list goes on.

 

They are really cool! My wife has one and i can control it from my phone. Makes for some interesting Sunday brunches!

 

???

 

Many of the "winners" mentioned above were from Ashton. Jon is the man!

 

Thats why I said a grand is crazy for shortboards. I am the proud owner of two longboards that hover in the "grand" range.