Yes or NO - global surf industries

GSI is made in Thailand, not China, get it right Mr. I'm a Shaper who knows so much about the industry. Maybe if you knew your sh*t customers wouldn't buy from them. You can claim to be the architect of the surfing industry all you want, but doesn't make it true. I own three locally shaped boards and one GSI board, which was purchased at a LOCAL Quiet Flight surf shop that in turn helped pay that LOCAL shop owners bills, as well as the employee who sold it to me. Talk about how you built the surfing industry some more, enlighten me...

 

Uhh I'm not a shaper, never said I was. I work for one, at a mom and pop shop and in doing so I have learned to appreciate and value worthy things. I love surfboards and the craft involved in making them. I'm not sure how you view me "not knowing things" attributing to other people I've never even met on this forum asking questions about buying overseas pop-outs? I make no claims to be anything other than informed and passionate. Just FYI local shops dont make sh*t off of selling those boards. They only carry them to keep the foot traffic in the shop. We usually have to under price the wholesale costs and bite the bullet just to get rid of them. They sit on the shelves and rot because kids swear they can find them cheaper online. When massive global companies move in next door and sell crap boards for cheap prices and drive business away from hard working people I do get opinionated. If any of my previous statement seemed overzealous, I assure you it was in no way aimed at any praise for myself. I'm just a lucky guy with a job I love, and a great boss who I have all the respect in the world for. Sorry if it came off that I was tooting my own horn, I promise I wasnt, but I stand by every word.

 

From what I hear its worse than that. GSI ships large quantities of boards to shops and don't require payment until the board actually sells. This strategy occupies shops limited rack space, and squeezes out local shapers who surely cant afford to shape and glass 10-15 generic shapes in hopes of getting paid a couple hundred bucks above cost per board weeks or months later.

 

^^Unless you're texting this over a phone, you obviously don't love the craft of writing a decent post...or we have to guess you're not as "informed" as you claim. You'll have a better chance of people actually reading your long-winded posts, if you break the thing into paragraphs.

 

Paragraph requests? I give up. China +1. Thailand company who is probably owned by China +2.

 

See, here I was thinking I was talking to a shaper, not some glasser or sander, or whatever it is you do. Ya know what it is that gets me? It's that guys like you and others in the industry act like we the consumer owe you something, when in reality NOYA! Isn't that right Lee? See, we all work hard for our money, and will choose to buy from whomever provides the product we are looking for at a reasonable price. If you can't find a way to make money on surfboards through GSI or any other company don't do business with them.

The reason I said anything in the first place is because this thread is about GSI, not China Popouts. China is not be issue here. It's shapers or surf shop owners not being good businessmen blaming everybody else but themselves for not building a profitable business model. Perhaps those who can't make money at it should just do it as a hobby. Business isn't for everybody. Most talented artists never get discovered because they don't know the business side of things.

Sometimes you just gotta accept that you aren't elite, but a dime a dozen. It's America, capitalism is what makes this country great, gotta adapt with the market or get passed by. My shapers do just fine, no GSI complaints from them. They have long waiting lists for people buying customs and never get a break. Because they are the best out there. GSI is the least of their worries, business is good.

 

I’m with DSUP, and want to point out one value of having ‘GSI’ type manufacturers.

Look it’s a global marketplace that will adjust over time to meet the desires of the customers. Local shops that ‘go with GSI’ and get a boatload of crap that they have to dump, should learn that this is a bad approach for business, the market will decide. Where I am, the shop that seemed to go for GSI, seems to have backed off and balanced out what they offer with other popular brands (I’m not saying local shapers, btw). Darwin prevails.

However, what isn’t being appreciated is that the Thailand manufacturers have been successful in experimentation with new board technologies, made possible by an industrial approach and R&D, that have forced local guys and bigger brands into producing higher tech boards, just to keep current. I think it is ultimately good for the industry to have folks trying to build boards that improve on current technology. The economics may suck for USA shops and shapers, but the GSI ‘future flex’ boards, like Haydenshapes (but also Walden) and Firewire, with a different idea of how a hi tech board might be build, provide important info for the industry and the future of the surfboard. Its hard on the local shaper, to be sure, but as consumers, we should appreciate the option of a wide variety of boards built in different ways. A small/medium scale co./shaper is challenged to show his boards are as durable and perform as well as the GSI boards and provide some value the GSI board doesn’t (locale specific design, price, innovation, etc). That’s the marketplace in 2014, deal with it.

I don’t think I’m gonna buy a GSI board (but I may change my mind), but I can’t ignore or condemn the GSI role in the surfboard industry. If the market speaks and the small/medium guys disappear (not what I hope for), I guess I’ll have to find some back-yard guys, who may have had to find a job at Walmart but, who love to build surfboards. And I’ll pay them accordingly for their skills or get a blank and try to build my own board.

 

its all true.
except performance trumps it.
gotta go with the best stick available.
the rest is noise between stations.
(kinda a strange, strange situation).

 

The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude!

 

oohhh kay...i've really been trying not to post or comment much, but this statement is so bogus it can't be ignored. all that great hi-tech stuff you're bowing down before gsi for was developed by the little guy! hayden cox developed the future flex tech (originally called "fiber flex") & licenses it to gsi & others, like pureglass in california. burt burger developed the original firewire tech (now known as fst) independently & then teamed up w/ nev hyman to create firewire. there are countless others who haven't sold out...hydroflex & coil both immediately spring to mind. & that's what it is...selling out the thing you supposedly love more than anything. & you know what? a hydroflex built board, or a coil, or a pureglass glassed future flex board won't cost you any more than a gsi. i used to work in the board room of a highly respected nj surf shop & i've seen those invoices. you think you're being ripped off paying $600-$700 for a domestically built poly? you have no idea...shops don't make any money on that ****. boards from gsi...that keeps the train rolling.

as someone else already said, **** gsi.

 

absolutely. a basic poly 7S, like the one you probably bought, is in the mid-upper $400 range now. i was referring specifically to the more hi-tech constructions in my post, though. a future flex 7S is in the $700-$800 range, just like the haydens.

 

ha. also, dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature.

 

Walter, this isn't a guy who built the railroads here!

 

Glad you got the reference! HAHA

 

You're on a roll brotha man!

For the record my LB is a China popout.


*but all of my sponges are 'Merican made. #CustomXandCartel4lyfe

 

Seriously?? Marketing?? You want to know what you are buying, marketing isn't going to help you. Going to the shop and see the boards or better yet working with a shaper is even better. You can sit down and talk to him about what you are looking for and he can rough it out for you right there!

 

Oh cool, didn't know you surfed as well, thought you were sponge only, learn something new everyday, mad respect Seldom!