Kelly Slater's best interview this year was just on a small-time shaper's Instagram account…
A small-time shaper from Manhattan Beach, California, was gifted the thrill of a lifetime when Kelly Slater went after him on his Instagram account today.
John “Goose” Stern “considers himself a hipster in the water but a normal dude on land” and builds custom hand-shapes under the Goose Surfboards handle.
Earlier today, his 304 Instagram followers were hit with a post of Kelly at his pool along with an anti-wavepool message:
Please take a minute to read: Here’s a little social media rant about a subject that has been bugging me lately, I am firmly against Kelly’s wave pool. Here is why. The biggest part of surfing is the dedication it takes to really be a surfer. The years spent studying your local break to know exactly what the surf is going to be like. The feeling of anticipation as you paddle out, hoping that you don’t get worked as you take a set on the head, and the ability to remain calm if you do get worked. @kellyslater your new wave pool has taken “surfing” out of surfing. My favorite part of surfing is the knowledge that, for my entire life, I will never surf two waves the same. I am comfortable with the fact that for better or worse, I will spend my entire life searching for the perfect wave. I refuse to pay a machine to create that feeling for me. Now, no longer will people have to study waves to learn what turn to do. Instead, your wave pool, and future wave pools, will bring us real life “Rick Kane’s.” There will be far too many people who think they can get barreled on an unruly day in the ocean simply because they got insanely shacked at your wave. In an age where surfing my local beachbreak on the weekend can be physically dangerous due to so many people without proper surf knowledge and etiquette in the lineup, your wave pool won’t help. I’m disappointed Kelly, you were my hero growing up. But with your artificial wave pool and your surfboards which are very proudly made in Thailand, you have taken the soul out of surfing.
Sincerely,
Goose
(I’ve tagged a bunch of people in the surf industry who have much more influence and respect than I. Hopefully they see, read, and respond to this)
Whatever, right?
Shortly after the post, the 11-time world champion removed his trumpet from its case and began to blow!
I respect all people’s rational opinions and I’ve dedicated every aspect of my life to surfing for over 35 years so I’ll bite…do you think this is intended to replace the experience of surfing or to enhance what people already experience? Do you believe people who currently know nothing about surfing will spend a lot of money and years of their lives to get good in a machine when they don’t already have a love for surfing and could learn freely in the ocean? So since this takes the soul out of surfing, you think soulfulness is outside of yourself? Do you think this wave was designed to create the feeling for you or is it your reaction to the experience which creates the feeling and fun? You would be amazed at how much easier it is to learn/teach lineup etiquette in this environment as opposed to the ocean where nobody actually does teach it. Nothing that happens with this technology would change your experience at your home break so it sounds like irrational fear-mongering. And yes… our products (boards) are made in one of the world’s most environmentally friendly surfboard factories and pays good living wages to workers. Most of my personal boards are made locally in Southern California. Probably most leashes, traction and fins you use/buy yourself are ‘proudly made in China’ in factories you likely know nothing about.
Goose responds to the Asian boards thing.
As for boards/products made in Thailand and China, in today’s global economy, it is virtually impossible to not have some aspect of your life be tied to products over there. I use future fins, whose fin boxes are made in America, but you are correct, I can’t say I know where their fins are made. I also ride a lot of glass on fins, which are proudly made by a man in Torrance Beach. You ride FCS fins, made in china or Thailand right? Id be very interested in learning more about the conditions of Firewire and GSI’s factories overseas. Because there are a ton of people in the board industry like myself who cold benefit from the Glasswork or ghostshaping that you ship overseas, to people who most likely don’t surf. @kellyslater of course most of your boards are made in SoCal…your the greatest ever. You get that extra special treatment. But I’ve already seen people with your boards with the Thailand stamp on it. What’s the ratio of southern California to Thailand for Firewire?
