Proving you WRONG is what he does!
Oh you love to get angry at Kelly Slater’s surfboards don’t you though? You say:
“Kelly’s equipment just looks wrong!”
“Its actually sad seeing the goat suck so badly!! Please john just lend slats a pyzel sled so he can bury a fucking rail!”
“PLEASE KELLY< get on a fucking different board!!! a SemiPro, or something.. his turns have hiccups in every front side delivery.. he is still a beast.. his barrels deep, his floaters and airs high.. PLEASE shape a semi pro and put an infinity sign on it or something.. god dam!!!”
And seeing as Kelly Slater has maybe not gotten the best results since he’s jumped from Channel Islands over to the new Slater Designs your complaints might seem to hold water.
But they don’t! Apparently you don’t know shit about surfboards because Slater Designs just won the Surf Industry Manufacturing Association’s Breakout Brand of the Year at last Thursday’s award’s ceremony at the Slater Design SCI-FI won Performance Shortboard of the Year!
Boooooya, haters!
Does this news make you rethink your ability to correctly judge a surfboard’s quality? Will you trade in your trusty “normal” surfboard by day’s end and upgrade to a Slater? Will you write Kelly an apology for the mean things you’ve written?
All three?
Good. That’s probably smart. And get ready to fall a lot and not really complete any moves. Sorry. I mean get ready to WIN!
my 10 cents….Slater is and will be the king, but he needs to hang it up. He definitely looked better on channel island boards and he is a middle of the road player now. This whole 12th world title is simply not happening
damn who knew the comments section could make you smarter 👀
Dear Mr Slater can you please objectively comprehend that you will not win a world title surfing your specialist, novelty designs at every stop on tour. You surfed terribly at big margs mainbreak and it was 100% because of your surfboard. Those boards might be ‘fun’ and even effective in some conditions (eg cloudbreak for banana, snapper for scifi) but not ALL WAVES ON TOUR! You absolutely guaranteed will not win a 12th title if you keep surfing these boards. Sincerely a long time fan.
Mate Kelly is not gonna win a 12th world title.
I looked into the hype, bought into it, actually. K sci phi and omni. Didn’t get the banana because Tom Currens Occy beating etc board does the same. They (kdesign) live up to the hype padding. They are dream to paddle. They paddle like a board several inches longer.
Catching waves is easy like a fisherman with magic bait and hungry school that seen a human for the first time.
But riding, it chatters worse than a flock of housewives from NJ seeing their counterparts from NY. Yes they turn like a F-16 or F1 car. Yes I can throw the fins free and Tokyo drift across the face. Heck I can punt like this years Supabowl (I am cleared for takeoff, but not cleared for landing).
But can I hang on while my K + Tomo designed board humps harder than a rabbit or a train of camels screaming at Mike on hump day? Will I be able to finish my rE0 while Marky Mark and the Funky bunch go “Strictly hip hop boy I ain’t singing this Bringing this to the entire nation Black, white, red, brown Feel the vibration!”
Will be able to do a cutback while my board shakes more than all the shake weights, toys at the playgirl mansion and Las Vegas, while that Aussie mom chases her kid screaming wobbly sausage in the land. Yes but I’m badly set up for the next maneuver
Ok, so surftech shortboards take the cheddar in the chatter department. But for me I was able to land someone a great deal on a near new k set of boards. I’m set back a few K but it came back into some awesome boards made by fav shapers prior to firewire taking the field.
And it just proves that Kelly can put his name on a board and it will sell. The power of branding. I hope Slater Designs 2.0 boards are better and spend less time on snap chat and more time on ride the wave. Firewires are good boards, their FST is strong, but just kinda one or two dimensional. Strong and great paddles but ehh in the riding department.
So to summarise, Firewire & SD are fantastic surfboards
Except when you actually try to surf them. Nightmare.
Yeah
depends how you bury them?
FireWire is now almost 10 yrs old. Slater looked like a surfing clown at Margies. His board looked like shit in that big heat. Besides, his and their team riders boards are all made in San Diego but if you hate FireWire, you should hate Gotcha cause that’s where the original money came from, Mr. Price.
