Smorgasboarder_23_Feb_2016-s

CLOSEOUT: COLUMNS
(CIRCA 1990-2000)
1. Customer goes to shaping bay/factory
see’s shaper in person
2. Shaper takes his weight and height (if
you’re lucky)
3. Shaper determines what this customer
needs based on what the shaper thinks
the guy/girl needs and what the shaper
is currently riding more than likely.
4. Customer says OK and leaves to wait
for the call; “its ready mate”
5. Customer has no idea what he/she
ordered or why, other than what he/
she was told to.
6. Sometimes the board is magic
sometimes not
7. Customer spends the rest of his/her
life trying to find a board that is as
good “as that board I had before”
8. Customer can’t do this because he/
she has no idea why it worked or what
he needs.
9. Customers surfing becomes bipolar
- sometimes awesome, sometimes
hating surfing - because of his boards
and whether he/she can find a good
one that “works”
The same was true of shop fronts too where
you went in and were handed whatever
Occy just rode to his world title comeback
after shedding a good 30kg destroying Bells
on his backhand. You stood there in your Hot
Tuna shorts and Bad Billys t-shirt (Bad Billys
is back too!) expecting you’d be ripping next
surf, but you weren’t a rejuvenated Occy,
and you weren’t surfing Bells in a finals
heat either most likely, so what were the
chances of that happening? Well thankfully
the dark ages of surfing are mostly over
and the religion of information has gifted
us the notion that surfers should know why
their boards work and what sort of boards
they can, and should ride, but so many of
us still don’t. That is the whole point here
really – the whole mantra of these articles
– to enlighten you the reader, to turn on the
lights in the dark room for the surfer and to
make your surfing experience better for you.
To have you surfing in a way that makes you
happy and gets the most out of your time in
the water.
Now my theory is that happy customers are
repeat customers. That notion of the closely
guarded secret, the idea of the shaper as
some sort of mystical guru with the power
to bestow upon you some magical weapon
capable of changing your life - if only you
unwaveringly accept what you’re told and
ask no questions of course (that you should
even dare to pose your feeble questions to
this elevated being!) - is a big old pile of
warm horse poop.
Personally I tend to divulge too much
information rather than too little, ask
anyone who has ever met me. I’m sure my
customers need a little lie down after we’re
through, but the more ‘you the customer’
understand the process, how it works, why
it works - the more times we are going
to hit the mark in the little custom order
dance and the more times I’m going to
see your face or have you clogging up my
inbox and voicemail, which is great. My
house extensions won’t pay for themselves
now will they? This becomes especially
true given the sheer volume of orders I
receive from other parts of the country and
the world at large. In today’s small world
having a shared vision of relative perception
between the shaper and customer is
ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL.
To do this the key is getting inside the
customers head. More than anything else
this is, I feel, the key to good design and a
happy customer. I could shape you a board
that might be my Sistine Chapel but if it
doesn’t float your boat it might as well be
a kickboard and a pair of floaties for all the
good it’s going to do you.
So how do I as a shaper and hopefully the
other shapers out there overcome this?
How does your local shop jockey who has
you cornered against the board rack, asking
“ya need a hand mate or are ya happy just
lookin’?” figure out the difference between
your dream board and the proverbial
turd? … Well we/they should be asking
questions… lots and lots of questions.
Then after all that, you guessed it, more
questions.
I question my customers like a wild-eyed
Spanish Priest during the inquisition. I
hammer them like a parent hammering a
teenage son who’s late in the door after
curfew. I’m merciless, relentless, a real
hound dog hungry for the bone of truth. I
expect one day someone will either just
walk away mid conversation saying, “it’s
just not worth it!” or hang up on me, or
worse. However if you do unwittingly find
yourself on the receiving end of my barrage,
before you crack under the strain, admit
defeat and leave to order your board online
without any input from anyone, shaper or
shop staff, know this: It’s for your benefit
SUMMER 2016 | SMORGASBOARDER 103