Kelly ain’t going anywhere.
well good interaction can be hard to come by on social media. I have the same frustrations as you do about crowds. We can all assume what’s behind the popularity but we don’t know for sure. A big percentage of the surfing population has no interest in following or watching surf contests so to point to pro surfing is slightly odd. I think it’s just fun and people have access. Of course there are millions of weekenders but they don’t know their way around a lineup and I’m sure someone of your abilities can grab all the waves you need off of that crowd. Also if people learn and love a manmade wave they would likely prefer that environment. It would be strange to see a good surfer who’s never surfed the ocean but I don’t see that happening. I did watch a 48y.o. friend who has literally never surfed a wave before get up and ride for a straight minute the other day and was stoked beyond belief. I’m not sure what the answer is or where the future goes but that actually is what surfing is all about. If you teach it you should know that. But yes…to me the whole experience is what true surfing is all about.
And I don’t know the percentage of CA boards to Thailand production boards but the huge majority are made in Thailand. And that opens up other debates about fairness in the business environment, fair trade, eco concerns and pollutants, running a feasible business, employing people, etc. Being a local shaper or running glass shops almost anywhere on earth is a passion first and foremost and a tough gig to be successful in. All the best to you @goose_surfboards.👍🏽🏄🏽
Goose is thrilled, yes!
hard to find good interaction and debate anywhere in the world today, let alone on social media. Thanks for engaging me, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined I’d get to engage you in a debate. Always been stoked on how you bring innovation in board design to the tour and to the rest of the surf community. Now go win some events!
And so is Kelly!
kellyslater@goose_surfboards \!!!/
Meanwhile, surf_heckler has a question. It’s a good one.
We have a question if your still up for one. You mentioned most of your boards are made in S CA but the boards everyone else gets are made in Thailand. We understand that you are testing new designs before they go into mass production, so working with a S CA shaper makes sense some of the time. How often do you ride the boards from the Thailand Factory? Would you ever use one in competition? Are the boards your riding equal to the boards made in Thailand? Thanks in advance for any insight
Kelly says:
My last edit on Surfline from Fiji was made in Thailand. It’s generally just a weight difference in customs that is the difference for me. I also used that same board at pipe last year so yes.
Is Instagram now, officially, the equivalent of a new AAP? A refurbished Reuters?
Flipside, being a board builder (which I was for 9 years, full time for 6.5) is a shitty career. The guy I replaced as head sander at the last factory I worked at ‘retired’ at 68 with a shitty station wagon and a lung disease to show for his 40 years in the game. now 10 years after I gave it up I don’t itch every day and I can almost tolerate the smell of solvents.
Genius way to get website hits. Pure genius.
i heard Mayhem wants to get a resin tint from goose surfboards
It’d be an honor.
You guys forgot the “Blood Feud” tag in the title
All this pro Chinese and thai stuff? Fuck off!
ppppffff…I don’t like that wave pool either… I’m more of a standup barrel kinda guy…
Glad you liked it man! It’s what I’ve learned after many years of doing business and learning the realities of what the surf industry (and all industries in general) are really doing! When you learn the real production cost of the goods and then you see them in a shop being sold at retail, you wouldn’t believe the mark ups and profit companies make!
Team Kelly Period !!!!! OWB4LIFE
Just my 2 cents about producing surf gear and surfboards in Asia:
I work sourcing surf products from Asia, and it’s an honest living I’m trying to make by putting our customers in contact with the best factories, that use the best quality raw materials and have the most ethical business practices! I source mostly accessories but I also have good business relationships with surfboard factories!
The average production cost of a high quality surfboard in China is about US$170 (depending on the fin system you choose, etc). This price I’m mentioning is for a very high quality factory that makes boards for many “big” worldwide surf brands! The reason the costs are so low is not so much because of cheap labor anymore (I’ll get back to this later) but because of “economies of scale”. Even though the boards are made in China or Thailand, a lot of the factories use the best imported materials (cloth, resin, blanks, etc) and they are able to get the lowest prices for the raw materials because of the very large amount (volume) of goods they are able to buy from the raw material factories!
