$155 for new Chinese imports

[whitlock87]

Ok this is what I saw.
There factory is very small, Only 4 employees.
(Due to this make payment with caution,)

Now with that being said, the materials that they are using are of very high quality.
(This is rare in China.)
They are using a really nice 4 and 6 oz cloth, and they only use epoxy resin.
(Most glass shop in china use polyester resin.)
All the boards are made by hand, and they have 3 different types of foam.
(Pay the extra few bucks and get the IXPS foam, it is much stronger and more flexible then the rest)

Here are a few picks.

[whitlock87]

More pics

[Timmy!]

Wow! I can't believe you were over there and went and took pics of the factory!! From the pictures they look pretty decent...

[whitlock87]

I am stuck in Huizhou China 8 times a year.
Each trip is about 2 weeks. (so i am here about every 6 weeks)

The company i work for was in Lakeforest Ca, but we moved 90% of our manufacturing to china in 2002.

[Surfdad]

Whitlock87 thanks so much 'bro! That is a clean looking factory, FCS plugs done right. It also looks like the have Futures and Probox. Very nice. I have an order form, I think I'll pull the trigger and see what I wind up with.

Thanks again!

[Jason B]

I have an aquaintance who owns a high end line of office furniture he has manufactured in China. He says if you go over there and get in thier face they WILL make great stuff, conversely, if you send a check and a basket of hope you recieve garbage. His stuff is really nice and he's been doing it it for years now so I have to imagine there is some truth in his statements. Maybe with Whitlock over there you'll have a bulldog

Place looks nice, I would order a board from them. They appear to be on the level at least.

[bolsonAA]

From the pictures the factory looks huge for only 4 employees. Did you see any of the shaping bays? Looks a little too clean for a shaping factory to me, it looks a little off. Maybe they just changed the glassing bay floors but the way it looks they have glassed a total of maybe 10 boards. Some of the racks have 0 resin around them. You said hand shaped? Or cnc'd? If you have ever been in a surfboard factory I think you would agree these pictures just don't feel right. How many finished boards did they have? Did you see the shipping area?

[whitlock87]

From the pictures the factory looks huge for only 4 employees. Did you see any of the shaping bays? Looks a little too clean for a shaping factory to me, it looks a little off. Maybe they just changed the glassing bay floors but the way it looks they have glassed a total of maybe 10 boards. Some of the racks have 0 resin around them. You said hand shaped? Or cnc'd? If you have ever been in a surfboard factory I think you would agree these pictures just don't feel right. How many finished boards did they have? Did you see the shipping area?

They did have a shaping ROOM. but only big enough to do one board at a time. (They have it in a room to help control the dust). There factory is only on one floor of the 4 stories building. Around 3500 square feet. (Very small for a china factory) or about 50 USD per month. (Rent cheep in China). I did see 3 boards in the shaping process. And another 4 being glassed. ( this all seams small to me, as our factory has over 500 workers and , we turn out around 22,000 parts per day).

Let me know if any body has more question, I will fly home on Friday. But I will be returning either the first week of June, or the last week of July. (Mid June Lake Powell trip )

[Surfdad]

So I got an unrealted email, but it has to be some sort of email exchange:

The subject line promised 3 day turn around. I would presume you fire off a DWG file and they create the cut file and produce the end product? I tried to get a local foam shop to give me a QUOTE on producing a rocker bed that had an inverse concave machined in and it took them over a week just to return my call!

Are you behind of the schedule or have a very tight delivery deadline?

We can help!

We focus on 1-1000 lot size.

Since 2001, our machining shop proudly serves precision CNC-machined works
in Shenzhen, Guangdong province of China mainland for around the world, especially
United States. Each year, 120 qualified employees work with CNC machining centers,
CNC lathes, CNC mills, grinders, wire cut machine and laser cut machine in our
facility of 10,000 square ft. to create over one million pieces of gorgeous parts
from material of aluminum, bronze, cooper, SS, Ti, Zinc, etc., some of which meet
the tolerance of up to 0.0004". Our annul revenue was about 2 million US$ in 2006.

We serve high gauge industries such as robots, automation, instruments, equipment,
machine making, engine & motors, dentists, product design & engineering, hard-to-find
parts, etc. To accomplish customer satisfaction, we developed the capability in assembly,
fabrication, the surface engineering and electronic engineering. Our finishing is the
best in around China mainland. We pay special attention on handling and material PPAP.

Serious buyers please write to us for a quotation and details.

Contact: Mr. Ling (direct line: 86 755 88832548)
Email: m4671@tom.com

[Timmy!]

Man- I can't believe you actually opened the email... I never open the spam!

[Surfdad]

I hear you, my virus software scans everything I swear it scans me! and this one came directly to my inbox.

[xpjim1]

Surfdad

Did you ever order a board from China. Just curious

[Surfdad]

Yeah I did. The quality of the product is, without question top notch. Both Inland Surfer and Shred Stixx have boards manufactured in Asia, and this rivaled those. Only a few small issues, but that would be associated with a large scale production facility. The downside was that what I ordered wasn't too close to what I got

I think that for a single board order, like I was playing with...it's a great way to throw away $155 If you were thinking of manufacturing and you could get on top of those folks, so that what you order is delivered, you could get your costs down relatively low for a good quality product.

I won't pursue it any more.

[Moki]

I agree with Ragboy, I bought a chinese motorcycle and it is a piece of Shitake!!! Everything that I have ever purchased from China that has been cheap, I have regretted it. I know that there are some quality product that are coming from China, but they also cost more. OF course I haven't seen the boards and don't know for sure; but I am of the opinion that you get what you pay for. However, it is promising that it is a small factory and not being produced in the same factory as McDonald Happy Meal Toys - even more compelling that a Tigeowner has toured the factory

[chpthril]

^^^^ Yeah, I know what ya mean, I bought some Fortune Cookies, and every one of them broke when I tried to open them





J/K, Thanks for the time to order, do the wright-up, and spending the money, Surfdad