SF number 2 do we really need to go there

Oh how rude of the rest of the guy's In all the hasty debates tonight, we all forgot to welcome you to the forum

laceys lane said...

your not the first person around the traps to be fronted by this bloke. a funny story is he went up to dale chapman one time trying to sell him a board. you can imagine the rest.

Maybe it's just me and my lack of imagination, but I would like to hear the rest. Every gory detail.

What makes them fly by nighters? And what gives you the right to judge there buisness practices. What if the "guys" interesred in the sport and wants to develop there own brand! Im sure if i had a spare $20 grand i wouldnt be wasting it on the hard flog to try enter in an already saturated market.
Why are are you knocking someone that might be trying to live the dream, only to be pigeon holed because he's not a "windsurfer brand" with multinational investment bucks behind them. he reads the forum. he made the effert to go to a demo day. If youre a retailer or shaper its called competition. Step it up and dont winge. If you dont like the shape dont buy it. The guys are probably living off 2 minute noodles anyway.
Too bad if these "guys" were going to be the next GSI. What would be your thoughts if he morgaged his house and invested in legit advertising?
Way to go tall poppie farmer

lookielookie said...

What makes them fly by nighters? And what gives you the right to judge there buisness practices. What if the "guys" interesred in the sport and wants to develop there own brand! Im sure if i had a spare $20 grand i wouldnt be wasting it on the hard flog to try enter in an already saturated market.
Why are are you knocking someone that might be trying to live the dream, only to be pigeon holed because he's not a "windsurfer brand" with multinational investment bucks behind them. he reads the forum. he made the effert to go to a demo day. If youre a retailer or shaper its called competition. Step it up and dont winge. If you dont like the shape dont buy it. The guys are probably living off 2 minute noodles anyway.
Too bad if these "guys" were going to be the next GSI. What would be your thoughts if he morgaged his house and invested in legit advertising?
Way to go tall poppie farmer


Here Here

Geez LookieLookie, talk about hitting a nerve. For starters I think you've turned up the wrong street. I respect your views and comments and I'm not knocking their business practices. But ^&*$ mate, I don't think you'd be cool with a some random guy that you've parked next to, in your face that close that it felt like I had smoked his cigarette he butted out 20 mins before hand,bagging the boards I have, which happen to be both by local Goldy and Sunny Coast shapers and telling me my choice is poor based on price. Yeah great business practices!
If this bloke does become the next GSI, good luck to him. Maybe his decision to mortgage the house paid off. By the way mate, we're all trying to live the dream. Its the way you go about it leads to the reality of it all.
Don't farm poppie's in Sunny Coast. Way too humid!

Larrabee said...

Geez LookieLookie, talk about hitting a nerve. For starters I think you've turned up the wrong street. I respect your views and comments and I'm not knocking their business practices. But ^&*$ mate, I don't think you'd be cool with a some random guy that you've parked next to, in your face that close that it felt like I had smoked his cigarette he butted out 20 mins before hand,bagging the boards I have, which happen to be both by local Goldy and Sunny Coast shapers and telling me my choice is poor based on price. Yeah great business practices!
If this bloke does become the next GSI, good luck to him. Maybe his decision to mortgage the house paid off. By the way mate, we're all trying to live the dream. Its the way you go about it leads to the reality of it all.
Don't farm poppie's in Sunny Coast. Way too humid!

That particular guy does sound like a dick!!
I wouldnt even buy his van

Any hints on brand name or names and the BIG question is,why don't they join the rest at the event and not sit outside

Yeah hard to make a call either way. It is relatively easy to find a manufacturer in China and if you can take them some pretty good shapes they can pop 'em out. Same with almost any product in any industry. I say support the local retailer as you may well run into warranty issues, need after sales support, new leggie, deckpad etc and the "White Van Guy" won't be able to back up his boards with any after sales service.

CHINA
Take LSD boards for example. Because Luke is a reputable shaper he gets credibility for bringing in a container of boards. The shapes IMO are REALLY good but nothing ground breaking.

Hyperthetical...John Smith worked in an office for 20 years and needs a life change. He loves to SUP and has done for years so he decides to get an experienced shaper mate to develop him some shapes. He takes these shapes over to China, gets them mass produced and brings a container in. If "John" is willing to market his products, tries to support the sport through events/ demo days etc etc then thats his choice and good on him. Some other big name brands are out of China as well but because they did it first does this mean they are that much different.

BUT...I'm not willing to support someone who is cashing in by bringing in a container of "No Name" boards that are old shapes heavy etc with no design influence. If their intention is to sell them off the beach with almost no overheads to people that don't know better then that stinks. This may be the case with this guy in QLD but I don't know.

Sadly this is how the world is, a family friend retired after selling S&%T LOADS of cast iron fire place stoker set thingys he brought in from China. He was either the first (or one of) and local manufacturers couldn't compete with him on price and he won some massive contracts to supply some big retail chains.

Another friend was one the receiving end as he was making BBQ covers out of his garage for a few of the big chains and he got stitched by someone that went to China. Now these retail chains have stitched everyone by going vertical and getting their own made overseas.