Many of the major brands that produce their goods in Asia don’t disclose this and I think it is very unethical and dishonest!
With respect to the wage debate, in China now, wages are not as cheap as people think anymore. An experienced worker can make over $800 to $1000 a month! You can call these workers what ever you want but they are also just regular people, like you and me, trying to make a decent/ honest living to support their families! People always want to demonize them as “monkeys” , non surfers, or whatever disrespectful terms you want to use, but they are human beings just like us, working an honest job, to support their families! Thanks to the wages of the many factories in Asia a lot of people have been able to “get out” of extreme poverty and give their families better living standards! I apologize for ranting about this but it’s an issue that I think a lot of people get wrong! Additionally the best factories now have QC inspectors or Production Managers that are surfers (some of them are even in the surfboard builders hall of fame) from Australia, New Zealand and USA.
After working on the production side of things I realize that the big brands do have HUGE profit margins! And practices such as consigning boards and goods to surf shops does affect a lot of the “small shapers” trying to make a living! It’s their way of flexing their “muscle” and disrupting the whole supply chain. Do I agree with this, hells no!
One thing people often overlook as well is that the prices of the goods we currently buy at surf shops are the way they are because of the lower production costs the “major brands” are having their products made at! If not imagine buying a leash for over $100, or a deckpad for over $80! How would you fare with prices like that??
I’m not pronouncing myself with any camp but just want to leave the facts straight from a production point of view!
I would also like to know from the “experienced older surfers” what people thought when back in the day surf board builders first automated the surfboard production techniques! Or when people started shaping boards with foam instead of balsa wood. I’m sure a lot of people also ranted about the boards not having any soul or essence to them!
There is nothing like a custom board made by a real craftsman, that is the truth, but the same as with other sporting goods, there are different products, with different customers (market niches) in mind! Do you complain on a daily basis about where your shoes, clothes, and other garments are made at?? Don’t you think that tailors must of been really pissed off about losing most of their business to mass producing factories?
With respect to the whole debate about pool waves, what about the artificial man made reefs that are being placed in different parts of the world?? I’m sure you guys have heard about the many artificial reefs made in parts where there are good swells but no good beach bottom to form the waves?? Like the ones in India and other parts of the world? Are they justifiable or ethical??
I have tried wave pools (not as good as the KS one) and I’ve had a great time! The waves haven’t been that good and I wouldn’t compare them to being out on a good reef break with a pumping swell, but for being in a landlocked city, I had a great time, and was able to get some very appreciated surf!! Would I like getting shacked all day in “artificial barrels” in KS wave pool, hells yeah I would! It’s not the same as the ocean but I’ll take a good surf session over whining about it any day of the week!
Anyways, those are my two cents about the whole thing!
Which big surfboard manufacturers are making their boards in China or Thailand, apart from Firewire and GSI?
Many more than you would think! I don’t want to name any because I don’t want any problems with the factories we work with! I’m talking about American, Hawaiian and Australian surfboard brands you never thought would be making boards in Asia!
Self justifying behaviour
Daily Tattler!!! needs your scoop
How can I connect with you to discuss about something?
Hey Allan, I don’t know what the rules of these discussions/ blogs are but let me know if you can send me a private message and I’ll send you my email address! I don’t want to offend anyone and don’t want to make it seem like I’m using this cool discussion as a sales pitch!
Hey Surf Gear, drop me a line [email protected]
JS with their new HyFi are made in the same factory (Cobra) as GSI. BTW most advanced epoxy factory in the world…
Yeah the best and biggest surf factories we work with are amazingly efficient, clean and advanced factories! It’s a real treat for me when I have to go visit them to QC an order!
