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Legendary surfer/shaper reviews Firewire Surfboards

M

Mr J

Michael Peterson status
Aug 18, 2003
2,261
1,468
113
Regional Vic, Australia
ULUSURFER said:
CI and Pyzel don’t make their epoxy boards in Asia afaik.

Lost and pyzel are made in the same factory on the Gold Coast and TC usually does the glassing.

DHD and JS build in their own facilitiesand Asian made epoxy.

CI, sharp eye, ACSOD, and many others are made at the glass lab in tweed.

CI had boards also made in Sydney.

almost all aussie shapers do custom epoxy in australia if you ask and are willing to pay.

in USA vast majority of boards in shops are made in USA. All CI boards other than surftech are manufactured in the USA and almost all other PU/PE boards are USA made.

firewire is really a niche brand making niche shapes. Outside a few boards they are mostly alt boards that don’t seem to be seen often in the water. Firewire doesn’t undercut market pricing either.

also JS used to make boards in San Diego. At the time the quality of PU boards in USA were Crap compared to aussie boards. Aussie PU boards were lighter and stronger. Also it’s cheaper to do business in australia especially if you export. Wages for skilled craftsmen here are much higher than aus and we have much stricter osha rules. Not to mention exchange rate. It’s 30-40% cheaper to make a board in australia than here probably and they sell for the same price or more. It’s a no brainer from a business standpoint.
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I thought you would know where CI and Sharpeye were made. I had forgotten about Lost/Mayhem and Pyzel in Australia, I see them too.
 
Hazrus

Hazrus

Nep status
Sep 23, 2016
603
503
93
The CI spinetek boards are cut at Kinaroad (Tweed Heads, NNSW). I think gets his EPS "tech" cut there as well. I think TC glasses them?

The PUPE CI's are definitely cut and glassed in Sydney at Onboard, and possibly the other Onboard locations too (Byron Bae?).
 
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U

ULUSURFER

Gerry Lopez status
Jan 2, 2007
1,200
661
113
Australia
Visit site
Hazrus said:
The CI spinetek boards are cut at Kinaroad (Tweed Heads, NNSW). I think gets his EPS "tech" cut there as well. I think TC glasses them?

The PUPE CI's are definitely cut and glassed in Sydney at Onboard, and possibly the other Onboard locations too (Byron Bae?).
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Glass lab in tweed makes CI boards for sure.

TC glassing is the best PU going I think. Not sure what he does but damn durable boards
 
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ReForest

ReForest

Michael Peterson status
Oct 7, 2020
3,248
4,763
113
surfwhere said:
Not my words, copied from a review conversation about Firewire from a real surfboard legend

Firewire make cheap shitty boards in Thailand , and then put their stock on consignment in all shops world wide.....consignment, not sales.....this has ruined the surfboard commercial world as we know it!
Kelly has had the most negative affect, of any single person in History , in fucking the Shapers/surfers/designers all the way down to the future of all surfboard makers....as his shitty boards have no succession/shaper/designer future plan/career for young up and coming surfers who have a passion for design /surfboard making.
For the surfboard industry, Kelly was/is and will be the malevolent evil that brought a cottage industry to it's knees......he uses Mark Price as his hitman and buffer between him and the worlds most unsustainable surfboards, so that for a few extra $'s Kelly is richer......but there is no-one in surfing that has disrespected shaper/designers/surfboard makers than Kelly.......a parasite on surfing , yeah!!!

Will someone really ask me what I really think?

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Yes there are shapers who are doing fine as they have new , more better designs , the innovative ones, but when I talk to the Blank makers/glass shops and shapers the last 6 mths has seen sales fall off a cliff.......
The problem is Firewire make their boards really cheap , sell them really expensive and fill stores( as the ask for at least 40% of floor space) with their product so a couple of the other brands have to do the same ......consignment is a very unhealthy business principle.
The good news is that a lot of shapers like myself have created a much smaller business model, do not wholesale , only do direct sales , and don't need to do as many boards.
The downside to being creative/innovative is boards are extremely expensive as there is much smaller supply ,and demand is up. This is when we get to a point and only rich people can afford the boards , so that becomes available in retail store is just Pop outs.....so people just get used to mediocrity, which in turn has stifled career paths for youger people who want to shape and glass.

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any shaper in their mid 30's is barely getting started........it's people like Kelly who try to suck the soul out of us surfer/designer/shapers , by exterminating and brazenly smashing any and all commercial relationships with retail we have built over the last couple of decades/

Kelly Slater/Mark Price/Firewire the anti-Christ of the Surfboard Industry!
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What a lame ass fucking post. Plenty of rebuttals and posts to address the stupidity of the original post @surfwhere. But man... what a hard thread to read through with all of the non-sense being thrown around.
 
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