Could it be? Hope beyond hope? That Kelly Slater will ride for his heart's true home again?
A fresh rumor in the morning is even better than a piping hot cup of coffee. It is a glorious sunrise. Yesterday, for cocktail hour, we had Quiksilver opening a wave park in Las Vegas feat. both Kelly’s and Wavegarden’s technologies.
And today, alongside pancakes and bacon, we have Firewire, the world’s favorite hollow surfboard, purchasing the grand daddy of them all. Channel Islands!
This is a very happy whisper from a source who generally knows about these sorts of things because do you recall who is the majority stakeholder in Firewire? Who owns 70% of the company alongside a new board venture?
Kelly Slater!
Robert Kelly Slater XI!
Does that not make you all misty eyed? It does me! Kelly had his best years riding the tri-hex. He became an icon, a celebrity, a champion XI times over with Channel Islands under his feet. It was weird when he left. Weird like when he left Quiksilver. Some things just go together, you know?
But now he’s maybe back and as majority owner! With the legendary Travis Lee, who left with Kelly to begin the new board company.
I have some questions about the alleged.
Like, did Burton, who purchased Channel Islands one decade ago for many millions of dollars give Kelly a discount because surfboards are a rough biz and not part of Burton’s core?
Because Burton’s creative director, Greg Dacyshyn, is such a complete and utter disaster and has driven the brand so far, so fast and so deep into the ground that they are also having to sell office chairs and paperclips just to make rent?
Seriously, though, I wish surfing had a character like Dacyshyn. Someone so extravagantly out of touch, so epically retarded, so stupendously vain as to be completely comical. He is a towering monument to the sugar rotted ego. The nexus where bad taste meets bad style.
And if Kelly Slater has indeed ripped CI from those sausage fingers? Oh how his legend will continue to grow!
Now I have a headache because I had a fresh rumor alongside my pancakes and bacon instead of a cup of piping hot coffee.
Yes man, surfing has Fernando Aguerre, ISA President. He is the king of bad style meeting bad taste and the emperator of Egoland. And even worst, he is the man who took surfing to the lowest brothel ever: Olympics.So, yes, surfing has a character like Greg Dacyshyn. Or even worst. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Let’s clarify. CI is not on consignment. But if a board turns yellow on the rack, it does no one any good to discount, have it look like shit, take up the shop’s expensive space and devalue surfboards for all builders. We replace it and the board usually ends up being sold as factory 2nd.
I met with Mark Price quite a few years ago in Japan where I asked him , why consignment ?
His reply was that C I were and are giving 6-12 mths credit if they could have a majority of the floor space , and could return any boards that yellowed or sat too long.
Firewire reacted to this by going on consignment in all stores is the USA /OZ , then other brands had to follow with consignment , which effectively created a bubble , with shops full of boards they do not have to really pay for , until sold.
The Surfboard industry in the USA is starting to see the results of “the Bubble” , with a drop in sales of more than 30 % , and some pretty horrible stories of empty glass shops ,a very little work!
At this time CI offered “seasonal dating” to those who QUALIFIED. And not many did. Maybe 6 doors. (Admittedly a short-sighted move borrowed from snow).
Although not many dealers were able to get those crazy terms, they did turn and leverage the FEAR of those terms against other builders for better terms when in reality it wasn’t happening. The mistake was that the application was in the sales program so shops just claimed they were getting it.
Borst is one of the best surfboard CAD programmers out there, which was his role with CI. He did cut and shape Taylors boards over the last few years. But only Taylor.
Chris left C I , with Taylor Knox earlier this year , but Britt is trying to step up and slowly become a designer!
Britt has some design history. Starting with the Sashimi that released in 1998. Allowed Britt to surf heats on a 6’2″ while being 6’5″ tall. Outsold most of his Dad’s models for the next couple years.
Is the bearded guy in the photo Maurice Cole, Greg Dacyshyn or Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (Osho). They each kind of look the same to me; I can’t tell them apart.
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that’s actually my Alter Ego , and when I go to the USA , I become a caped Burton crusader. That’s an old photo , when I was clean cut!
that’s true and every s/bd manufacturer/retailer knows it , as they know Al does not shape or design anymore , and that’s been 7-8 years!
How could anyone look at this clown and think he is capable of running a large company? What a complete ass hat
Where kind I find all the cocks Dacyshyn sucked to get ahead in my career?
Wouldn’t be surprised if Kelly has used a few roids on occasion…
Quik didn’t want to compete with itself, guarantee Summer Teeth ran profitable, there was no overhead
That description of Dacyshyn was brutally brilliant.
When wearing Military clothing matched with high vis jackets and acting like a fuckwit it’s best to do it in someone else’s Country.
