Slip Slidin' Away ?

Too many cooks?

I agree. 

As a pretty new member of this community, I feel responsible for what you describe and I realize that I use this forum to learn more than to share what I've learnt, and you can virtually bitch slap me for that :)

To be 100% honest, most of the time I feel I don't deserve to post things here, I don't have the experience yet to answer questions, or most of the questions have already been answered 2000 times, don't want to be the next Shapa....

As for innovating, I don't think I am at the point where I can innovate yet, by innovate I mean to push the bundaries.

I am still learning these bundaries myself and I don't think you can innovate if you don't understand all the basics. That said, building boards from scratch to finish has a lot involved and it takes a lot of time and committment before people call you a good shaper, or a good glasser, sander etc. I feel I need to reach that accomplishment, to get that credibility, and then, only then will I be able to think outside the box .  

 I may be wrong or/and I may never reach that goal in my life, but the pleasure and the challenge are what keeps me going.

I hope I will be able to post something relevant one day, something that gets people thinking, something "innovative".

Jean G.

Grumpy old men who don't surf passing judgement on folks posting their stoke is what killed this place.

Used to be someone could post up an abortion that they were stoked to build and they'd get stoke in return.

A while back there became some kind of "cool guy club".

If you are in the club, you get positive responses to your posts.

If not, not.

Nobody wants to post stuff and deal with the bitterness...

"I did it first"

"That will never work"

"Your line of thinking is wrong but I won't give you any pointers unless you kiss up to me"

Also grumpy "gurus" posting one line, half-assed, snippy answers to honest questions.

Worst part is these guys get praised by folks who also want to be "in the club".

Bunch of BS.

One of the main problems imo is that we don't call out this kind of garbage.

Calling folks on their BS keeps things honest imo.

Regarding Mangouste's post, I think there is a lot to unpack there. Him being a relative newby.

He said (paraphrasing) that he uses this forum more to learn than to share and that he doesn't feel that he deserves to post stuff on here.

WTH is that? Used to be that this was EXACTLY the forum a guy could go to to learn and post his stuff no matter what the quality.

If that's how Mangouste feels about this forum, maybe there are others?

And, if that's the case then the forum is failing.

Recently there was a thread that had some handplanes in it.

iirc, a longtime Swaylocker posted that he didn't post his work because he didn't think folks wanted to see that here.

Fail.

Yeah, well I am just talking for myself, so I don't want to make it sound like being the truth, just the way I feel, and maybe it is just the way I feel, so it is my problem :).

I have some orders in the pipe and I will post a building thread for one of them and see how it goes.

Lets be part of the solution and not a part of the problem as they say:).

Jean G.  

Used to be a lot more positive energy, a good mix of mnembers, lots of positive and interesting exchanges.

Then the energy changed, tone got more negative, and a lot of good folks fully bailed, or just do a drive by occasionally.  

These days seems it's the same small handful of folks recycling the same posts, lot more about board building, and a lot less about board design.

And it actually used to be called Swaylocks Surfboard Design Forum, if my dim memory recalls correcty.. 

Perhaps its also a sign of the times we live in , a few years ago you could not go out and get a pre shaped blank now you can even hand the machine operaters your own file and they will replicate whatever you programed into it , thus eliminating the hand shaping part of the process and that in itself creates controversy , some will say that is not shaping while others will see it as progress or the begining of a new era . is it right is it wrong , I very much doubt you can stop it and would you want to , in my opinion there is nothing to be gained by living in the past we cannot go back we can only go forward and again in my opinion there is nothing really new that has come out of the surfboard industry for a long long time maybe this is the new begining where new younger smarter minds change everything useing technology that was not available a short time ago , if anyone thinks the production of surfboards will stay the same they are wrong , boards will be lighter stronger faster better in every way , will they be made by hand the answer is no . Will folks still make boards by hand , yes but not for production purposes , the more young people embrace the latest technolegy the less relavent swaylocks well be and the less they will post on this site . there are some fine craftsmen that post on this site but they are becoming a niche section and are becoming less and less relavent .  Inovation can be subjective and subtle or it can be so outragouse that it gets shot down , is there a right way or a wrong way to make a surfboard or to design a surfboard  and who gets to make that decision .        Surfboards are just toys  made for fun and it should be fun to make them however method you choose .                                              Did I stir something up ?

Beware of the One True Path.

I been back for a while waiting for something... This place was epic and very addictive, around the Clark foam demise.

I hate change, I like the old Sways Days ha

........HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY.......