Yep, seen the guts of Cobra. Had heard JS was looking at opening a factory in China
Goose, I understand your concern about loss of local (to SoCal) jobs, but it’s just too hard to pick holes in your self interested argument. Comes over as a bit rascist or maybe I misread you. Personally, I’d be happy to know that my $$ was going at least partly to keep a Thai family alive, so long as the quality was good. I’d probably run the same argument as you, though, if I was David-ing against the Goliaths of the Industry.
I’m not sure how I could have come across as racist there, but that was absolutely not my intention.
Shouldn’t everyone be self interested when it comes to their well being? Not sure what you do for a living, but if you saw a major part of your industry shipped overseas, then I’m sure you’d be worried as well. Surfboards in Thailand/China is nothing new, but it is certainly growing more popular with companies lately.
I’m not attempting to take anyone down, just expose the truths about where surfboards are made and see if we can get some interesting debate going on the subject.
I think I read the sentence ” But with your artificial wave pool and your surfboards which are very proudly made in Thailand, you have taken the soul out of surfing.” – as a statement that meant ‘if it’s made in Thailand it can’t have soul’. I’m sure you wouldn’t consider yourself rascist but there is an interpretation that could be made here, maybe a mis-interpretation so no personal slight meant, unless you really do think a petrochemical toy for a rich white man made in SoCal is inherently possessed of more ‘soul’, whatever the fuck that is, than one, made in the country of Angkor Wat etc.
Keep up the good work, mate, I’ve never had as many laughs than when hanging out with the deviants in the factory back in the olden days (there was that one time that Devo put a rat in a hot mix etc), hope all goes well for you.
Ah man that fucking Devo….haha cheers man, what really is “soul” after all. In the end, we’re all just a bunch of fuck heads trying to make sure we get the set of the day, not that kook in the ______ wetsuit
That’s more than your two cents! Cheers Surf Gear…
Thanks man!! I think I got a bit carried away with my post!
Epic comments, thanks! On the price of boards; you mention an average production cost of about US$170, what would you add for bringing product to US market?
The US$170 per board is an approximate cost of production for big orders. To this the factories would add their profit margin. Then you would have to add the sea freight and the Customs duties at the destination country. Afterwards the brands would add their markup which is the heftiest of all profits in the whole commercial chain! They take the biggest risk as well though!
No way such a comment would’ve been possible on Stab!
$170 is even lower than numbers I had heard. As with any company making their goods in China/Thailand/Asia, be it Firewire or Nike, I am not surprised that their gross profit margin is so large, but in my opinion that just means that companies operating over there no longer care about why they went into business, only about making money.
It is good to hear that the surf industry pays their employees more liveable wages than the companies who operate in sweatshop-like conditions. I would like to believe that is the trend after it had begun to be exposed just how bad some working conditions and wages were in factories in Asia. My issue is that I believe you can still mass produce the same quality surfboards, using SURFERS, who have dedicated their lives to this craft. The only reason to operate in Thailand is to keep your cost down, however if the demand for your board is high enough, you’ll make money no matter where you operate.
It does bother me that my shoes, clothes, and a lot of products I use on a daily basis aren’t locally made. I do my absolute best to support local companies, however in todays global market, it is hard to avoid products made overseas.
we could go on for hours about this, thanks for the insight
Thanks for starting this thread man! It’s cool to hear the opinions of others and have an active discussion! We can philosophize for hours about the current state of affairs with global trade and such, but let’s just be happy, have good surf etiquette in the water, and enjoy the fleeting time we are given in this lifetime!
A discussion like this was my intention, but not expectation, when I posted on Instagram! I thought maybe a couple followers/friends would comment. I love discussion global trade policies and economics, but honestly, it gets my heart rate up and makes me all anxious and shit. I’d rather just go surf and avoid it all!
On a serious note…I’ll be at the Boardroom Show on Sunday at the Aquatech Glassing booth with Anderson Surfboards, Andreini, Stoker, Fineline, Adam Davenport and a bunch of other guys who are far cooler than I. If anyones around, stop by, look at some boards, debate a little. Going to be a good time.