Also, Biolas and CI were the original “consignment” board makers. Those two jerk offs have been destroying the board market forever. In order for FireWire to compete, they had to offer shops consignment terms.
As a purist , I’ll never ride a board made in Thailand or China unless it’s a Costco special I ride into the rocks..
As for SIMA, it’s a played out group of old men who haven’t been relevant in Decade. They are still looking for the next Volcom …pfffft, sorry, industry is diminishing.
capitalism comes to the surf industry. if you can afford to float product to retailers while your competitors can’t, what would your private equity “partners” want you to do, ignore the huge advantage that having money gives you? no, you make them pay 4 points a month to a factoring company until you drive them out of business, duh!
4 points all in? That’s cheap money.
Only because I get tired of hearing this tired consignment story – Let me clear up something on CI and “consignment”. Around 2008 CI offered “seasonal” terms. We were romancing with Burton at the time, and this snow-centric collections approach was printed and offered in the sales package. Seasonal meant the shop had to pay for all the Spring and Summer board sales in the Fall. In hindsight not the good idea to offer and a worse idea to print in the sales catalog.
Now, not many shops qualified for the terms (you actually needed good credit with banking info) and even less wanted them as if you had good credit you probably didnt need them.
But, many of the (non-qualifying) shops showed the CI sales packet to competing board brands to leverage getting better terms saying “Look what CI is doing!!”
A few of the more astute board brands called me up and asked “are you actually giving Shop X these terms?” To which I said “no” and they took it from there.
Besides getting better terms the CI sales packet was a great tool as an excuse to not have to carry board brands that didn’t sell, “sorry bro no room with these terms” (that I don’t actually get)
Funny thing is how it came back to bite us. Yes CI does consignment in 3 doors now, but damn it if we got leveraged into it due to another brand that offers consignment…
signed – the jerk off, (or maybe the played out old man?).
Scott, re biting back: I understand the risk in consignment (to the consigner, that is), but didn’t CI exacerbate that risk by offering take-back terms on consignment boards that didn’t sell? Doesn’t FW also run that risk? I think a lot of the board makers who complain about the effects of consignment in board retail should be glad their scale has prevented them from running that risk.
Not sure why someone should be glad about selling fewer boards. That risk you mention wasn’t really there until a business model took advantage. Many now could manage small scale consignment if there was room for inventory. And I know a few board manufactures have been doing trade outs for as long as I remember without being on consignment. So that’s nothing new. Taking boards back in mass is a problem with the board model mentality that has taken over the consumer’s whims and wanes.
The difference of risk between CI taking a board back and Firewire is about $200-300 in cost, maybe more. I also believe Firewire is financed in a different manner than other surfboard businesses. They have roughly 2-3million dollars in consignment inventory in America without counting what’s maintained in the warehouse. Most likely, unless someone’s floating that money out of pocket, they are doing some sort of financing from investors or a lending institution to pay for the inventory. Like a car manufacturer or dealership. For their boards the low cost and high profit margin offsets the loan interest as long as the reps are making sure checks are collected for sold inventory. The need for a higher margin to offset interest or write offs in consignment inventory as well as show growing profit to investors had to be one of the factors for moving production overseas back in the day.
As seen in Scott’s comments about running like their bigger company Burton that’s when they dipped their foot in the wormhole. They had to pull back because their risk is much greater if trying to compete with Firewire inventory levels Those levels creates a false brand perception while having no investment cost to the retailer. Without it in some shops that carry both has driven CIs sales down as well as everyone else that’s in there.
As one might say to themself,’ Do I want to see Scott J Anderson, the man that got me boards when he was sick or tired or had family obligations and that I’ve known for decades helping me win championships lose income for his family so I can stack a little bit of money on a big pile of money? Or maybe I should stay out of it all together and chill or put some money in something outside of surfing like golf.’ If you’re just looking at it from purely an investment point of view why wouldn’t you buy Firewire over CI. The only thing that would stop you is a conscience.
Nick,
Yes the risk is on the shaper or brand, plenty of cases out there is sporting goods where this has backfired.
Again to be clear CI never offered consignment as a standard option.
