Experts on fin foil and surfboard volume!
Lately, and much like the principals of this website,
I’ve hit a fiscal wall. Gotta throw cash to make it, but
while you’re waiting for the return salvo, times can get tough. As
a way of feeding my more wolfish creditors I’ve begun liquidating
my surfboard collection.
Nine Losts, a HS, a Genfour and a
Slater Designs.
What moved the fastest? The Slater Designs flew off the
online auction house within hours. I even flipped a noseless
Lost V3 my kid brother had found on the curb for $80. One
man came by for a Lost Short-Round that had been ridden
twice. Three hundred bucks. A deal offered by a drowning man. One
ding on the rail, a couple of heel dents. The man arrives and
cusses me out for trying to rip him off and wasting his time.
I feel for the poor schlubs in surf stores who deal with this
sorta bullshit all day. Volume has to be my most hated word this
week. I had one guy write, “So I normally ride a 32L but this board
is 31.4. I’m thinking this this board might be under-volumed for
me.”
Rocker, contour, wide-point, rail profile, measurements within
one-sixteenth of an inch… every single detail is forensically
examined by these maybe-buyers.
Has the proliferation of design information on the internet
created a hobby within a hobby?
Fins are now open season. A couple of buyers were analysing the
profile, foil, material, and suitability to the board model of a
set of fins that were being chucked in with the sale. These
self-professed “low-level intermediates” were very serious about
the workings of their rudders.
“Plastics are no good,” wrote one. “Are the TP1’s anything like
the HS Ando fin or F8 Blackstix? From what I have researched today,
I think it’s important to put a fin in the board that has least
some of the desired qualities of what is recommend for that model
to get the best out of it. I’m close to pulling the pin on
this…”
The quest to differentiate boards via technicalities and buzz
words has led to an army of beginner and intermediate surfers who
blame these buzz words and other finer details on their lack of
ability to bust a full-rotor or jam the fins.
I don’t have a problem with it per se. As long as the board
sells.
But, I ask, and in all seriousness, what sort of wonderful
experiences have you had with garage sale buyers?
Maybe you work in a store? What’s the wildest thing you’ve been
told? And does the below-average surfer tend to exaggerate his
ability?