Some boards if made for very large orders for the big surf brands can get the approx price of $170 which is very crazy!! For smaller orders the prices go up a bit more!
“An experienced worker can make $800-$1000/mo”
I’m calling bullshit. I’ve dealt with manufacturing overseas in surf and skate and I know for a fact that there are Americans and Australian low-level managers who didn’t turn much more than that (with all living expenses paid, as an additional disclosure). Only local guys making $50k/yr were floor managers in with local ownership, not accurately what I would term an “experienced worker.”
I don’t know how updated you are on wages around Asia (China especially), and I’m sure you don’t travel to an average of 5 to 10 factories a week on a constant basis as I do (we not only source surf supplies)! So when you want to call someone out get your facts straight! If a foreigner worker makes what you say in a Chinese factory then they are really taking advantage of them! As for the term “experienced workers”, in some of the factories there are guys that have been shaping, sanding, and doing other jobs for over 5 years (some for over 10 years)! Those workers make higher wages than others, that have to be trained and that are packing or just moving boxes around.
If you value your friends that make US$800 a month in Chinese factories, advise to teach English instead, they’ll make more money and have an easier life!
Hey Surf Gear, companies have taken board building overseas when they were paying domestic labor less than $800-1000/wk in SoCal or on the Goldie, so I can’t imagine that any company would move production to China to pay foreign labor the same rate as their skilled guys. Much less, it’s mind-blowing to think that a major enterprise would pay an unskilled guy in China more than the unskilled local 21 year-old surf rat dolphin-skinning boards for $14/hour. So while I may not have been on a boardmaker’s payroll for a while, either your numbers don’t fucking hold or there’s some Wizard-of-Oz boardbuilding paradise that I haven’t been fortunate enough to find work in.
P.S. I have several good friends who’ve relocated and started families while running facilities overseas. They have decades of experience. It would be rare for them to make above six-figure salaries, even if you add in living stipends, so I can’t imagine a “skilled Asian sander” making half the plant manager’s salary, even if I’m a few years out of the game. The money ain’t that fucking good here or there, or else I’d still be in the biz. Also, I’ve been to many a factory that prettied up for its American visitors but then we’d run into production issues when those same factories were then sanctioned–by their local government–for improper working conditions. The day-to-day shitshow and the lipstick-on-a-pig QC tour visit are quite different environments.
Good luck trying to hype the benevolent global manufacturer angle. You should recruit all the American sanders and glassers to go work for your guys in China, because $1000/wk is better than most are doing these days.
Mariano, once again please get your facts straight before you go ranting. I never wrote the factory workers in China make US$800-1000 a week, it’s a month.
You’re totally right about the factory visits, and how foreigners are frequently even taken to factories that won’t be producing their goods! I never said the factories here were perfect either. There are a few handpicked ones that are very good but there is an innumerable amount of others that are a pain in the ass to work with! Thanks to the unethical practices of the Asian factories, I have a job! So for me this job is a love hate relationship, where I work as a middleman coordinating everything between our customers and the factories!
The factories we currently work with have taken us years to “handpick” after working with many many factories that didn’t have the standards we thought appropriate.
Fair, I see I’ve selectively read week/month interchangeably at different intervals…I’m actually negotiating a job at the moment, must be some brain bleed from the task at hand to our conversation.
But… you can fuck your paternalistic tone right off, mate.
That wasn’t my intention at all and I apologize for being so confrontational!
Perhaps a misreading on my part once more. I appreciate the civility, rare as it is to ascertain when not looking someone in the eye. Cheers.
Some points. Not a problem with making boards in Asia, but rather spinning it to sound like some altruistic (save the Thai people!) greenwash (save the world!) BS. It’s a pure money grab. Just call a spade a spade and say “we don’t want the hassle of employing surfers, hassle of heavy gov regulation, and can make huge margins with cheap labor!” Firewire is the biggest offender of choking out the surfshop space as well. My take is there should always be that high level surfer that will require next level product so there will be a home for surfer craftsmen.
