The noted shaper Maurice Cole on why small is the new big…
Earlier today, I posted a podcast with Kelly Slater and mentioned, in passing, that I’d interviewed Maurice Cole for The Surfer’s Journal.
In that particular interview, Maurice, who is now sixty three and who was at one time the most in-demand shaper in the world, spoke about the great crisis facing the surf industry. Surfboard sales down fifty per cent, clothes thirty or forty.
Jobs lost, workers living in fear, the whole show crippled.
And, in that world, he says, it’s the little company, online-only, dynamic, that is going to survive and thrive.
Like Maurice’s pal Ryan Scanlon’s wetsuit and accessories brand, Need Essentials.
(Read how Need blew into life here.)
“Go to Torquay and half the people in the water are in Need wetsuits,” says Maurice. “Adam Robbo just pulled me up the other day and told me he’d bought four. ‘I can buy three four-threes for 300 bucks apiece and I’ve got a dry wetsuit every time. Some of the best wetsuits I’ve ever worn,’ he said.”
According to Maurice, friends all over the world are getting into ’em. And it ain’t exactly rocket science why.
“People like Scanno are delivering really good technical product for a cheaper price. Scanno’s got as much fucking credibility as anyone else and people are loving the suits,” says Maurice. “Three hundred instead of six hundred. All blown away. Need was opposite me at a trade show recently and even my business partner bought one. One hundred and twenty dollars for a two mm suit. He couldn’t believe it.”
The surf industry, says Maurice, is either going to sink or swim.
“It’s like, fuck, a readjustment.”
check out http://www.saintjacques-wetsuits.com 😉
Seriously though a few companies right now I’m trying to proto somthing a little less gay and more functional than the BG trunks but not by much, surfing in a couple now seeing if any rash the wrong spots etc. Better surfing thru surfing?
The North Vietnamese have very tiny hands and me whipping them every so often helps keep quality up.
Hey Derek, did you ask the obvious question? (Et tu Brutus?)
Which obvious question? I’ll ask!
Jeez, I put it in brackets.
I am sick of looking like a fucking cyclist when I surf. Just ordered three of them. Hope they’re as good as they look.
“our report on development that rest of the world figured out five years ago, next at eleven”
Fuck! Shhhhhhh! We need kids walking away from the Rip Curl outlet crushed coz Mommy can’t buy them a $700 wetsuit! This shit should not be advertised with such a fierce trumpet; we need higher barriers for entering the surf game! MC is a ledge tho…
I’ve been having Waters wetsuit jackets made by them for years, their board shorts aren’t bad either on rash factor
Clothing sales crashing I get. Board sales, I understand less. Is this a sign that we’re all fucked economically? Or something else. Any theories?
board materials or construction are getting better i think. i was talking to a ding repair guy the other day and i realized halfway through the convo that i dont really get dings that much anymore. stopped using board bags and everything, just kinda chuck boards around and they seem to hold up better. maybe that has something to do with declining sales.
I had this very conversation the other day with an old friend, unfortunately we also came to the conclusion that we surf far far less than we did 20 years ago hence boards seeming to “last” longer…
and when you have a board for two foot waves, a board for mushy 3 foot waves, a board for semi-barreling 3 foot waves, and another for fully barreling 3 foot waves, they really start lasting a long time.
100%!
I’d hate to admit but being an old pussy also plays a significant factor…
The last board I snapped was at Sumatran Pipe bailing on a set wave 3 years ago and before that, maybe about 6 years earlier from a badly timed paddle out… so two snapped boards in the last decade.
In my twenties I’d snap a couple a year just from flat-out charging.
indeed. in my 20’s it was three shortboards a year from pure delamination. and i wish i could claim i was charging when i snap em in front of the fins on tail drop floats.
I find the opposite. I seem to shag new boards within a few session. I am a few stone heavier now but have bought a few seconds that have lasted so much longer. light glass jobs and rushed unglazed finishes on new boards, ok if you’re a pro but for the average jo no good. can’t afford to pay out a couple of months wages every year for a board and wettie!!!!
