You’re so vain…
….I bet you think this post is about you.
Or,
“The over thinker’s guide to inaction”.
Alrighty. I’m not sure what you know about me or my work. So here’s a quick recap.
I ran surfboard building courses for years in an attempt to avoid being a “shaper”.
Failed to avoid it.
Discovered I loved it.
Had a huge crisis of faith because of the toxic nature of board building.
Discovered there were ways to build boards sustainably.
Jacked in my entire previous set up and jumped into sustainable surfboards with both feet.
So far, so good. No way anyone could misinterpret that as anything other than me talking about me (no matter how vain that is in itself).
The problem I find myself with now is I’ve inadvertently turned myself into the board building equivalent of a vegan joke.
-A vegan, a new atheist and an anti-vaxxer walks into a bar...
-I know because they told me.
I’m genuinely over the moon with this new build method. It’s sustainable, it’s non polluting, it doesn’t rely on the oil industry and the raw materials grow on trees (or actually are trees) rather than coming in containers with such wonderful slogans as “Toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects” and “suspected of causing genetic defects”. I want to enthuse, extoll and exclaim. I want to shout from the fucking roof tops;
“SURFBOARDS ARE DEAD! LONG LIVE SURFBOARDS!!”
But I don’t.
People will actively rebel against anything that could be seen as sanctimonious and to make matters worse, of my professional board builder friends and associates, I’m the only one so far to have made this decision. Every social media post I make feels like it will be interpreted as a “holier than thou” shot across the bow of their livelihoods. In a couple of instances, this is exactly how they have been taken.
So I play it down.
I try not to mention the toxicity of traditional methods. The long term environmental and health damage. I try not to talk about any instances where my boards perform better than PU/Polyester or EPS/Epoxy. Being the age I am I wanted to do a Twin Peaks ”wrapped in Plastic” parody. Agent Cooper looking forlornly at the conventional board washed up on the shore… Okay, that last one would probably only appeal to me but It doesn’t matter because I’d never make it for fear of someone thinking I’m having a pop at THEIR boards.
Friends have pointed out, that if I believe in something I should shout about it. That their reaction isn’t my responsibility. . A whole raft of really kind, positive takes that really do make a difference to my headspace and encourage me to pull my head out of my arse. To some extent, that was the final push for me to do this blog (yeah I’m pinning this shit on you lot already). The perfect wuss-out, soft solution. Not even shouting into the void but shouting into a small box and posting it to the void under cover of night.
Personally, I still absolutely froth on people’s work whether it’s “eco” or not. A well laid down resin pinline is still a work art. A crisp cutlap or a perfect polish still set my heart a flutter. New curves and contours have my mind racing regardless of their origins. Innovation in board design is innovation for all surfers. New ways for us all to explore our ocean canvass. I want to be the kind of shaper “vegan” who can appreciate the marbling on the steak whilst raving about his veggie kebab and I think it would be fucking rad if the board building “carnivores” could do the same. It’s okay. The corn on the cob isn’t out to get you.
Anyway. I promise that this isn’t the only sort of twaddle I’m going to be posting. I’ve got a really nice (if bloody frustrating) board project that I’ve had to keep under wraps for a while that I’m hoping to show on here, warts and all. I’ve got a few mates who’s rad shit I’d like to show off. And after half term, I’ll be updating this with more in depth stuff about my day to day board building.
Still pretty fucking niche but then I did warn you.
Thanks for reading.
TTFN X
“Wrapped In Plastic” ;-)