The issue with making surfboards in Asia is that the majority of the fruits of the labour do not go back to the place where the work resource was consumed. I am not denying that it does provide some jobs, and sure you can see a few examples of people doing better, but the majority of profit does not go to those impoverished communities, the wealth continues to flow out of the region and accumulate in the hands of the allready rich.
What is the alternative?
From a macro-economic perspective (even though I’m more of a small is beautiful person), to lift impoverished communities, barter trade is the best, so that you avoid money flowing out of the region again. So, in return for making boards to export to the US, perhaps they could get paid with nukes. (remove pin, wait 3 seconds)
Joking (and macoroeconomics aside), on a micro-scale – imagine if Firewire backed micro-credit schemes that allowed Thai workers to set up their own small-scale board factories and export to the US. Hell, yes, quality would vary widely, but here is the thing about waves, the universe and everything – DIVERSITY IS THE LAW OF NATURE. Perhaps that is why the wavepool concept irks?
i’d have absolutely no trouble trying to support wage growth worldwide if I we didn’t already have millions of jobs here that you can’t support even a small family with. millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, one medical emergency away from BK. love this “economies of scale” shit. it just rewards capital at the expense of labor. its great we’ve driven up the price of labor in Asia but to not see that it has come at the expense of our own manufacturing jobs is just, frustrating. corporations will never pay more for labor than they are forced to by regulation. we offshore these jobs with our trade policy.
And sadly, ‘Bama and the left are just as bad as the right.
Jobs will always be created where it gives the big companies the best profits! At one point it was in the US, but as wages went up, it wasn’t to their advantage anymore. Then it was Central America, Japan, Korea, now it’s China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh! Even China now is losing it’s “competitiveness” and in the future some other developing country will take it’s place, and so on and so on!
It’s a rotten world we live in but in my point of view you either adapt or you lose! No point in whining and being pissed off about it, cause it won’t help the situation at all!
not really. you just take away the economic incentive to take the jobs elsewhere. their low cost of living becomes our poverty. we have to try to exist with depressed wages while the cost of living is still based off better times. between housing and healthcare, the average American is strapped.
Yeah I totally agree and I wasn’t trying to give it an altruistic twist. I was just trying to let people look at the other side of the coin, and to realize that even though the big profits go to the factory owners (mostly Taiwanese, Korean and from HK), the average worker ( and the population in general) also benefits! The best example is the growing middle class population of China, that went form non existent a few years ago to approx 10% of the population now.
There are other punctuation marks than the exclamation point, Surf Gear.
You’re very right man, I tend to overuse them for no real reason, and many times people misunderstand their overuse as you say.
How good does it feel getting on your social media high horse!.. Maurice is yours a trojan?
Well I would still really like to know how the experience of riding that KS wave pool wave compares with a normal surf in good waves. Kelly has a basis for judgement; neither Goose nor any of the rest of us here has such a basis. We can’t go on the video evidence; anyone who’s seen video of a surf spot then experienced it in real life knows that. All we have, in place of the experience, is a prejudice of one kind or another.
A friend of ours surfed it last week. Said it was super fun but kinda sketchy close to the sled. I’m guessing there is a reason they only show the one camera angle. 6 minutes between waves.
Wow, I just read an entire instagram dialogue that was copy and pasted into a blog post. Honestly Derek, this is a subject that has been bugging me lately, I am firmly against your copy and pasting of instagram comments. Here is why. The biggest part of instagraming is the dedication it takes to really be a instagramer. The years spent searching the comments to know exactly what Kelly said….
I have a feeling the Great Zeldini will be pulling Kelly onto BG one day soon. I can’t wait.