But there are different ways to run a consignment program. The consignment programs out now generally do have a “take-back” component. To be accurate though, consigned boards are not (should not) be invoiced, so you technically are not taking it back as it’s not really sold in the first place. The board still belongs to the brand as it sits on the shop floor. So the current consignment models have the stock rotated every few months to a different shop down the coast. This keeps the rack appearing fresh in the shop so the customers don’t see the same boards every time.
“Take-back” and mark-down credits are a common indsutry practice with shops on standard Net terms in all product categories. Started by the surf lifestyle industry, if any of the shop’s hoodies, hats, tees etc remained at the end of the season, the big brands would take them back or issue a credit. This strategy gradually spread to wetsuits and then surfboards. Although the (non-consigned) surfboards will generally sit 1 to 2 years before this return or mark-down credit happens. Having a shit yellow board on the rack is bad for the shop’s return, the shaper’s image and the customer who is sick of seeing it every time they go in.
Sorry for the ramble, there is countless other components and theories out there on the push and pull in surf retail
My apologies. Now I’m the jerk off. I know there are always two sides and I appreciate your side.
Ha no problem Lance, I dig seeing the passion about surfboards (even if directed against CI).
Nevermind that Pappas, I’ve got a new theory on the Ex-Presidents….
They’re all cohorts of the new president. I would know
This is branding over product all day long. It’s the new fucking Hypto Twato if ever I’ve seen it. I’m yet to see anyone do anything other than look like shit on them and that includes my favourite surfer of all time. I’m all up for revolution and Burch destroying some Indo point on a board which looks like my cock after too many mushrooms makes me immensely happy but just… no.
It’s definitely the new board of choice for cashed up kooks
More money in that
says who? just because they use a bio resin , what about the rest?
sarcasm, yeah?
Youtube videos of Kelly on CIs and then the next year at the same comps on Firewire. $ad, $ad, $ad
True!
Bells CT is next- One of my favs is Kelly vs Elko at bells in maybe Kellys first year. Ks on what looks like a 6’2 x 17″ x 1″7/8 with posca art. Kelly was surfing vertically and doing crazy tail slide reos, ABOVE the Lip.
Now sadly he cuts back half way up the face and avoids the lip
It is a sales award based on data collected from shops not design. It proves that there were a lot of Hypto Kryptos traded in last year and that Kelly doesn’t give a shit about people that actually design and shape boards. People that actually made it possible for him to be as wealthy as he is today. Those very same people are still trying to make a living in the lifestyle they love and loved back then when they were bringing him up. He’d rather bail out a company making boards in Thailand at this point in life(multi multi millionaire). Not bailing out Firewire and let them disappear would have directly helped a cool ass dude like Matt Kechele sell more boards on a more even playing field.
Kelly as a kid before he sold out his homeboy to surf for CI. Picture of Matt at work from his website sucking up dust so he can make some coin and we can surf.
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Nailed it!
Yes, you got it absolutely correct.. hence the lack of reverence for the goat amongst those of us handshaping on the east coast.., how much fuckin money do you need , Robert? how many small time, but “still making ends meet shapers” are you going to exterminate with your Thailand venture? Do you even give a shit? Nope, mo money, mo money, mo money…. thanks asshole
He sold out John Lucas way before Kechele… there’s a pattern there… no loyalty and truckloads of greed
James Ellroy would re label that ‘K’ on the deck to “K.K.K.” for Kelly’s Kareer Killers for his new Kompany.
Capitalism ftw!
Kelly Slater! The only surfer in history who has changed designers during his professional career!! You’re right, he deserves to be damned for his successes. I wonder what Kech would have to say about this by the way, you’re pretty free with standing on him as an example. I bet he’d have given Kelly his blessing at the time and would still look on him as a friend.
I’ve said none the such about his success. I applaud that. I’m sure they are still good friends. Matt just happens to be a great example of someone (one of the fathers of aerial surfing) hat financially carries burden from reduction of sales due to Kelly’s involvement in the companies he’s moved on to. Agents have a lot to do with these decisions, pushing and prodding. Its not just the surfer needing a board change from the board’s he’s already winning on. And now Kelly has done it on a bigger scale affecting all surfboard manufacturers except the one he decided to invest in. His hopes and dreams are capturing the majority of sales to places away from the coast if pools take off. Until that happens he is punishing the little guys with the fame that has come with his success. Success on the backs of the little guys.
