You, the customers, make these choices and vote with the dollars you spend.
Unfortunately, most surfers go for low cost and “performance”, but costs of foam, resin, and fiberglass are increasing- the result is board prices are going up. Fragility of glass boards is legendary. The crossover point is coming, and a green, strong bamboo surfboard could soon be cheaper than polyester/urethane/glass.

Let’s look at the cost of “normal” surfboards compared to other things:

	Item cost in 1963 $	Cost in 2007 $	Increase factor
Whole wheat bread loaf	$                    .39	$              4.00	10+ times higher
Gallon of gasoline	$                    .22	$              3.00	14 times higher
Automobile	$         3,000.00	$    30,000.00	10 times higher
3 BR house	$       30,000.00+	$  350,000.00+++	12 times higher
9’ surfboard	$             125.00	$          700.00+	5 to 6 times higher

So surfboards are still a relative bargain, as the price has increased less than other things we buy.


Today’s Bamboo NFC surfboards are easier to make, lighter, stronger and have fewer problems than earlier versions. For those in the know Bamboo Surfboards have taken their rightful place in the evolution of valid surfboard building techniques.

7’-6” Pintail BAMBOO Red Fish March 2007 –
The gyotaku fish print on John’s board is by Jackie Luna.
(see http://hawaiiangamefish.bizland.com/photogyo2.chtml)

This board was made for John Philbin, surfer/actor: ‘Turtle’ in “North Shore”. (Ray Fite, a displaced Maui surfer in Scottsdale, introduced me to John. Ray also helped fund recent Bamboo Surfboard research.)

John spends his winters on the North Shore surfing and giving lessons. John called me when he got this board:

“You can’t really ride this? My girlfriend, an architect, says it should go on the wall!” John asked. I heard a female voice saying in the background “Bamboo is renewable and a very strong natural fiber, this is beautiful. Hmmmm.” (Smart girl!)

I assured John that it was indeed strong enough to ride and spent the next 15 minutes explaining the bamboo epoxy laminate, the tri-density recyclable foams, reinforced fin boxes, strength of bamboo, ecological aspects of my bamboo surfboards.

Two days later, John left the message: “Gary, this board works great! I went out at 10’ Laniakea and it ripped! Everyone was checking it out, asking how it was made. Thanks for a great board!”

I was on a long layover in Honolulu when I first met John in person. He drove in from the North Shore so we could talk about a rock ding (sorry, I can’t make ‘em stronger than rocks). I introduced John to Ted Wilson owner of Fiberglass Hawaii, and again blew John’s mind when I put the board with fins in Future fin boxes on the carpet and had John stand near the nose. I stood near the tail and bounced and gyrated.

The rocker flexed and the board shimmied but was undamaged. Then John turned the board over and put his weight on the bottom. I cautioned that the bottom is not as strong as the deck and since no real board is stressed this way it was not that impressive to me. Again the bamboo board was unharmed.

Ted grumbled something about fiberglass…………….… “Fiber GRASS!” I said.

Let’s go back in time to review the path to bamboo. This is not just a layer of bamboo over fiberglass or a marketing gimmick - a lot of evolution and development has gone into this process.

The first chapter covers the Northern California birth of Wooden Boards ™, the morphing into Woodwinds ™ Sailboards. In later posts I will continue the sailboard story with the move to Hawaii in 1990 and development of bamboo for surfboards, canoes and paddles. The story will come full circle and have current news on Bamboo Surfboards by Gary Young as well as the latest on the Bamboo Evolution™.

Shapers whose blanks I have laminated with Bamboo or Wood veneer in over 30 years
Random order (sorry if I missed you)

Phil Edwards Bill Stewart Renolds Yater Doug Haut Terry Martin Steve Boehne Harold Iggy Al Merrick George Downing Randy Rarick Bill Barnfield Reno Abellira Bob Olson Mark Angell Bob Pearson Barry Kanaiapuni Bill Hamilton Mike Diffenderfer Chuck Allen Mickey Munoz Joey Thomas Dean Edwards Bard Chrisman Stan Lawrence

Ken Bradshaw John Mel Terry Senate Max McDonald Mark Farnsworth Sid Cutchins P.J. Wahl Dave Caldwell Jay Richardson Steve Coletta Steve Schlickenmeyer Mike Boehme Jeff Widener Dave Parmenter Gary McNabb Frank McWilliams Troy Peters Larry Jones Sid Madden Kevin Mitchell Randall Hillner Steve Sylvester Kingsley Kernovske Rick Noe

Oh, yeah!……..Gary Young.

Bamboo Theory    <    Previous     |     Next Page >     Evolution: Chapter 1, Pg.1