There was as article in the local paper here this past week about how the price of oil is affecting the surf industry. I also heard a couple short comments run on radio news about the same thing… apparently AP ran something about the price of oil affecting us surf guys.

OK I’m cynical, when Clark shut his doors that impacted the industry over night… in a big way. But the cost of oil? The cost of living? That affects everything, and it happens over time. So what… us surf guys are exempt? No, but hey that’s news.

It was just a month ago when we were told at the shop by our supplier that the price of Acetone was going up 4 bucks a pale. I said “geez that’s kind of plenty, I remember when I could get a whole pale for less than 4 bucks” His response… “ yeah, well what do you expect? You’re as old as dirt”

Reality, the cost of making a surfboard has been going up pretty steady for a number of years, like 40 years or more. Just like everything else. Right now though the cost of supplies is rising at a faster pace. But, the cost of gas is affecting everything. And because we all use gas for transportation and the price of gas has gotten so high, for those of us that make surfboards, it will be our personal cost of living that will impact the cost of a surfboard probably much more than a couple bucks for supplies… we need more money to live on so we need to charge more for our time to make a surfboard… but that’s not news.

When I went down to San Clemente in June I spent $62 on gas for the trip. The cost of taking Amtrak from Ventura to San Clemente is $32 one way. I could have gone down and back on the train and been better off. I went alone, but if I had someone else with me or I went with someone else it would have cost us half that $62 each in the car. So is that what everyone is doing, instead of driving to the beach by themselves they partner up with other guys so the cost of gas for getting to the beach to surf is shared? ’ cause it seems to me that the line up is just as crowded as ever. But hey, that’s not news either.

D.R.