Also..I hope Kelly and everyone who saw this realizes I’m not attacking KS Wave Co for his pool. I’m anti-wave pools in general. His just gets the most media attention, and also has the best quality wave.
If invited, you’d surf it Goose?
If Kelly hit me up to be in the next group of surfers to try it out, how could I say no?
However if my buddies wanted to drive up there one day when it opens to the public, I really dont think Id be interested in going. (Plus I make surfboards for a living. Cant even find time or money for a new stick for myself, probably not going to be able to afford a wave at Slates pool.)
Edited to add *don’t really. Apologies, I’m in the middle of finals week
maybe you should have pushed the commercial ethics of consignment and we all know that there is only one reason why surfboards are made in Asia, labor is cheap!
I’ve heard in Indonesia they are currently teaching monkeys to shape. IQ’s are only .5 of a difference than the average foam and resin dust aided brains of shapers…
shit neg is that racist? DHD gets his bds done there no? the famous game changer , or are we trying to save the monkeys , as I know my IQ is less than .5?
Wait…What’s an IQ?
irrational quiver
BANG! You just proved you have at least another spare brain cell dedicated to humour…
Shit! Is it now racist to call a monkey a monkey? Primate’s, simian’s??
damn me bad , when you mentioned indo and monks in the same sentence , my one remaining brain cell , does struggle with detail , I did have 2 once , but as you mentioned years of abuse sniffing resin , which congealed with the dust …….huh?
Oh man don’t even get me started on boards made in Thailand/China. Cheap materials, cheap labor, and they sell them to the unsuspecting masses for what, triple cost? I should have asked Kelly what the average wage is for a laminator or sander or fin guy. Maybe I need to move!!
Triple? it might be more… Any industry insiders floating out there people?
I’ve heard some really shockingly low numbers in terms of material costs for boards built over there. Not sure if I want to throw them out there for fear of lawsuit or death
With furniture, if you can’t make 4-5x cost, then it’s not worth buying, so I’d guess an $850 retail board would have to land at $210 o so…surf gear…what’s the figures?
I just read an interesting article about US workers in chicken farms having to use diapers as they don’t even get toilet breaks… Book your flight!
well shit…that’s no good and also flat out illegal
Capitalism turned to Greed. The greed will eventually come back to bite them. How long before you can buy a re-branded KS model directly out of Asia ? Little protection of IP rights and almost no-one to sue as many before have learnt.
@kellyslater
“I am firmly against Kelly’s wave pool” ….”If Kelly hit me up …how could I say no?” That’s hypocrisy at it’s greatest bro. “I’m firmly against GMO products… But if the president of Monsato flew me to Kauai in a private jet to try his GMO steak… How could I say no?” You’re obviously not FIRMLY against wave pools. You’re just hating on what other comparable intellectuals are feeling about KS’s wavepool – it’s only getting the coverage it has because it’s Kelly. There has been obvious editing to initially make the wave look like it was a long open faced Sandspit type wave. The new footage reveals that it is very much similar to the Wavegarden sled machine. It’s just “better”. The STILL relatively “low” quality of the wave makes it an easy target for pundits. But I think if it was an 8ft top to bottom air drop to Nambia barrel, you’d have shit to say. Cause you know that for 99% of surfers they’ll never experience a wave like that. But it’s real easy to say I can paddle out to 3ft south side and get a better feeling because of “nature” than it is to surf a wavepool.
You’re all “bothered” because it’s one big marketing tool. A form of advanced capitalism that ties directly back to your small shaping business. Because as much as you critique FireWire, if your board business was as successful as them or any other large brand having to resort to Asia – you’d be doing the same exact thing. You’re not, so it’s easy to throw shade at their practices or “ethics/morals.” KS’s board brand is a BUSINESS. His wave pool is a BUSINESS. The MAIN object of a business (before ethics and philanthropy) is to MAKE MONEY. There is NO WAY around that bottom line bro. You are not shaping boards solely for love. It’s still a business for you too. And you mentioning how you hardly make any money at it only solidifies that notion. Bro, if you respond and tell me you give your boards away for free of cost to underprivileged kids instead of well to do OC groms, then you have a whole nother valid argument/stance in this game.
