| Over the past fifteen years, Bob Anderson has operated a garage turned shaping bay in every home he's lived in. His current garage in Ocean Beach, California may be the final one. The racks on its side walls hold volan-glassed longboards and hybrids that color the small space like a candy store. Recently shaped blanks rest against the far wall. Hand tools hang above a dusty workbench, and small hand-painted watercolors depicting dreamy point breaks fill the spaces between. The cramped space is more of an idea lab than a surfboard factory. Every board that comes out of it receives a name, for example "The Beast" or "The Maharajah." Anderson's boards are often hand painted or immaculately tinted and glassed at Moonlight Glassing in San Marcos, California. Each board is made for a specific person who surfs a specific spot. The spots are mostly in San Diego County, usually in the Sunset Cliffs area, and by looking at these boards' lines you can see the local influences in them. There's a lot of Mike Hynson's ideas in there, a touch of Skip Frye's, Steve Lis's fish has loaned the hybrids a couple of attributes, and finally there are Anderson's revisions on the old ideas. |
| Although he has aspirations to make more, Anderson only produces about fifteen boards a year. He'll often surf a board he's made for someone else just to test his ideas and craftsmanship. It's a guilty pleasure the final owner may never know about. But this is the kind of thinking, shaping, and testing that has defined garage--or backyard--shapers for more than 50 years. And this is the kind of idea lab that has historically produced the sport's most influential designs--not to mention its most influential shapers. |
| In today's technology-driven industry, it's often forgotten that the sport's greatest innovators and innovations originated in garages and backyards--Bob Simmons' ideas on flow, George Greenough's raked fin, or the shortboard revolution itself. |
| But backyard and regional shapers have also long been derided by both retailers and established shapers. Backyard shapers have low overhead, no employees, few environmental restrictions, and a willingness to sell boards on the cheap, either for the experience brought by increased volume or just to make sure the right person gets the right board. Often, for backyard shapers, it's a "hobby" and the professionals often complain that these unrestricted "hobbyists" are stealing legitimate business directly from the retailers. |
| Pricepoint Bandits? The point is this: most established shapers and retailers agree that the mark-up placed on surfboards should match that of other products. A typical shortboard should cost 800 to 1,000 dollars--not 500 and below. But the question is, in this era of low-tolerance blanks, shaping machines, foreign imports, high-volume domestic manufacturers, and epoxy technology, are backyard shapers still the number-one culprit in keeping the pricepoint of surfboards artificially low? |
| Rick Wright of Rick's Action Sports in East Islip, New York thinks so. He's been vocal on the subject and, as a retailer, says flatly, "The enemy is the guy working in his garage. |
| "The major consideration that I have with them {backyard shapers}, " continues Wright, "is that there are no environmental standards whatsoever that those people follow. They're destroying our environment, number one. And number two, they're creating an inferior product and keeping the surf shops from being able to stay in business." |
| Wright estimates that there are eight backyard shapers operating in his corner of Long Island alone. Further, he says they're operating in direct competition with his store and the major brands like Lost and Channel Islands that he carries. "I'd probably sell another 100 or more surfboards a year if it wasn't for the backyard guys." |
| Not prone to the kind of nostalgia often found in the surf industry, Wright says that the era of surfboard innovation that emerged from the garage is in the past, and that the industry should no longer tolerate the kind of competition brought by the backyard shaper. "The industry of surfboard building should not put up with people building surfboards {in their backyards} and competing with them. Why should Channel Islands have to compete with a guy who doesn't have to worry about fire insurance; doesn't have the EDD, EPA, or OSHA breathing down his neck? They're not paying taxes. All the way around, the guy in the backyard is the bad guy." |
| It's a valid point, and there are plenty of other concerns about backyard shaping, but the paradox that inevitably arises whenever the "backyard versus established shaper" argument is raised is that nearly every top shaper has roots in the garage, and they'd be hard pressed to indict those trying to follow the same path. When asked if he considered himself to have been a garage shaper, Rusty Preisendorfer says, "Yeah, that's why I'm laughing. It's {the controversy} a bit hypocritical because we were all garage shapers." |
| Even those manufacturers at the top end of surfboard technology acknowledge the shrouded role of the backyard shaper. Says Randy French, founder of Surftech, "As you know, that term 'garage guy,' they're somewhat the sacred cow. Every shaper started in a garage, whether it's a Rusty, an Al Merrick, or myself. Because of that, nobody wants to point a finger now that they're successful, and go, 'It's evil.'" |
| Maybe not "evil," but with words like "enemy" being tossed around, the antagonism between the industry leaders and the small fish is apparent even if it's represented by slight, day-to-day complaints. Matt Biolos of Lost scoffs at the idea that innovation is still occurring in the garage. "Name one guy who's changing surfing from their garage. When I started out, I wasn't reinventing the wheel." |
| Shaper Chris Christenson, after remembering with a grin the exact address of the garage where his business began, said, "I don't mind if a guy is making a few boards here and there, but if he's making a lot of boards and selling them out the back door on the cheap, it may be time to call the fire department." |
| The Whole Sale "That whole mantra is so stale," says successful California shaper and retailer Todd "TDK" Kamin. His dual business began in the backyard more than twenty years ago. He began shaping in 1980, has worked in glassing factories, developed his own brand {TDK surfboards}, and since 1994 has worked to build a solid retail establishment in Pride surf, skate and snow. "The backyarders are the guardians of our heritage," he says. |
| As both a retailer and a shaper, TDK has a keen insight into what's lacking in the surfboard market. "It's easy to point the finger, but you better point that finger in the mirror before you do." |
