Santa Barbara shaper on the divine nature of surfboards…
Don’t you love a family biz? It’s an increasingly rare, and possibly archaic, concept where short-term profits are ignored for the creation of a legacy and where quality, not cash, counts as success.
Now let’s be clear. Channel Islands Surfboards is an almost-fifty-year-old surfboard company that was created by Al Merrick in 1969, but it ain’t a family biz anymore. Snowboard giant Burton ate it up in 2006.
What keeps it homely is the continued presence of Al’s son, Britt, as a shaper and designer. In this short profile of Merrick Jnr, made by the surf hire start-up Awayco, we find the up-beat shaper talking about the beginnings of CI,
“I don’t have any memories that pre-date surfboards. Both my parents worked there full-time and had second jobs. Dad would hand-shape each board, glass it and mom would sell it out the front.”
The joy of the biz,
“We love surfing and we love surfers and we’re all united by this experience of riding waves.”
And,
“Shaping is pure art. Every board I shape, it’s…it’s… deeply connected from my heart… It can’t just work, it has to be beautiful… I was shaping this morning, the sun was up and I was working on a hand-shape and working hard on it… but I was so pleased with how beautiful it was.”
Britt, who is forty five years old and a pastor with the Reality Church (watch his sermons on ‘The Gift of Tongues’ and ‘The Gift of Prophecy’ here), sums up the building of surfboards thus:
“We’re not making widgets, we’re making this thing we love.”
Heavenly, yes?
Don’t trust the french
two kinds of surfers, ones that try to make a living out of their pastime and those that don’t. it requires considerable self-delusional powers but it can be done effectively. its kinda like a cult, they know everyone who isn’t in the industry kinda wishes they would just stop and drive for Uber already. (shapers not included in “industry”, i mean the softgoods cats)
Hahaha from experience?
Reality Church. Now there’s an ultra-high purity contradiction in terms.
Someone please explain the correlation between surfing and Jesus freaks? It seems our fun pass time attracts a over abundance of the species. I think Tom Blakes church of the open sky credos might be the best answer. Good for Britt trying to find meaning in this life and the mind numbing activity of commercial shaping for a living. Mowing foam day in day out looks like commercial landscaping or maybe house painting.
athleisure then yoga then spirituality then Purps then Jesus
you only need to see the 3 previous story head lines to back up your call.
If surfboards are supposed to beautiful, explain the weirdo ripper
nah, that first one Dane sawed the tail off was the real beauty
hey I love my weirdo ripper!
Well that little biographical tidbit convinced me not to buy a CI for my next board, yes I know, I am a bigot.
https://www.theguardian.com…
Does doing the Hokey Pokey count as ‘Social Revolution’?
Only if you put your LEFT FOOT in(to the RIGHT).
I was lucky enough to be forced into attending Church and Sunday School until I was 16. It has given me sufficient knowledge of the Bible to completely fuck over any happy clapper who is unfortunate enough to darken my doorstep. Hypocritical Motherfuckers. All of them.
hypocritikal
You won’t believe that I changed that typo as you were typing your response. Swear to God! 😉
Who?
(Shoulda left the mistake:))
I guess, I would have been forgiven.
Allegedly, yes.
Burton Mathematics/Economics:
Cocaine + Surfing = Snow + Boarding
Not as deep as those tax free pockets.
God, save us from your believers.
(805) is lousy with em
I just spoke to Jesus and he said no shit hair cuts in Heaven. Sorry Britty. You’re more than welcome down in Hell with me though, pal. Love (most of) your boards. The Sampler is a piece of shit. Thankfully most of mine is embedded in the wheel arch of my girlfriend’s Subaru Forester now.
Do you wish, like Britt, you had such…certainty? “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God” says his church. Big-ish call, yes?
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
Seneca the Younger. He could probably make a decent WSL commentator or coach with quotes of his , like the one you used above abs(e)nt, and another little gem from the younger stoic 2000yrs ago “ Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity “. Interesting to see Seneca’s criticism of religion sprouting from the same epoch as the birth of Christianity.
Religion gives cynics a great opportunity to step on the values of others while satisfing their own need to feel superior. Truely something for everybody!
yeah, but at least we mind our business. anyone ever come to your house asking you to quit believing in Santa?
Yes, Jehovas Witness people often come by. I don’t share their point of view but I do respect that they don’t have to think like me.
who disrespected your thoughts? i’m talking about people disrespecting my privacy and life generally. if you were thinking its ok to evangelize, then yeah, fuck those thoughts.
The disrespect I am talking about is the general atheist bandwagon that all of the “thinking people” seem to be on. I am not disclosing my faith or lack of it, only pointing out that common theme of the comments here is negativity about a man religious faith. People can think and believe what they want but there is no right answer.
we really aren’t even statistically significant, the vast majority are people worldwide are people of faith. now, men of science are going to struggle with that Adam and Eve, on the sixth day business. but yeah, i like to call them skeptics, or data driven. and if you don’t like arguing with them we’re super easy to avoid.
When something that is factually untrue is tied into the fabric of society and government that is a problem. When it is being used to fatten the pockets of the rich (ie no property tax, funding corrupt politicians) that is a problem. When it is being used to control a population and keep it essentially asleep, that is a problem.
Britt has licked more toads than Moses in my opinion, mate.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
This could be applied to Trump supporters.
No wonder Kelly left, bought Firewire and took Trav Lee with him.
Imagine picking up ya boards and getting an hour long sermen!
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… .
Had a couple walk up my driveway clutching a bible the other day. I told them they could stay if they could explain a few things.
1/. Is it ‘an eye for an eye’, or ‘turn the other cheek’?
2/. Why is it that a child born in any region, almost always follows the religion of their parents, which also happens to be the dominant religion of that region?
3/. Are you vegetarian? If not, didn’t the Lord say “I give you the seeds and the berries and these shall be your meat”? Why should I listen to you, when you don’t even follow your own book?
They walked.
I like the bit where water is turned into wine.
And why was the word of God only revealed to the Chinese with the arrival of the first missionaries in the seventh century? Six hundred years worth of doomed souls!
And the Mormons. They’re almost normal until you get them on to their origin stories.
The Bible Preacher and the threesome girls next to it! Beach grit, ain’t there nothing sacred?