FCS Shaper Awards
I read it and thought the same. It doesn't look like an independent award, the organisers of which have taken on FCS as a presenting sponsor, but instead it's an FCS initiative - read: marketing scheme.
Which is a dubious beginning for anything that aims to be presigious.
Seems they've copied Scott Bass' awards in the States but putting a commercial bent on it.
Also, I can recall conversations back when FCS were owned by Mac Bank and they were reaming shapers with exorbitant costs and value add charges. Dont think many shapers would've cared about an FCS Award back then.
Waterman of the year award goes to ......their original patent lawyer.
I'm going to nominate Leighton Clark here in SA, who primarily uses Futures in his own boards, but loves FCS because they're designed and built so poorly that they pay for his mortgage with all the repair work they generate.
Good one surfstarved, Futures any day for me.
it should come as no surprise that all award events are marketting, from the oscars to the walkleys. and many of them -- i'm looking at you walkleys -- are verging on scams.
We just ran a comp on our Insta to recognise the backyard/ small builders lamination jobs, we asked people to send in their pictures of their latest lamination's and we gave away an epoxy kit to the Finalist with "most likes" on our account. (won by a backyardie girl who just got into board building was doing her own resin swirls).
We had a lot of guys private messaging us saying it was good that we doing this and giving shout outs to the small business board builders so the interest would be there in a less commercial version that FCS is doing..
Maybe we should jump together some of our suppliers and do the "Board building community awards" ??
Some cats: (give us your thoughts?)
Best Shaper - Open to everyone?
Most influential Board shape of the year - again open to everyone
Underground shaper: Local legend who works away in their region and is know as the" go to Shaper" in an area?
Glasser: industry knows who the best glassers are so this one could be a peer based recognition?
Sander: Industry peer based?
Up and comer: new kid on the block having a go?
What do you think? Maybe Swellnet jumps on also to get the word out there and does an article on the finalists?
Judges - Maybe grab some legends of the shaping world? Bill Cilla? Sam Egan?
Totally, John. You've got our backing. Love to do a story on it.
My only concern, and it's got nothing to do with editorial, is the 'popularity' aspect as per most likes. I've seen those things devolve into popularity contests where the person with the most social media moxie wins.
Thanks Stu! That’s awesome! Let me think on some details and work on suppliers backing and then we should nut out how it would work eg: How finalists are nominated to make sure it’s fair and not a popularity comp? Then how somelone like Bill and Co could judge it? Etc... This could be a great way for our local shapers to be recognised!
Great idea John. A rebel tour in the making!
Ok update, got 3 suppliers that would back it! With prizes and awards. The big thing they said is that they don't want naming rights they just want to recognise the people in the industry and celebrate that we still make boards here in Oz!
So it looks like I might have some work ahead of me.. I'll Hit up Bill next time hes in to see if he would like to judge.. and what format he would like to judge it on. We are thinking late in the year to do it as don't want it to be compared with this event. Stu - once we have sorted out as few more things i'll give you a ring to pick your brains!
I just saw on a rival site that FCS have announced that they're going to be presenting awards to recognise "the core of surfing’s rich history and culture, celebrating legendary and iconic shapers".
I, for one, call bullshit on the whole sordid affair. While I think this could be a good thing, if done right, frankly I think that it just reeks of being an ill-conceived marketing stunt that's going to achieve nothing but self-generated headlines and much backslapping by crusty industry insiders.
Take, for example, the two categories...
1. The Legend Award - Minimum 40 years shaping, significant contribution to surfboard design etc.
2. The Icon Award - Minimum 20 years shaping blah blah blah.
And that's it. No mention of up-and-comers, no mention of innovators or thinkers outside of the box, no mention of sustainability and contribution to making the world a better place through design and influence.
What about the glassers, the sanders etc.? Their contribution is just as significant, if not as glamorised within our culture.
What about the shapers who primarily use Futures or other fin systems, or mainly do glass-ins, or finless for eff's sake!?
I think this is a missed opportunity. If done right, it could actually recognise some great achievements in a core element of surf culture. But it won't. It'll be used as another opportunity for self-promotion and to blow smoke up the arse of the usual suspects and industry heavyweights.
https://www.surffcs.com.au/pages/shaper-awards