You don’t think that Kelly pulling out of Brazil and simultaneously releasing new footage is a coincidence? What better time to release new footage? You think he DARE release footage of even Dane Reynolds lobbing 5ft airs in Lemoore while the Cloudbreak comp is 10ft and spitting? He’s got Pete Mel talking about wave pool CT possibilities because they’re watching and trying to put lipstick on a pig in 2ft Brazil closeouts. It’s business bro, BIG business. And KS’s strategies are built around his decades long exposure to how big business is done. You’re obviously not anti-wave pool. You’re personal statement saying that you’d take up his offer cements that. You’re against big business because you haven’t experienced it and its success to form a rational argument for both sides.
Bottom line is a wavepool will NEVER replace natural surfing. The same way half pipes and snow parks WITHIN mountain resorts will never replace taking a chair to the peak and getting fresh tracks. It’s 150 miles from the ocean dude. Even if it was right in the HB parking lot, like half pipes are in mountain resorts, I think even you could acknowledge that there’d be less people waiting in the wavepool line than out in the real surf. And for ALL of our sakes, if it is all beginners in the chlorine and not bailing wave storms in front of us… I’m sure we’d all be stoked.
Props to you on your great handling of KS’s debate. You did well brother!
Kelly was my hero growing up, I fucking idolized the dude. Posters in my room and shit. So while it may be slightly hypocritical, after the little interaction he and I just had, I would definitely say yes to an invite in order to further the debate and see things from his side. I have no interest in visiting ANY wave pool on my own.
Kelly is the ultimate businessman, his ability to generate popularity towards a product simply by putting his name on it is ridiculous and enviable at the same time. However, no matter how large or small, my business becomes, I will never resort to thailand production. Yes, I am trying to make money by doing something I LOVE, shouldn’t we all? I’m not giving away boards to anyone right now, I don’t produce enough to do that.
and you are right, my response and initial post was directly tied to how much Kelly has flooded the market with videos of the pool. he did the same thing after ADS won the world title. Smartest businessman in surfing, no one can take that away from him.
I’m glad that you’ve stated your party affiliation.
And there’s my 15 minutes of fame. It must be all downhill from here. I’ll just go back to making sure all my bosses stuff is ready for the Boardroom Show this weekend.
I had a Kelly online interaction about chicken meat once… My life didn’t change one bit!
He once liked my joke pointing out that all the Haole surfers had the Hawaiian flag next to their names on the contests.
At least he admitted to not knowing the ratio of boards he makes in Thailand. But they are most certainly getting money’s worth on the PR firm’s “environmentally friendly living wage” spin! Bravo!
And Boom! just like that Slater reels me back in as a fan…
So many unanswered questions, is outerknown a hoax? What happened to his secret prostitute baby? Will he ever get back with jizzele when she figures out tom brady will never be a surfing hero?
I wanna surf his wave pool sure, but the same wave over and over is going to lose it’s shine eventually, even a perfect wave. You may even argue that it’s already happening.
Im not having a go at you but i’m getting a bit sick of this vein of thought… Its version one, of many more to come… What’s with the incessant demand of people for the best, right now in life?
I hear ya Neg, I was speaking more from a media perspective, seeing the same wave from the same angles over and over (imagine all the gopros!). Repetition of any kind gets boring eventually, and these are designed to be repetitive. Of course it would take about a decade of actually surfing the wave to grow at all tired of it I figure.
Have you ever skated? Maybe this will allow for unprecedented progression in terms of technical skate-style tricks? The same section over and over again is gonna help someone nail a tre-flip!
and god dam it i want to see that!
indubitably!