Hell yeah arkgee. Good on you for telling it like it is for shapers, people get blinded by marketing and stuff.. guess some people don't realise the value in a relationship with a shaper.

However One bonus of large brands with many boards is I can go into a large surfshop, with Ci JS etc and have a look around find something i like the look of, most local guys just dont have the room or $$ to do this. For me it's good to get a bit of a visual idea of the board I want.

but then id always go and talk to a craftsman about getting it made and altered to suit me

We need to have a surf together Damo and do swapsies, I've ridden several of his boards and just can't get my head around them, the pivot point is just so forward. You up for a drive on Saturday? Or better still a sickie on Friday? Either is gonna be good.

Yeah I'd love to take one for a burl, especially one built for that wave. I reckon it'd be the ducks nuts for the beachies I normally surf. What dims did you go?
The main reason I surf Daves boards is the flex you get out of a compsand. It's like a compound bow, load 'em up and they just fire out of turns.

i find the issue so balck and white.

why walk into a shop, that 90% of the time the guy hasn't even surfed before, and get told some bull**** story about how this board will change your life.
Biggest change is your bank balance.

On the other side you can walk into a local shapers workshop, talk one on one about how you surf, where you surf and what you want your board to do and walk out with a board that feels like you've been riding it for years.

and then you can return back there and get honest feedback and get another board made to complement your already wicked quiver.

pretty easy really isn't it??
WTF..

well spotted Doggie by local I meant OZ, however, I would like to try West Oz for my next one, maybe you might like to have a crack at it

where's the commitment Doggie, a true shaper would remove all items from their bedroom, shape in there and sleep on the ground on an old mattress they found on the verge this is why the big brand OS types are winning the war.

bakesy said...

where's the commitment Doggie, a true shaper would remove all items from their bedroom, shape in there and sleep on the ground on an old mattress they found on the verge this is why the big brand OS types are winning the war.

Done, send me the specs

I have worked with and for Aussie and International shapers for my whole career. In the past year I have volunteered countless hours of my own time to working with ASCIA developing a formal trade qualification for Aussie shapers to help fill the labour and skills shortages that are quite simply starving the industry of innovation and seeing boards like Firewire, Future flex and Ultra flex take hold of the market in a big way because of it.

I have always ridden local custom shapes and have many friends that I hold in the highest regard.

Here's the twist, a couple of months ago I was offered the career opportunity of my life so far and now I am sitting in Thailand working for the largest surfboard (and watersports) manufacturer on the planet. I have seen technology and manufacturing techniques here that are so far beyond the normal it leaves me wondering what I think anymore.

Local shapers need to run their businesses as business or let it be a glorified hobby or lifestyle choice. Focus on their customer and grow some confidence in their ability and the prices they charge. The Gold Coast has the cheapest boards on the planet, good ones as well. Great for the consumer BUT the whole business is going broke. Before you jump here, the real reason is that local shapers have undercut each other for so long and especially now with the inability to export due to high $. They can blame imports but I will tell you now, the boards from Thailand are more expensive (China is a different story) than a local board, it's why they sell very few there. Good you might say but as day after day businesses go broke and close and shapers get truck licences and head to work in the mines there was an obvious problem with the situation.

In conclusion, as doggie said. Ride what makes you happy, the board you feel comfortable buying for whatever reason your purchase decision is fulfilled so you feel stoked with parting with the money.

this is such a good thread, enjoying every post, well worth the read, better than the usual photos/exposing wa waves angle. have owned primarily local boards, only ones otherwise are a walden fish which was very good board and mc coy nugget tufflite, which is good but pretty slow. In the end I think the more honest you are with your shaper (and the better shaper they are) the better quality you will get.

Poida is that $840 for a standard PU board ex fins?

standard PU
FCS boxes
maybe that was with fins ?
i'll find out next week

I paid $600 for my last local shaped custom.

I would of happily paid $800 for it, perfect for the waves I surf. I even offered the shaper more but he said he'd rather me come back for my next boards than charge me more. And I fully intend to

Go and have a look at them Poida, handshaped and glassed by the same bloke from start to finish. I've been at him to put his prices up for a while now. The one he's finishing for me this week will be my fifth in the past year. All compsand. As far as unsustainable goes he's been going for 25 years so he can't be doing too badly.
He's got demo boards you can take for a paddle too.
No affiliation just a happy customer.

I just got these delivered 7' , 7'6" , 8' for $1950 with no fins, another good reason to get into a relationship with your local shaper, frequent flyer discounts. Considering what those extra stringers would have cost, they were a bargain.

smicko said...

Exactly Crustt, 3 beautiful boards like that for $650 each. Bargain!!

Can see why he calls himself KB Boards, what were his parents thinking

When i first met him it was spelled with a J , he had to change it to take some of the sting out of it.