Swaylocks ........ Done?

[PLJ]

… Some great characters over there for sure......guys like Trailkill, Ambrose, Shark Country, and Uncle Grumpy.

There is a long list of pro and hobbyists who made Swaylocks fun for a long time… Then when you meet them in person, either in Big Sur at the annual Swayaholics Gathering, or at various locations around the world, you realize, what characters they really are in person, the open minded-outside the box thinkers most of them are, and finally the stoke they all have sharing what they know… Swaylocks RIP…

 

[One-Off]

Shark Country is Oneula's brother. Both of them did a lot of experimental boards. Other notables were LeeD. Yes that LeeD. Chris P who used to post here a lot. Chip Fins, the Aussie fin maniac. The guy who started ProBox fin systems, Probox Larry. Blakestah, another fin guy. Huie. Mike Daniels.

.It was like the equivalent of Paris from 1880 to 1920's, a hotbed of creativity. I owe my own creations to the contributions of Bert Burger and Greg Leohr.

And Greg Griffin. My first g10 fin foiled this morning, not perfect nut I think it will get the job done. Heavy as fuc this g10 stuff though-

-

 

[Mr J]

Herb Spitzer deserves a mention too - not just his little supercharger canards, but all-around board building skills.

 

[GromsDad]

A couple of the best builds to ever appear over there.

 

[oneula]

Like everything else, money, greed, and stealing IP from abroad pretty ruined it with people skimming the tech and ideas to make money. The core comp-sand group splintered off to form a private members-only forum in the late 2000's

but in its day it reminded me of the free thinking days of the early 70's

Bert(Sunova), Greg(Resin Research), Mike(libtech), Matt(Lost) and all the others pretty much created what being done in today's mass market. PlusOne and others like Jarrod, Charlie (SurfGear) and Drew(Inspired) contributed allot as did the folks in New Zealand and AU.

There was even discussions of automated shaping and glassing machines using vacuum bagging and UV tech where you could order a board anywhere in the world that would be ready when you arrived for vacation. That's kind of what's happening now for the pros these days and some high end amateurs.
Still allot of waste in the system though and allot of petro chemical abuse.

The early days of Comp-Sand was to make a board that was light and lasted a lifetime not necessary performance oriented. It became a battle of the core folks versus the skin folks

Elmers glue, electric turkey knives and belt sanders to make surfboards before the hotwire stuff surfaced.

Seems like everyone wanted to become a famous shaper and some did while most of us just toiled for friends and ourselves keeping it a hobby versus a business.

I think we proved there's no "one way" or "right way" to do anything if you are motivated

 

[PLJ]

Swaylocks also brought Roy Stewart into our consciousness…

 

[GromsDad]

Like everything else, money, greed, and stealing IP from abroad pretty ruined it with people skimming the tech and ideas to make money. The core comp-sand group splintered off to form a private members-only forum in the late 2000's

but in its day it reminded me of the free thinking days of the early 70's

Bert(Sunova), Greg(Resin Research), Mike(libtech), Matt(Lost) and all the others pretty much created what being done in today's mass market. PlusOne and others like Jarrod, Charlie (SurfGear) and Drew(Inspired) contributed allot as did the folks in New Zealand and AU.

There was even discussions of automated shaping and glassing machines using vacuum bagging and UV tech where you could order a board anywhere in the world that would be ready when you arrived for vacation. That's kind of what's happening now for the pros these days and some high end amateurs.
Still allot of waste in the system though and allot of petro chemical abuse.

The early days of Comp-Sand was to make a board that was light and lasted a lifetime not necessary performance oriented. It became a battle of the core folks versus the skin folks

Elmers glue, electric turkey knives and belt sanders to make surfboards before the hotwire stuff surfaced.

Seems like everyone wanted to become a famous shaper and some did while most of us just toiled for friends and ourselves keeping it a hobby versus a business.

I think we proved there's no "one way" or "right way" to do anything if you are motivated

Well said. I lurked for a few years and then joined the site about 15 years ago. The first few years around when Clark imploded were unbelievable the amount of information being shared.......and ultimately poached.

 

[surfwhere]

Poached?

 

[tenover]

Just logged into Swaylocks and saw this pinned thread.

Today, I have locked up the forums so no new posts or replies can be added.
Over the next week or so, I'll be pulling down a static version of the site, specifically all the forum posts & the board archive. Once that's complete, I'll cut site over to that static site so it will be accessable should anybody want or need to access it. This static site will be very inexpensive for me to run.
Once the site is cut over, all other login based items will no longer be accessible. This means Private messages. If you have any PMs or pages you want to keep a record of, you should pull that down now.
I want to thank everyone who posted their thoughts in the "What does Swaylock's need" thread. That thread gave me a lot to mull over, but in the end, this feels like the correct path forward for me and Swaylock's.
Depending on how I'm feeling next week, I may fire up a Patreon to create a newer less expensive version of Swaylock's in the months ahead.
Take care and enjoy,
Mike
like
0

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yes, this site is being shut down...and yes, I'm going to deploy a static archive of the forums and board archive 1999-2022. Hopefully I'll have that cut over done by end of week.
Once that's done, I'm going to start work on a new forum. The new forum will less costly to operate and easier to add features to. In addition, the new forum will be accessed via paid subscription. The price will be reasonable and yes, this will likely change the complexion of Swaylock's. But honestly, after running this thing for 23 years and giving all of this a ton of thought, I've decided the benefits of such a set up will far outweigh the drawbacks including:

• Reliable income - predictable revenue means the site can be maintained and improved.
• Loyalty - Fans of Swaylock's want to support it. This gives them a way.
• Incentives - Provides a way to provide paying subscribers additional perks, like exclusive access, additional privleges, an exclusive newsletter, merch and more.
• Establishes authority & professionalism - A subscriber only modality illustrates industry presence.