Fair enough. I think a person like Kelly can never be right in a situation like this though. For you he was wrong to leave Kech for Al Merrick, then wrong to invest in FW and make a sales success out of his models. How could he have been right? Maybe the only way, as you suggest, would have been to stay out of the business altogether.
or just pull a John John
He does have one of every kind to sell, (left to right) too wide of a tail, too wide of a nose and his personal favorite too much rocker. Maybe if HE knew how to combine all 3 and refined the excess things would balance out. But, they are not “his models”. He would actually surf good on one of “his models” like he did with Mr Merrick, designed for him and then remodeled to work for consumers as well. How they arrange the size of the brand laminates would be up to them. Or HE would have to start from a blank or a blank screen refining until ready for market using what I’ve come to realize is equivalent to a hard earned PhD for those that know the real science behind how a board works.
Using a logo that purposely looks scientific doesn’t give you that knowledge. Maybe he knows a little so why not ask Matt B and Kelly the same rocker, bottom contour and fin placement questions for a board for you. Which one would give the most informative and accurate answer without batting an eye with details down to .001″? And then could use his hands to get you there from a big hunk of foam? The only thing Kelly is qualified for is a How to Surf video series on VHS. He might sell boards but he can’t be right and he knows it.
I know many have failed but since you know the history of surfing much better than me, how many surfer named companies where the surfer is not an actual designer/shaper have been and still are a success in a real surf shop? Should any of them be? Why?
Well how many Kellys are there? Many surfboard designers out there have relied on long term relationships with surfers at least as knowledgeable as them to stay in touch over the years. The days are long past when top surfers (e.g. Simon) had to learn to mow foam for a living in between tour stops. As you would know better than me, getting your shaping chops takes a lot of hours in the bay, and what top end pro would choose 12 hours a day in a Calle Valle sweat hole over a half million bucks a year just for perfecting their surfing? They invest in businesses, they don’t drive ’em; mostly they wouldn’t be capable of the workload. But the key would be that fundamentally, most top surfers aren’t that interested in other surfers. I doubt very much that KS invested in Firewire intending to make a fortune out of it, he has a restless mind and loves to think about surfboards as well as ride ’em. But he’d be hopeless at listening and designing specifically for a custom client. Maybe once, just to see if he could. But day after day? Ha.
My comment is to create awareness that they aren’t Kelly Slater’s Designs and so the whole branding is a lie. It wasn’t to entice Kelly to become a shaper. He’s just someone that can give feedback so a real designer can interpret that feedback into design change. Just like any other surfer that orders a custom. From FW website “the BANANA is a far more user-friendly version that Kelly and Greg developed for intermediate to advanced surfers” It’s quite obvious that the BANANA is not even user friendly to Kelly, one of the most advanced in the world. Who wants to take credit for that Kelly or Greg?
Fucken hell I surfed a 5’11” banana concave Webber the day before yesterday in a 4′ rip bowl here at home and the thing went insane, like it always does. I find them deeply user friendly and I am about 95 years old. I think though they must be hard to fit into the current judging criteria. They’re full on free surfing boards, not semi dulled down competition gear.
btw I think the line is a bit more blurred than surfer – “real designer”. It’s nine years ago that Kelly showed up at Pipe with a 5’11” round pin and blew everyone out of the water. The board was his idea and finished off a machine cut file that he’d mapped out (with the help of a shaper who knew the program). It completely turned people’s thinking around on performance boards and caused a significant reduction in outline length from pro level on across the spectrum. You can trace a lot of modern stuff back to that board.
Sima seem to selectively ignore the fact that Firewire’s consignment model with brick and mortar creates an unsustainable environment for upstarts & an economic vacuum that hurts local surf culture and has sped up the industry’s endemic race to the bottom.
The shipping of these boards from Thailand to the Americas and beyond is a massive environmental burden – Ballast and bilge water, noise, collisions with Wildlife and marine mammals, severe Atmospheric pollution, carbon footprint issues and oil spills seem like an abhorrent price to pay for a standardized surf craft made in a developing country with limited environmental regulations and cheap labor. In fact, Thailand’s economic growth has come at a great cost in damage to its people and environment – a place where environmental activists who point this out are routinely murdered or disappeared.
