Is the hand shaped board going to die off? Does a machine blank make a better surfboard? What will surfboards be like when the generation of guys that can hand shape a surfboard get up in years enough to not work anymore and, or pass on?
These are curious questions for sure. I’ve seen this stuff talked about on a couple of the forums to some degree. No one really knows for sure how things will look in the future but it does make for conversation… good or bad.
Some guys say the machine is replacing the hand shaped board and that it does a better job anyway. But guess what? We get hand shaped boards in my shop for laminating by the best guys in the area and their boards are every bit as clean and balanced as any machined board I’ve seen.
No doubt that the face of surfboard crafting is changing. What will it look like in ten years? Will it change as much in the next ten years as it has in the last ten?
Ten years ago I was working at Hawaiian Blades. Most of the boards we did there went to Japan. Fin systems were starting to catch on but still a lot of boards had glass on fins. There were guys getting machined blanks but no where near what guys are doing now. There really wasn’t much in molded boards going on.
I would speculate that the machined blank will become a standard thing, if it hasn’t already. The cost of machining a blank will most likely be factored into the over all cost of making a board just the same as laminating it is.
Molded boards will continue to take market share but the custom board will still be around. Of course if government regulations limit or restrict the use of materials our boards are made of… but who knows if that will happen?
The thing I like about surfboards now is all the diversity. I saw long boards become completely extinct. I’ve seen the sport get so narrow that if you didn’t have what everyone else had for a surfboard you’d get laughed at. Now you can ride a standard short board, a traditional long board, a fish, a hull or what ever you want and it’s cool. Hopefully that aspect of surfing now will not change in the future.
D.R.
2 comments:
Dennis,
I always look forward to your next post. It's amazing how the sport has changed in the last few years. Who would have thought you'd see a board on the rack made in some foreign country like China or Thailand. With so many boards being made these days, I've wondered to myself, who's buying all these boards? Are there that many surfers (it is kinda crowded though eh?)? The only good I can see coming from this is that whoever wants to survive will have to do one better than the next guy. I do love having so many shapes and designs to choose from. A retro noserider, thin potato chip, 70s fish...12' SUP, they're all good. What's fun too is you can mix and match whatevers been developed throughout the history of surfboard design and make your own hybrid. Add a single/double concave to modernize and enhance a classic keel fish. Some guys have even gone back to riding replicas of ancient finless wooden boards (the alia) to get a feel for that era. With all the professional stuff and huge amounts of money involved with the sport, I hope we don't lose sight of why we started surfing in the first place. Aloha, Derek
Hi Derek, good to from you. I too think it’s a good time for surfing because of the diversity. I’m certainly more comfortable, seems I’ve always surfed and produced boards that were somewhat different, like when long boards started coming back they were pretty much all multi fin designs. I made single fin old school stuff. But now, yes, it’s all good.
D.R.
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