Back to SUP, the best thing about SUP at the moment is that shapes are continually changing/improving. The Naish/PSH/Starboard ranges (to name a few) keep changing and IMO are amazing and this makes it hard for the guys that want to cash in. I also think that most people getting into the sport are doing their research on brands due to the cost of their purchase. People want to make the right purchase. The "Off the beach" guy might get a few impulse purchases but you can't survive on that. The custom guys like DC will survive due to people progressing and wanting something that is designed to suit their needs.

Thats all I got, probably a load of...but it's late!

Larrabee said...

I guess we don't Mac, but we were hassled from some guy selling SUP's out the back of his van on Sunday down at the Pirate Park in Palm Beach, which has left a sour taste in my mouth. My wife an I had been paddling demo boards from some Local Shapers and some big name brand boards from SUP Specialty Shops. Sizes from 8' to 17' boards, in which we were stoked to get to paddle these boards and even chat to the shapers and company representitives about them. I am also aware that quite a few of these boards we paddled are manufactured in China. But the difference is, those brands have been around for a long time and deserve to be leading labels. I'm just a little concerned of the "fly by nighters" making a quick buck and moving on. We are from the Sunny Coast and its happening there too. What I was trying to put across was to support your local shapers and specialty shops who have the knowledge and expertise in this sport. They are the ones that will give you the ongoing service and guidance with SUP. Its only going to be a matter of time before it gets out of control.

Was he that Israeli guy?

Makaha. Didn't see a brand on the board although it did have a hand made logo on the bottom, just above the made in China label. Now these boards actually looked good quality. And as LookieLookie said, if you don't like the shape, then you don't buy it. True. I guess it came across the wrong way in the start but I'm not categorising everyone in the same boat. I probably wouldn't have said anything if he hadn't approached me. I found it just a bit invasive when you're tieing boards on the roof of your car and strapping the kids in and this random guy starts telling me that the boards I have (from reputable shapers) aren't as versitile as his and so on and so on. Really, if I need this info, you go to the guys who are the experts. By the way, this was all said as the boards lay on the roof of my car. It did bug me and by voicing my opinion has started a bit of a avalanche. Didn't mean to get anybody down, and everyone deserves a fair go but hey, there's a time and a place and way to go about things. In fact, if he does get to offload those boards and assessories, good on him for giving it ago. It just seems too many of these operators are popping up. I just wonder who's shapes they are?

lookielookie said...

What makes them fly by nighters? And what gives you the right to judge there buisness practices. What if the "guys" interesred in the sport and wants to develop there own brand! Im sure if i had a spare $20 grand i wouldnt be wasting it on the hard flog to try enter in an already saturated market.
Why are are you knocking someone that might be trying to live the dream, only to be pigeon holed because he's not a "windsurfer brand" with multinational investment bucks behind them. he reads the forum. he made the effert to go to a demo day. If youre a retailer or shaper its called competition. Step it up and dont winge. If you dont like the shape dont buy it. The guys are probably living off 2 minute noodles anyway.
Too bad if these "guys" were going to be the next GSI. What would be your thoughts if he morgaged his house and invested in legit advertising?
Way to go tall poppie farmer

What is wrong with what this guy is doing is he is selling of the beach which is illegal as far as i know he pays no insurance he has no over heads which sure he can cut costs. If some one takes money on the beach or in a car park for a product being board or lessons with out council approval it is illegal. I know from the very first day we started selling stuff we had a legit place of business and if you can not factor that in to you cost then maybe you should not bother.

I have run into this guy as well and he wanted to be my partner in importing SUP's but i wouldn't touch him with a 10ft pole.

Jacko

paul.j said...

lookielookie said...

What makes them fly by nighters? And what gives you the right to judge there buisness practices. What if the "guys" interesred in the sport and wants to develop there own brand! Im sure if i had a spare $20 grand i wouldnt be wasting it on the hard flog to try enter in an already saturated market.
Why are are you knocking someone that might be trying to live the dream, only to be pigeon holed because he's not a "windsurfer brand" with multinational investment bucks behind them. he reads the forum. he made the effert to go to a demo day. If youre a retailer or shaper its called competition. Step it up and dont winge. If you dont like the shape dont buy it. The guys are probably living off 2 minute noodles anyway.
Too bad if these "guys" were going to be the next GSI. What would be your thoughts if he morgaged his house and invested in legit advertising?
Way to go tall poppie farmer

What is wrong with what this guy is doing is he is selling of the beach which is illegal as far as i know he pays no insurance he has no over heads which sure he can cut costs. If some one takes money on the beach or in a car park for a product being board or lessons with out council approval it is illegal. I know from the very first day we started selling stuff we had a legit place of business and if you can not factor that in to you cost then maybe you should not bother.

I have run into this guy as well and he wanted to be my partner in importing SUP's but i wouldn't touch him with a 10ft pole.

Jacko

Could not agree more. It is 100% illegal for any business to operate out of a car park and take money in a car park on the Gold Coast.

That is why there are over 29 Surf Schools on the Goldie, and 8 of them have shops that they pay rent for.
These board Sellers/Lesson providers can discount what ever they want as they have no overheads. By doing this they completely devalue all services provided by professional shop fronts.

Grey hair white van dude

62mac said...

Grey hair white van dude

Naaaahhh Mac but i know who you're talking about lol

Marty