Is Al Merrick still involved in the company, see his son Britt on a few promo videos, has Al retired or something?
bought out by Burton years ago, dude hasn’t shaped since late 80s
Al stopped shaping full time in 2012. He still shapes boards occasionally when it strikes him.
scott , when Al sold C I , he didn’t go in the new factory at least for 5 years , but has no real interest in S/bds design as I asked him at Surf Expo last year , so he is not an active part of the CI team , but all the ghost shapers still use Al/s files!
Hey Maurice, Thanks for the reply. Very cool to see you so active on here. To the contrary Al never left the factory for 3 years after the acquisition. He then did a 2 year extension. And correct he no longer places surfboards as his priority and will certainly downplay it while talking to any shapers at Expo.
oh, stop it. “full time” like 8 hour days finishing plugs? Britt doesn’t even do that, what with all the church duties.
Nice work living up to your namesake ha. Yep full time. Al gradually stopped doing the team boards over 2012. Now there are 3 guys that share that workload, 4 if you include Britt who is not full time.
brah, its not physically possible what you’re saying, they needed 5 lamination houses in 2012 and you’re telling me Al finished every plug? that’s 25 boards a day. Burton didn’t buy a 25 boards a day operation.
Gotta appreciate your enthusiasm, but slow down and read what I wrote – I said “team” boards. Not stock. And Al also did many industry guy boards as well. Not stock. Generally a “plug” is a master shape/board used for scanning in certain CAD/CAM machines but I think you mean pre-shapes? Since 1990 we have had between 5 and 20 shapers doing those.
call em “production” “ghosts” whatever you want, if you got a CI in the store, Al didn’t touch it
Prob going to kick myself for posting here but what the hell – Al is involved in a consultative basis. Cruises through maybe 2x week. Britt is the lead designer.
Post away, free of fear of internet toughguys… but seriously, thanks. Nothing like some facts to level the playing field.
Only Chas can pivot so adeptly from surf to snow.
But do yourself a favor and Google this Dacyshyn cat. It’s not just him but his wife too! I loved the muntiny letter from the ex-employees to Jake.
I am so jealous of snow for having the Dacashyn husband and wife team. If they were in the surf industry I would do a daily post about how amusingly shit they both are…
Surely the surf World has some wedlocked wonder team to sling shit on??
Nothing like the Dacashyns. Nothing even close.
Don’t we give shit to Laird and that blonde bloke he married everyday?
Nah, to easy a target… I’ve turned back to loving the big fella.
We have the inertia and SUPs!
we have the coffeys
Two more deserving recipients of a punch in the neck I am yet to see.
Yes! I am hoping this happy little merger will guarantee years upon years of innovation in cranking out $1000 + surfboards! MUhhhaHAHha! Let’s turn this shit as expensive as snowboarding!
Firewires are hollow? I think you mean Aviso.
Don’t firewires have a plug to let air out of or somethings?
they are not hollow , but can be full of hot air when heated , and need a valve so they don’t delaminate .
Whats scary about Firewire and Kelly is they don’t sell Firewires !
they are all on consignment in Australia and the USA which has fucked the market , so will CI now also have the same policy , so that there is complete control of the Global Surf Market.
Anybody know a journalist who could ask Kelly why his Co does consignment on Firewires?
Not making Firewires is 100% sustainable
c’mon now , Firewires are the best Asian popouts on the market!
Slater. Firewire. CI. Valves. Popouts.
Illuminati
What about that hobo journalist chick? She seems like a solid candidate for the job, course she is super busy, but it can’t hurt to ask.
shit no one wants to ask Kelly about why his investors/Company have continued to do consignment as the only way to have a major presence in the retail stores , and now…more of the same?
Because he wants to put you out of business. Shame on you Kelly Slater. Shame. Shame. Shame.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Nope not going there. Although some shops have asked if we could.
dude kinda looks like Maurice Cole but douchey
He looks like a hobo who found some discarded Mardi Gras beads behind the liquor store
Kinda reminds me of how I might look, if I hadn’t quit taking Ecstasy in my mid twenties…
dude probably flies a G6 to Burning Man
Shawn Stussey / Brad Gerlach mashup minus the shaping/ surfing ability.
Maurice looks like a snotty pussy before the douching.
I am struggling with what a snotty pussy looks like , is that a type of STD?
Yeah mate. Pretty bad one. Full of cock snot
I can’t wait for Kelly to purchase an airline, named “Slate-Air,” only for it to go bankrupt. Board fees will be $350 per board each way…. you know, for sustainability.
P.S. Does Sally Fitz benefit directly from your advertisement of coffee?
No he uses laird superfood creamer!
You get Sally Fitz and coffee? awesome!! I get Christie Brinkley anti-wrinkle cream (it doesn’t work and they didn’t refund me} and millionaire housewives from Auckland…
I thought he was referencing the”piping hot coffee” in the article.
Hilariously, in the pop-up under that Greg Dipshit guy, I got “Harvard Business School”
I feel our pop ups are ironic, maybe. I still only get Melissa McCarthy leaving television hits…ironic!