But hey – if you can land boards stateside for less than 100$ think of the markup!!!! And considering last year’s winner was a friggin Hypto Krypto, i don’t think the bar is set very high.
so happy he won. that creative, forward logo should win many many awards.
Hey Kelly my old pal…
Maybe I suggest a new concept in order to your 12th world title campain…?
A new and radical concept… but with him, you can return with full carves and cutties without bumps and kicks…
Here we call… THE PLANONDA!
And look to the outline?… And the bottom lines, and rocker? Edges?
Look the design… and the hot glass made with flowery bedsheet! Neither Outerknown and Slater Designs has this, stylish, groovy, fashion and high couture option!!!
JJF will get mad and with envy!!!
I garantee you my friend…with this concept… you will return to the sublime and tasty path of victory…
The 12 is yours…for only…
U$ 999, 90 + shipping
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Watch it – I started out on one of them.
Me too!!!
And for more speed and drive… we put with bottom’s up!!!
Yep, those gateway drugs were the worst. Could never work out whether to light them up or dissolve under the tongue.
The sci-fi is a Tomo and is the board that stu kennedy rides. Kelly doesn’t ride the sci-fi model.
Nobody should have to ride a sci-fi board
Cant say no if Firewire is paying you to ride them and you’re contractually obliged to ride said model in some heats..
Remember the rumors back in maybe 08′ when Taj, near the end of his run with Firewire, was riding/competing on traditional poly Mayhem’s with the rails airbrushed to look like they were Firewires (because lets face it, his surfing was never at its best on FST)? What if I told you my intel has verified the very same thing happening right now? Your new $800, award-winning, (Taiwanese made) eco-friendly shred sled may not actually be what you see under the feet of the man who has branded his very own name on it.
I’ll translate in simple English:
Kelly is riding Simon Anderson’s
Unless he’s having SA send shaped blanks across the globe to have them glassed in SoCal, can’t say I agree with you here.
Biolos then?
According to my sources (a snail and a bug) he rode Simons at trestles last year and kept them in his tour bag.
Either way, they aren’t Thai sticks
We should all be riding Simon Anderson’s. Our sports (religion?) messiah. I owe a lifetime of joy to thruster’s and the late Bruce Jones stellar craftsmanship.
Umm no he’s not. I crossed paths with big Simon on the way to surfing today and confronted him with your rumour. He laughed and shook his head and said something about not taking the blame for that.
What brand(s) of board do you ride Nick?
Umm fuck eh, AB/Byrning Spears, Maurice Cole, Rawson, Jed Done (a bloke who makes flextails here in Oz), a couple of Haydens, a Parmenter 12′ PSV, a couple of Webber PU banana rockers, a couple of Tomos (one hand shape, two FW), several others. I have a Free Flight ten channel singly which is pretty epic. A Malcolm Bonzer, a Mauricio Gil roundtail lil thing, an original Firewire Bert Burger with the true balsa rail. Probably leaving a few out here. I’m a strong believer in the value of custom board building and v heartened to see how the trade responded to the Asian invasion and the fallout from Clark’s closing by generally improving every aspect of quality and production. I think boards are underpriced. I like Firewire’s tech though too especially in short short boards e.g. Tomo planing hulls.
Thanks for the info. I wish I had some of those boards. I’m not directing all this at you personally. You’re a legend in my heart and so is Kelly. There are not many other platforms to give an alternate view to the mass marketed product and these byline opinion writers con us into to doing their dirty deeds.
The 50/50 (Hi Chilli you China board loving hunk) Asian/Domestic business model is strong these days. Quite a few mfgs using it in US and Australia. Not always as above board as it should be in my opinion.
By most domestic mfgs maintaining lifestyle profit margin pricing instead of gaining wealth through high prices forced FW to move offshore. That pricing structure has helped fend off many other wannabe invaders since most millionaire type investors know real money ain’t made in surfboards. Surftech and the like are all fading except GSI but most of their business is now in paddleboards and the withering Hypto Krypto.
