missing in action....female shapers/ board makers

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can girls fix dings?

Poll ended at Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:50 am

no.....too busy fixing dinner
2
50%
only ride soul less tufflites that don't ding
1
25%
yes ..i can and have the resin under me nails to prove it
1
25%
 
Total votes: 4

fong

missing in action....female shapers/ board makers

Post by fong » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:50 am

:shock: with the growth and growth of women/girlie surfing i find it strange that ...too my knowledge...theres no female shapers around :?:

my logic is.....with more girlies in the water a corresponding increase in female board makers would happen ( on at least a backyard level) but it hasn't :?:

why would this b so :?: are the girls only in it for the" image" and lack substance on the nitty gritty design front :?:

it would be interesting too see if girlies would design a different board shape for there own needs.....or maybe just spray frangipani flowers over them instead :roll:

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ric_vidal
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Post by ric_vidal » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:20 am

Literally one of the best ding fixers now resides at Big Hill Fongy. Sold the business so she’s not fixing dings anymore, but making wax and doing farmlivin’.

Damn good rider too of all things foam.

Be surprised if you haven’t come across both she and her partner in your surfing activities, although the latter half has been having a fair bit of chemo so hasn’t been in the water too much. Luckily he fashioned a shaved head before he started the treatment.

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Post by Sleepy » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:25 am

a fong topic with a pole.....? no :)

i think it's fairly true to say that the large majority of surfers are males. and a lot i would dare to say are not too open-minded. for a female to become a profitable shaper, she'd have to shape for both males and females (as male shapers currently do). the only thing is, how many of these not-so-open-minded males would be happy to buy a board shaped by a female? would YOU?
Image

apologies for any generalisations i've made

fong

Post by fong » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:59 pm

your generalisations are well founded :lol:

it's just surprising there are no female shapers....i mean zero :?

i don't even know off any backyarders :shock:

surly some girl would want at least TRY and make a board :arrow: everyone should :wink:

or is it more a case no time- buy wat i need too look the part....i wonder :?:

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austeve
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Post by austeve » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:54 pm

I can see it now ... Germaine Greer surfboards... the only way a bloke can ride her !!

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Post by Nick Carroll » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:01 pm

Back in the 1980s, a woman named Cougar Wicc-Otter surfaced as a board designer.

Cougar was a wiccan feminist, with little or no surfing experience, who had the theory that women couldn't surf very well because they were being forced to use male-designed equipment. So she launched a women's only surfboard label up at Angas. Cougar thought women all had a different centre of gravity to all men, and thus needed womanised boards.

I think she may have become frustrated by the homocentric attitudes of the surfing community, and given up :wink:

On a more practical note, I wonder if maybe women are just too smart to be wasting time obsessing over rocker curves when they've got a bunch of delusional 40-plus-year-old male servants to do it for 'em. :lol:

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ric_vidal
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Post by ric_vidal » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:21 pm

Nick Carroll wrote:thus needed womanised boards...
That would be Fongy.... a board/bored/baud womaniser :D

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Post by Girlgrom » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:22 pm

There are a couple of femal shaper in Oz, on the gold coast i think. I will try and get their names or brands and post it. But remember, the rise and rise in surfing amongst girls has only just taken off in teh last few years since Blue Crush in 2002 I think. (so, gotta give girls the time to master the sport, decide they want to shape as a career, do an apprenticeship or whatever you do to learn shaping, then get the means to start up a company and build a reputation). This would take a few years to get underway. So maybe there are a few future girls shapbng in the line up.

But you also have got to remember that more shapers now are going out of business, not into it, becuase of the increasing manufacturing of boards in Asia. So with such cheap, mass produced boards which offer retailers far more profit than their local shaper does, it's not exactly an easy market to crack into.

also being a man or a woman shaper starting out would be hard I imagine, as it's so reliant on your reputation.

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BA
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Post by BA » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:31 pm

[quote="Nick Carroll"]Cougar Wicc-Otter [quote]


C'mon Nick. Stop making up names. :lol:

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Post by Dolphin63 » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:59 pm

[I wrote offline before reading Nick's reply]

The following sounds like a mushie trip, but I’m pretty confident on most of the details. I weaned myself of surf mags more than 20 years ago, but if my memory serves me...

Around about 1984 (give or take), a woman by the name of Cougar Wicce-Otter (I’m not joking) set up Wildwomen surfboards in Angourie. The goal was to develop better surfboards for women, and no doubt gain freedom from the patriarchal oppressor.

This was the glory days of the Hawke-Keating ALP government. Some federal department gave her a grant of $10k or so, as the goal pushed some feelgood buttons in Canberra. Equally, the dark forces of conservatism (little Johnny was in opposition) were outraged and generated a right wing shock jock and tabloid outrage over the perceived waste of taxes. There was a media frenzy at the time.

If you dug deep into archives of the time (SMH, Tracks, Hansard) you might turn some of this up.

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Post by Johnno » Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:28 pm

If they did shape boards would the deck come with dents and how thick would the board have to be for a double D ......... :? :lol:

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austeve
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Post by austeve » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:22 pm

That looks like the Thruster model :shock:

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Post by puurri » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:51 pm

Dolphin63 wrote:[I wrote offline before reading Nick's reply]

The following sounds like a mushie trip, but I’m pretty confident on most of the details. I weaned myself of surf mags more than 20 years ago, but if my memory serves me...

Around about 1984 (give or take), a woman by the name of Cougar Wicce-Otter (I’m not joking) set up Wildwomen surfboards in Angourie. The goal was to develop better surfboards for women, and no doubt gain freedom from the patriarchal oppressor.

This was the glory days of the Hawke-Keating ALP government. Some federal department gave her a grant of $10k or so, as the goal pushed some feelgood buttons in Canberra. Equally, the dark forces of conservatism (little Johnny was in opposition) were outraged and generated a right wing shock jock and tabloid outrage over the perceived waste of taxes. There was a media frenzy at the time.

If you dug deep into archives of the time (SMH, Tracks, Hansard) you might turn some of this up.
Grant was from Australia Council for the Arts. LIBERAL and NATIONAL PARTY (male) Pollies slagged it big time.

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Post by ether » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:58 pm

Yeh I have a vague memory of this. Got plenty of mainstream media coverage at the time. I thought the grant was bigger, like $40-50k, but probably just my faulty memory. Went bust a coupla years later, didn't it?

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Post by Beanpole » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:56 pm

Its a bit like dykes on bikes. They are all attitude but don't actually know how to fix the bloody things. They then call in some crusty old biker who has mellowed from his wickedly sexist and misoginist past and get him to fix it for them :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Post by bombora » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:12 pm

I remember a pic of at least one board she made: trully bizarre thing with the nose being almost exactly like a rounded square tail!!! Of course it had pretty wild pagan spray job too, and might have even have had handles and I think it didn;t actually have fins. Actually more I think it looked a bit like the odd double ender some young air guys have mucked around with in recent years. Maybe this Wikka Sista was ahead of her time.

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Shaunm
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Post by Shaunm » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:30 pm

Somone metioned grants for females in sport. May still be a tained issue still after the Kathy Watt scandal, petty.

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Clif
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Post by Clif » Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:03 pm

Teena McIlveen at Diverse Surfboards shapes some clean boards now and again.

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