As far as timeline and roll out, there's still a lot of TBD. Some things I do know:

1. I'll have a newsletter signup on the site should you want to stay in formed about progress with the new Swaylock's.
2. I'll have some sort of Patreon if you want to support the new Swaylock's financially. Whether as a one time contribution or as an ongoing patron/supporter, every dollar will help, so don't hold back.

That's it for now.
Enjoy,
Mike

 

[lawless]

Glad to see he's archiving a lot of Swaylocks old threads. There's such a wealth of knowledge there.

So many good guys too if you hit them up via DM.

Good to see some of the old names here. Haven't logged in here in years and figured I'd check it out now that Swaylocks seem to be archived.

 

[Bman76]

There were also a lot of crazies. Go read some of the McCoy threads...I hope they archive those.

 

[newschoolblue]

Having followed Sways since around 2001, I'm glad Mike is making leaving the archive intact and available. Much of the surfing world will never realize how influential Swaylocks was. I don't feel like it's an exaggeration to say Firewire owes it's existence to Swaylocks. A ridiculous amount of hard-earned knowledge and skill was disseminated over the years.

Having said that, I found myself tiring of the same worn-out discussions and started lurking in here with you weirdos for some time now . Evidently I was not the first to do so.

As I intimated in another thread: Get ready, erbb. The Sways diaspora are coming.

 

[GromsDad]

Having followed Sways since around 2001, I'm glad Mike is making leaving the archive intact and available. Much of the surfing world will never realize how influential Swaylocks was. I don't feel like it's an exaggeration to say Firewire owes it's existence to Swaylocks. A ridiculous amount of hard-earned knowledge and skill was disseminated over the years.

Having said that, I found myself tiring of the same worn-out discussions and started lurking in here with you weirdos for some time now . Evidently I was not the first to do so.

Time will tell if he can get enough financial backers via Patron or paid members for his vision to come to fruition. From its beginning until about 2015 it was a great ride.

I found Swaylocks on my second dive down the rabbit hole of board building. I first got into it from the late 80s to the late 90s and back then just sourcing materials on the East Coast was a major task and everything was trial and error. There was no Swaylocks, YouTube, FoamEZ, Greenlight or Surfsource. I learned stupid sh!t like how hardware store masking tape leaves a sticky mess in your hotcoat by fucking up a board or three. My boards back then were obvious backyard builds.

The internet and Swaylocks in particular made my second dive into board building in 2005 so much more productive to the point that this backyarder began getting fairly professional looking results. Posts by guys like Bill Barnfield revealing the keys to cutting rail bands. Guys like Kokua with great insights on glassing. Threads about printing logos, fin placement and board theory were also key. Certainly there was plenty of garbage posted on there and even more so on YouTube but if you could find the gems among the clutter it was all there to make great boards.

 

[Bayview]

received an email today about it being archived and moving to substack

see below.

all good things must come to an end. Good to see all that tribal knowledges preserved for future generations.Gold mine

Open in app or online

new newsletter, who dis?
Swaylock's newsletters are now on Substack!

SWAYLOCK OCT 27

​ ​ ​ SAVE​

Greetings Swayloholic’s old & new,
Just a quick update that I’ve moved Swaylock’s Weekly and Swaylock’s Announcements email newsletters to Substack.
(In case you didn’t know, Substack is an independent, self-publishing newsletter & blogging platform that also happens to be completely FREE. Substack also keeps an online, browsable versions of all blasts/posts and also allows readers to comment, share and all those other social things. I highly recommend checking it out if that’s something you might be interested in.)
Going forward, given that the forums are now closed, this newsletter will be the main place for updates on Swaylock’s. And to that end, I have a bunch going on that I’ll be sharing in the coming days…
If that’s something you want to follow, stay subscribed and keep yer eyes open...
In the meantime, tell your friends and enjoy!
Swaylock
Thanks for reading Swaylock's Surfboard Design Forum! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

 

[One-Off]

I got an email saying Sways closed and the discussion moved to "Discord." I signed up for Discord but a search revealed nothing for Swaylocks. Anybody got updated info?

 

[GromsDad]

I got an email saying Sways closed and the discussion moved to "Discord." I signed up for Discord but a search revealed nothing for Swaylocks. Anybody got updated info?

Works for me:

SWAYLOCKS

Since 1999, the place where shapers, enthusiasts, and surfers gather to exchange knowledge, share ideas, seek advice, and discuss surfboards.

www.swaylocks.com

 

[One-Off]

Works for me:

SWAYLOCKS

Since 1999, the place where shapers, enthusiasts, and surfers gather to exchange knowledge, share ideas, seek advice, and discuss surfboards.

www.swaylocks.com

That's the archive. There is supposedly a continuation of the live forum on Discord.

 

[GromsDad]

That's the archive. There is supposedly a continuation of the live forum on Discord.

There was talk of it being a paid thing. I haven't heard of there being anything else and I abandoned the email account I used to create my account on Sways at least a decade ago.

 

[000]

might wanna put your favorite threads on the way back machine

 

[One-Off]

There was talk of it being a paid thing. I haven't heard of there being anything else and I abandoned the email account I used to create my account on Sways at least a decade ago.

Weird. I open Sways and get the archived site. Free. Today I opened it and momentarily had the "patreon" site and said it was $5 a month. There was also an announcement about the "discord" discussion site, also $5 a month. I refreshed the previous page and got back to the free archive.

Then I googles "discord swaylocks" and found this-

Shiny & New

Swaylock's forums now on Discord!

swaylocks.substack.com