If everyone raised their prices that would only create wider profit margin for companies like Firewire to work with giving them more incentive to take more market share. They would also create other brands so that one brand could be in one shop and then another brand could be across the street. I thought they might do that with ,ahem ahem, KSD since most are LFT which I estimate to be manufactured at a lower cost than FST while widening profits that way. KSD sales have cannibalized the rest of their offerings considerably but since the margins are higher (estimated since you do have to pay for the KS in front of the D) they don’t care.
I’ll try not to write anymore but I have a high compassion for dedicated people in any craft industry struggling against opportunists.
well the byline writer has sure conned everyone on this thread, it’s accidentally one of the most informative and best argued surfboard m/f discussions in surf media right now.
I’ve recently changed off big brand boards to a custom hand shaper. I snapped out of the ‘Pro model’ bubble because I had no say in feedback.
I’m paying more, but the surfer/shaper relationship is pure magic; turning my intangible rambling words into a tangible object.
I’m happier for it.
The power of the beachgrit community in all its might! Its great we can share rumours, and someone else can quash them for us. Much appreciated, and totes amusing
Are you telling me that one of Worlds best surfers actually doesn’t ride the boards he designed for the common man at the highest level in the competitive arena?!?
That would be correct in this case. But Stuey sure can ride the boards he (Kelly) designed for the common man at the highest level in the competitive arena, right Head Dip?
Stu is the tours very own common man.
Touché, but where would that leave Ace then?
Where does Bede fall in..?
Probably more likely to fall off than in… also couldn’t send that “film” on email?!? 2 GB file and rural internet don’t seem to gel…
Thanks for not forgetting.. We could try snail mail. Be glad to send you a jump drive with return postage.
As would I Negs
Not to stress Neg’s I’d be happy to pass it on. But you have to make me a promise..
Certainly, name it
i was going be immature make a pube joke.. Long day I’m to tired. Negs sent me his address so keep ol’pubes posted!
Check your inbox…
Yip, that’ll work… I’ll email your Disqus addy.
None of the CT guys on Firewire are riding the boards you see in the shops. They are tweaking and changing the designs all the time and feedback they give goes into the stock boards that get produced. Unfortunately end consumers don’t want to pay $2000 for a board so things that are popular and need mass production have to go to cheaper labour markets as wages/rent/tax in aus/us generally make it pretty difficult to run huge factories. Specially when we are all surfers and generally only want to work just enough so we can Fuck off and surf. C I and lost are the only ones who do a good job of out sourcing globally via license to shapers in other countries. Rant.
Of course they’re not riding what is in the shops. I’ve never ridden anything from a shop either. My point is, it’s a bit hypocritical when selling “eco-friendly” epoxy/EPS boards built in an extremely cheap labor market for top retail dollar, while they continue riding a traditional poly/PU board with the stringer painted black to fool the consumer. I believe that to be false advertisement in one form or another
I think you’ll find they’re a bit of both. And “top retail dollar” is why things get made in extremely cheap labour markets. How many Outer Known garments have you purchased?
DHD + JS
What part of my rant?
You see Stu lose at Margies on one? He was riding it, true. Just v badly
I have no inside knowledge, but those boards look so shit they must surely be slaters own boards
No shit
like those black railed boards Ando rides for the HK/HS , Kelly rides stringered polyester boards in PU , but painted to look like his Slater designs , but you can’t miss those banana , well with less rocker , and a modern stinger and Swallow tail , from GW who now claims they are still too advanced for ol’ baldy , ah Kook wisdom!
Which would you prefer to win, a few 3rd round heats (maybe a 12th world title) or a Sima(?) award?
Is this even a real question? SIMA obvs…
When in doubt, stick with the Chinese pop-out!
Thailand actually
By supremely skilled artisans
Their wetsuits are nice, at least.
Nah, best wetsuits handstitched by North Korean child slaves
No, really …
A Rip Curl fan, I see.
100%
Those delicate, tiny, frightened fingers
Creating superior surfing wetsuit technology, making premium durability, comfort and innovation
What’s not to love?
I am the holder of multiple SIMBA awards for lion about how well I was surfing before youse cunts showed up.