I’m in a similar boat, except I’m still in my 20s. Weigh 185-190, just got a brand new sharpeye and within 5 sessions I’ve got footwells and finger imprints on the deck/bottom from duckdiving. Had the same thing happen to my last JS. The glassjobs are just far too light for the average person.
I think materials are part of it, yeah. But also, around here, there’s at trend toward garage-diving and diy stuff. That’s part style, part financial. And then there seem to be fewer people on thin, light shortboards. If your board’s 2 1/2 instead of 2 1/4 and it’s got a heavier glass job, maybe with a fancy tint or whatevs, it’s going to last longer than a chippy thing.
fuckin (805)
totally it’s all our fault
Well heavier glass jobs would do it, for sure. The Channel Islands boards with the UL glass lasted about a week before they just turned to mush. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that my boards are bigger than they used to be and prob use 6oz instead of 4oz glass in lots of places.
Yeah — I bought a fish last year and that thing is going to last until the end of time, really. My shortboards, not so much.
I think it depends on the board category. My understanding is Wavestorm sales are through the roof.
Supply and demand. More boards being made cheaply, filling shops who have to pay rent, meaning the savings on production aren’t passed on to consumers. Punters use the same board for longer, no market for second hand boards, less cash in the hand. It’s been a false market for a while.
We all know that one guy down the beach with 17 boards at home and the difficulties of choosing a sled to ride each day. It’s his fault.
Why are you blaming me?
Ha! It used to be me.
You know how recovering addicts are always the worst. Hence vegetarians.
yeah, I think there is an official split between “performance” board builders (guys who make boards for people that compete, call em shortboard shapers) and the line of guys that branch somewhere off of Ryan Burch and Tyler Warren, who are the shaping equivalent of craft beer. one must take one road or the other, and the garage hippies are doing just fine. they just don’t buy ads in mags, unless you can get money from Foam EZ or the print shop that makes their banners.
It’s different all over the world. Australian board sales are fine, by and large. The US west coast is another story.
Good intel – I thought the 50% drop was a pretty dramatic step change for the entire global industry.
I’m curious if board sales includes wavestorms
I was slightly underwhelmed by my 3/2.. Very comfortable on land but not as warm as I thought it would be in the water. The chest zip is tearing after one season too. It’s probably my ridiculous pecs but still.
Yep – agree on the fit, but the past couple of weeks has seen me looking at cheap rip curl 3/2’s from the states as I’ve been freezing.
Always order one size up with Needs ie if you’re normally a large, order large tall or extra large depending on your fit. The seams always leak, that sucks. Great value but not the best wettie
Good tip. I was thinking about ordering a 4/3 but thought it might be overkill for Sydney in winter / or a sign the 3/2 isn’t warm enough.
Fancy surfing being back in the hands of surfers! Just amazing…
Kelly was wearing one down here in Victoria round Easter. He also rides a Sci-Fi which looks shit.
Bought a 4.3 need wettie this winter. $240. Unfuckingbelievable. Sure it’s maybe not quite as flexy as my old $600 wettie, but fuck me, $240! Absolute hands down winner. Buying another 2mm short arm steamer this week just for the hell of it.
AND you don’t look like a fluorescent fricken billboard when you go for a surf!
I painted the words pits, pills and pussy on mine so I looked like a cool seal.
Seal? Or a cool Ozzie/Noah rip off?
Yeah either way a cool cunt. PS Noa loves dong.
Thats my favorite post you’ve ever made.
Same, plus 16 buck delivery. Happy as Larry with it.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
so that’s which Larry!
Never mind the cheap wetsuits, does anyone know what to do before “bed tonight to burn belly flab all night long”???????
yeah stress out over your job in the Surf Industry , or go to Bali , leave your bedroom door unlocked and hope they take the flab and not your kidney’s.
Haha; it’s a good thing I didn’t click on that ad: off to Bali!!
Am I getting this right, “No Fear” has rebranded itself as “Fear” and have successfully set up a DPRK-styled hostel work camp where “Fear”‘s sort of kinda forced loyal workers reside and work?
Brilliant!
And they don’t have to pay those excessive pro surfer salaries either.
The torryn thing kinda contradicts that huh? Legit
Well sure, until he makes the CT. But up til then it’s all about the underground.