The San Diego Update

J.P. St. Pierre, of Moonlight Glassing in San Diego County, had this to say about the current foam blank situation (from a Surfer Magazine BB thread). It's been a month since the hourglass got flipped over. Take it, as you would anything, for what it's worth:

Here is your report/update:

There are at least a dozen serious players trying to start up new foam companies. Fortunes will be made and lost no doubt. In a year it will be great for you the surfer because you will be able to work with your shaper and pick and choose the best blank for the board you want.

In the meantime, containers of blanks are on the way from South Africa, Australia, Argentina and other locales. The quality will vary and shapers spoiled by Clark's low tolerance blanks will suffer while those with knowledge of rocker and skilled with a hand planer will emerge as the craftsmen that they are.

The cost of these blanks are all over the map and mostly unknown. How this will affect you, the surfboard buyer, is unknown.

It could be awhile before we see a foam company offer the wonderful variety of stringer options and layups that Clark offered, I suggest you buy any groovy board out there you with unique stringers you come across.

Surfers all over are bitter at the retail shops that jacked up the prices on boards while the shops that did one board per customer at the original prices earned respect.

Many glass shops have run out of blanks to work on and some are switching to epoxy. The question is, is it economically possible to work out the bugs of epoxy in a short time and do production so rent and bills get paid? The other main question is, which "epoxy" do they focus on? Which foam and which resin? Many glass shops are left hanging while shapers decide what path to take.

I haven't heard of any glass shops closing down yet but I fear it may happen soon. The honest glass shops may perish but hopefully they will get support from somewhere.

A lot of people don't realize this, especially in the surf media, but glass shops do not glass boards willy nilly. It is the SHAPERS who decide which foam they shape a board out of and how it will be glassed. The shapers decide which brand of cloth to use, how many layers, the width of the laps, patches, what resin to use, everything! Much of this influence comes from the retail shops who would rather have the cheapest whitest board possible instead the strongest.

I am trying to create a new paradigm in the surfboard industry where the glass shop can no longer be scapegoated by the shapers. From now on the shapers have to mark the fins correctly and have to fill out the order card accurately. No more, "Oops I forgot to shape that customer's board I will just blame the delay on the sander and shape it today and get the board rushed through and no extra expense to me."

Ever see that old Fritz Lang film Metropolis? The heart must be the mediator for the hands and the head.

On the home front typing this in my glass shop I see the racks full. It seems that everyone wants their last precious Clark blanks done with color work which we specialize in. People keep asking if we are going to start doing epoxy. I tell them that first the question should be, are you going to start doing epoxy AGAIN.

I am making a deal with the epoxy pundits, if a straight up honest California glass shop with legal employees and worker's comp. insurance can go one year doing epoxy without losing a ton of money and nobody has health problems then I will embrace it.

I am asking all surf magazine editors to stop publishing the word "unbreakable" with epoxy. This really puts everyone who makes surfboards in a tight spot. If a wave lands on a board right the board will break, I don't care what material or method it was made with. If the retail shop rat tells some kids mom that a board is unbreakable and the kid breaks it drama follows.

I think 2006 could be what I imagine 1968 was like, a lot of experimentation. Hopefully we will end up with fantastic interesting surfboards to ride. There is a chance the retail shops could be filled with cheap imported generic boards this summer. The flip side is that the custom movement seems to be energized by the threat of it going away.