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"now that coil got brought up in earnest, can someone educate me... im curious about who's involved, origin of tech,"

Since you asked, the Brasington brothers came from kiteboard origins. They had a label called Hana Crew back in the early 2000s. They had a really good reputation and were built bombproof, as kiteboarding is really hard on boards. I'm guessing that's where they got into vacuum bagging, it's always been standard practice for kite/wake boards and those guys aren't at all caught up in materials the way surfboards manufacturers are. They used what's strongest/lightest/easiest to work with. They originally started doing surfboards and were doing contract glassing with their tech for other shapers as well as themselves. They spent a lot of time and effort dialing in their process to get it where it is today. They had their issues and solved them and grew and adapted their materials and their process. They are tight lipped about it and rightfully so. They are very lucky in having Mike Daniel be their voice on the internet.

As Mark Price has mentioned, Firewire couldnt't hit the pricepoint to make it profitable with US production, but others have, but use a more streamlined build process. The equation is simple, you put the strength on the outside of the board instead of on the inside, but FW are so caught up in their build process and couldn't streamline it enough to make it profitable. I'm really curious as to what the real story is behind Bert leaving. When you have the key guy behind the tech you're using leave, you kinda screwed if you don't understand the concepts behind it. You can't adapt and evolve it.

The funny thing to me is, I can thing of about a half-dozen guys doing vacuum-bagged boards in Central Florida. It's not uncommon, and all of them are marginally more expensive than PUPE boards. You can walk into Neilson's retail shop in Cocoa Beach and get a cork/carbon/stringerless EPS board for $605 in any custom shape you want. He's WAY underpricing them too, and there's still room for wholesale pricing in that number. So the pricepoint BS doesn't fly with me. It's the business model that ***** up the numbers in that process.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why there aren't a ton of guys bagging boards on the West Coast? The East Coast have always been more epoxy friendly due to Greg Loehr and the Resin Research factory being in CFL, but after Clark closed, everyone dabbled in epoxy boards. I guess it didn't take hold in CA. Once you start working with epoxy, vacuum bagging just makes sense. Then you get into post-curing and sandwiches. It opens up a world of possibilities.

Luckily, Firewire has their own forum. I gotta give Mark Price props for even diving into this firestorm. At least he's honest, they're in it to make money and have to support the business model that does that for them.

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thanks for breaking it down

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The glide shall not be truncated
- roy

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