I am a tight arse. My missus hates it. I dont deny it.
I have traveled for the last 7 years and have just settled home and decided to buy some new toys to cushion the pain of returning to normality.
One of those toys was a Brand new 5'10" Channel Islands Al Merrick Flyer.
I bought this surfboard discounted from 750 to 500 off the rack(never done that before) because it looked and felt good.
Chucked a tail pad on it and went surfing feeling pretty damn good about things. It went unreal...
Onc i got home and put her away i noticed a bunch of pressure dings on the deck.
Closer inspection revealed pressure dings everywhere...
I took the board back to the shop thinking it must be faulty glass job only to be told thats how all boards are these days, **** foam, **** glass pop outs that only last a coupla months before you have to replace them, The machine of progress, bottom lines, blah blah blah....
Now I am a tight arse as i said at the beginning, but what happened to getting what you paid for? I know i relished in the 250 dollar discount but 750 for a non custom board that ends up being a piece of ****? fk me....
How do you even get to know a board properly in a couple of months? Have we thrown away the idea of the dream board?
The"if i ever break this thing i dont know what im gonna do" Board?
Is there any real shapers left that put quality and rider satisfaction above dollar value?
I know we get taken for a ride on most purchases(1.40 a litre for fuel, $7.00 for a beer at the footy, half a million for 3 bedroom ****box house) but the soul has taken a beating along with the wallet on this one.

Al Byrne does hand shapes with good glass jobs, my 6,3 looks brand new still with very slight deck compressions and I use it whenever I can.

Go and see Skye Bourton (onfire) on the goldy . All his boards get glassed at "The glass Lab" and do a realy great job. My 6'3 is almost 2 years old now , sure it has a few minor depressions but overall has held up really well compared to other boards I have owned.

call maddog in byron,they will look after you with good boards

It's like everything these days where everything comes from china. But my dad like's skipp or byrne boards from wollongong.