| He offers an alternative view of why the pricepoint on surfboards remains low despite growing demand. It isn't due to backyard shapers, he says, or the flood of foreign imports. "Low margin isn't because of the backyarder, it's because of the lack of good business {sense}. This is a phenomenal market that's as healthy as it's ever been. We're {Pride} struggling to build a bigger board department in our store. But it's hard to build a good board department without the help of good, quality board builders. And the top brands have their margins so low, they can't be good, quality wholesalers." |
| From the wholesaler's perspective, Preisendorfer agrees that this manufacturer/retailer relationship is crucial. "As a shaper gets bigger, and you have more experience, you should be able to offer some of the things that a garage guy can't, and that's a level of quality, consistency, and customer service--a level of professionalism--where you can be looked at as a resource for the retailer." |
| But TDK proposes that the top surfboard manufacturers have made the decision to produce volume in order to make a profit when they could limit their production, charge a higher price per board, and concentrate on servicing the retailers. He points to the limited production models used by longboard builders like Donald Takayama who set low production numbers and charge higher prices. Takayama boards retail around 1,200 dollars and TDK says the top shortboard producers could do the same. He cites their superior product and the success of pro endorsements as the basis of this rational. But the top brands' work on the wholesale end is lagging behind the standards set by, say, clothing or shoe manufacturers. In effect, TDK says, this is where the backyard shaper is succeeding. |
| "We're growing as fast as we can manage the growth. How can we sell more boards? By stocking more boards. How can we stock more boards? More effort {on the part of top producers}. That's the effort the backyarder is making. He says, 'Hey, order a board today, and I'll have it done on Friday for you.' If I got that kind of service from Lost, I could put 25 of their boards in there. How could it be the little guy's fault?" |
| TDK also addresses the effective "commando" style of marketing that's inherent to backyard shaping. Often these shapers are standout surfers who've turned to shaping as a means of growing a business while still keeping their water time. This puts them closer to the regional action of their sport as well as their potential customers. By keeping their local visibility and level of surfing high, they're acting as their own professional endorsers. They're in tune with their community, their breaks, and the surf shops that carry their boards. Bob Anderson is one of the most stylish longboarders in his area. The fact that he rides his own boards, built with his own ideas on surfing, is a small-scale marketing strategy that can be as effective as paid-for advertising. "I'm doing it in a real grassroots, Donna Frye, kind of way," Anderson says. "I don't think the shaper should be dictating what the surfer rides. That's the whole point of having a surfer/shaper relationship." |
| Lost's Biolos admits that he isn't even after the customer who would be interested in a backyard board. This is a common refrain, the kid who buys a backyard shape today will be shelling out for the top of the line board tomorrow. This begs the question: are backyard shapers even in competition with the top brands? |
| Some retailers are in tune with this disparity and try to carry boards with a range of pricepoints and marketing strategies behind them. Surf shops like Surf Ride in Oceanside, California offer a range of options--everything from regional boards and Chinese imports to big name brands and molded technology. It's a strategy that's proven successful. According to Surf Ride shop clerk Shea Perkins, "We try to be in touch with what's going on out there, with what the WCT guys are saying and so on." |
| Rusty says that embracing the local shaper can make a surf shop better. "I think the small guy, the backyard guy, is the heart and soul of this industry. And that's one of my biggest gripes about what's going on with the Asian imports. I think it would be a lot healthier for shops to adopt a local shaper and look to them for their entry-level and low-end boards." |
| But TDK admits most retailers are asleep at the wheel: "The retailers just don't conduct their hardgoods business the same as they conduct the softgoods. Why? The companies producing the hardgoods are not at the level of infrastructure that the industry expects. The companies producing surfboards can't afford reps, they can't afford sales managers, and they can't conduct business at the level where it's supposed to be. And surfboard margins are artificially low because of this." |
| While the greatest roar seems to be coming from the domestic versus offshore debate, some argue that the margin problems have little to do with where surfboards are actually produced. As Randy French says, "To me, it isn't the garage, it's the sales channel that has the greater impact. Everybody who sells boards 'under-margined,' whether it's inexpensive off-shore polyester boards, the garage guys, or just people who sell boards at a highly discounted price, impacts the market. |
| "I think the kids who live in a surf town are stoked to be able to go buy boards outside of the retail avenue," continues French, "because when you're young, you don't have a lot of money, so you're going to want to buy a board as cheap as you can. Of course, as you mature as a surfer and you get to be better and better, you realize that it's worth it to buy up to a better shaper who has more years of experience." |
| As backyard shapers themselves succeed, they move out of the garage and into the legitimate market. That move, into their own or others' factories, alleviates environmental concerns and pushes the shaper into legitimate business practices. To hold the backyard shaper down by restricting sales of blanks, glass, or resin is only to perpetuate the complaints now leveled against them. |
| Anderson, after years of shaping for the enjoyment of it, is now working toward growing a commercial business. He's had T-shirts made, has finally got a business account at the bank, and is filing for his fictional business name and tax I.D. When told that small-time business moves like this are at the heart of established industry leader's complaints, Anderson says, "You know what I say? I say good. Let them complain now that they're sitting back, fat and letting the machines do the work for them. I'm willing to spend all day in that garage. If you love doing it, why should there be any restrictions?" |