Holy cow, 17 pages?
jaysus…. I’m glad I bailed out of making boards when I still had a decent rep….
surfers and shapers are their own worst enemy. “Most” surfers all want something for nothing, and shapers are flaky, but also undercut and undermine each other all the time. Just look at how many social media “fights” there are between shapers. F that…
when i saw that I had to either sponsor (flow boards) a bunch of guys, or start flowing boards to shops and hope to get paid, instead of being respected for just (hopefully) building interesting and quality boards, I quit. Especially with all the social media stars sucking air out of the market. I know a bunch of people who did the same - in a few countries for that matter. Who needs that stress. 15 years was a good run, and I earned the respect of a few of my heroes. Seemed like a perfect time to Turn off the lights and go surf for fun only….
FW is just part of it. Other brands spending fortunes on marketing and pressure plays with shops to carry their boards or they’ll pull the soft goods….. it’s all BS.
it’s been 7 years, maybe more and I haven’t looked back. I could be wrong but surfboards will eventually get where SUP is, a race to the bottom with a few gurus still making a living.
✌out