So, while on the subject of surf
forecasters. Today was the arrival of a
hurricane swell. The forecast was for good size surf. Though it’s Sunday and I
usually don’t surf the weekends I decided to go down early and get in on this
swell.
When I got out of bed and looked
at what the buoys said, surprisingly they read 2 to 3.3 foot. Which isn’t much… ok it was 5am . Maybe the swell just isn’t registering yet.
After going down to the beach and seeing that there really wasn’t much I came
home. I would’ve been better off
sleeping in. Sometimes the forecast is off…. Waist high isn’t double overhead.
Anyway, you know what the
difference is between the guys that make a lot of surfboards and the guys that
don’t make a lot of surfboards? It’s the
time that is spent on the process.
I don’t have to make a lot of
surfboards… I have in the past but don’t now. Because I don’t have to make one
after another after another with several boards in different stages of the
process at once I can take my time on each part of the process and get a bit
more involved with the craft.
I believe In Bing Copeland’s
surfboard book he explained that during the 60’s when surfing started getting
popular one of his goals was to always have a 2 week turn around time. This
meant that when someone ordered a board it would be finished in 2 weeks. So on
any given day if 4 orders came in those 4 boards would be finished in 2 weeks
from that day. So what happens when 5 orders come in the next day and 8 come in
the day after that? Suddenly you have to make a lot of boards in a short amount
of time.
Hiring more help so that each
stage of the process is done by one person is what happens. Then making
surfboards becomes a production thing instead of a crafting thing. Which is
fine, that’s what happens to successful businesses, work hard turning over product.
This week while working on one of
my orders I got to thinking about how much time I spend fussing with some of
the details of making a surfboard and how there would be no way I could have
done that in the production environment. I smiled and said to myself ‘yeah and
I’m having fun doing what I’m doing now’.
Working in production is hard
work, and I liked it. Other wise I would have done something else. But taking
my time and enjoying the process is just more enjoyable.
D.R.
