Does anyone here have any information about S-n-B that is even halfway current? Anyone have any contacts at SHCC from whom they might be able to elicit some information about it? I have tried on several occasions since this material disappeared from the SHCC site to ask them about it by email, and have never received so much as an acknowledgement of my question (not very propitious behavior from an organization that relies on public donations for programs, imo). I have asked at least one acquaintance who does have SHCC contacts to inquire, again, the reposnse has been silence. I do a have a little skin in the game: I own a 1999 early copy of the book, and I worked with Andy Anderson on his initial efforts to convert it from paper to a digital document. I don’t know whether SHCC yanked this entirely of their own accord, or whether Andy became dissatisfied with some aspect of how they were handling it and revoked permission to display it (when I was working with him he was quite particular about details) but imo it is a crying shame for such a unique and valuable resource documenting the history of surfboard design to remain hidden from the surfing public.
I work at SHACC. I’ve lost track of how many people have asked me about this.
A couple years ago we had a web server meltdown and we lost a ton of content including Stoked 'n Board.
I am not the computer guy so I will tell you what I was told: The Stoked’n Board stuff was written up in some fashion that was not compatible with the new system which is why it never came back; but there may be a work around for it so it may come back at some point in the future. All it takes is money. SHACC is a 501c3 educational non-profit; because of the Covid we have been closed since March, with no money coming in. Patience.
Does that closure extend to ‘‘Founding Partners’’ seeking to visit? PM me with any details.
**“SHACC” **Sorry, Uncle Grumpy, I was typing in haste. I’m pretty sure that is the only real answer I have received in years (off and on, anyway) of trying to find out what happened. Ouch! Anyway, I thank you for the information. I wish I could tell you it lessens my frustration level, but it actually increases it, although it changes the focus somewhat.The reason I bailed out of the digitization project was that Andy and I were butting heads over what format to use for the document(s). I advocated using the best common, open source technology available at the time (don’t recall the particulars now) but Andy had another advisor who insisted that Adobe PDF and some other proprietary stuff be used. The other advisor had Andy’s ear, and I walked away in frustration after a few months. I certainly hope that the choice of Adobe (et al) wasn’t related to the incompatibility you mentioned.
Would SHACC be permitted to recreate the information, or would that require additional negotiations with Andy or his intellectual property rights successors? As I mentioned, I have an early 1999 copy of S-n-B. It is in 3-ring binder, loose-leaf notebook format, so it wouldn’t be too intimidating a task to scan it and digitize it that way. I do have the tech here to do that. It might take me several months of part-time effort, but I don’t think the delay would be significant under the circumstances. Unfortunately, the resulting format would again be PDF, but at least there would be something. Alternatively, I could send my copy to SHACC, if I was assured that they would do their best not to damage it, and would return it to me when done. I also do still have quite a few of the revised pages that Andy was working on at the time (the digitized copy was to include added and revised material). Those are also in PDF format. Many of them are not in final form, but I’d be more than happy to send the files to someone at SHACC if it would help the effort. I have been retired for a few years now, but I did have a 38 year IT career and have quite a bit of knowledge about data formats, files, and conversions. I’d also be happy to lend my knowledge on those subjects to the effort, if that would be at all helpful. Thanks again for the information.
PM sent
I spoke with our director about this issue earlier this morning.
What I got from him was the content never belonged to SHACC, it was Andy’s. Whoever has gotten control over it in the meantime is looking to monetize it in some fashion which was not acceptable to the SHACC board of directors.
If you know something other than that, I suggest you contact our executive director directly and see if some arrangement could be worked out. He’s in the office most weekdays.
Thanks, I may contact your director. I was afraid there might be some issue of that nature. I think that I will first try to contact whoever is currently administering Anderson Charitable Trust/Anderson Family Trust. According to my recollection, the content was technically the IP of the trust, not Andy, personally. Makes sense from a tax POV. I frankly don’t see a market to make much from the material. It is of great interest to a very narrow segment of the population. Books, and particularly books on dry histories documenting “this, that, and the other thing” are selling very poorly. I paid $60 for my copy, I’d bet that would barely cover production and shipping costs today, and my guess at what the wider market would be willing to pay is closer to $30 -35. Didn’t Stanley’s end up making their logo collection public domain? That is another thought. Logos are considered copyrighted, and S-n-B is chock full of logos. Mayhap some owners of the rights to those logos who wouldn’t object to SHACC display would take less kindly to someone using their proprety to turn a private sector buck. If I can find the person I’m looking for, I may mention that in passing…