Jim Banks on Coffee

Jim Banks is a surfer, traveller, muso, shaper who needs no intro over here. If I could squeeze another couple of boards into the quiver I would include his big wave board and his keel fish. Have a read of the following from Jim Banks' website about the coffee x surfboard value proposition (oh and not only has Jim logged more Indo barrels than most of us have had coffees, he also makes a deadly guitar amp!)

Pic from Jim Banks' webbie

"Why Surfboards are Such Amazing Value and Cheaper than Coffee

Surfboards are incredible value and owning 3 or 4 surf boards costs less per day than a single cup of coffee.  When you factor in how much enjoyment can be experienced from a surfboard, this is incredible value. Especially when you consider that a cup of coffee is going to last all of 15 minutes, while a surfboard can be surfed for 6 - 8 hours a day. Even when a surfboard is not being surfed, a reasonable board continues to be a piece of fine craftsmanship and art to be admired as it stands in the corner of your room."

Pic from Jim Banks' webbie

"Just say for example, you bought a major production label board and payed $750 for it. You keep it for a year, look after it and sell it for say $400. The cost to own that board is $350 a year. Less than a dollar a day! For the same price of one cup of coffee a day you can own a quiver of 3 boards. If you drink 2 cups of coffee a day, for the same price you could have a quiver of 6 boards that you changed over every 12 months!"

"Let’s say you bought a top line 7’4” gun from me. The full deal - polish, tinted resin, glassed to last. It’s going to cost you $1725. This is not just a high performance machine, it’s also a fine piece of art that a whole team of very experienced craftsman have put many hours of skill and knowledge to create. Most of my customer keep their guns for many years. Take the example that you kept the board for 3 years and then sold it cheap for $500. The board has cost $1225 over the 5 years. It works out at just under $1.12 a day! For the same price as a cup of coffee you could own three of these and change them all over every 3 years."

"Many customers keep my boards for 5, 10 or 15 years. If you kept the above board for 10 years and gave it away for $200, it would have cost you a total of $1525. In this scenario this comes in at just under 42 cents a day. It’s less than 1/7th of the cost of a cup of coffee….."

Pic from Jim Banks' webbie

"I have been making surfboards for a long time. A massive amount of time and energy goes into ensuring that my boards surf well. I don’t make many boards and my current R and D costs are more than $300 a board. At the end of the day, even with my new prices and assuming I still mange to sell a 100 boards a year, I’m only going make around $200 a board or $20K a year. Twenty grand a year doesn’t go very far and there are many of us who have been doing it for such a long time now and really wondering why do we keep bothering….."

Pic from Jim Banks' webbie

"The answer is simple….. we love surfing and are passionate are about creating surfboards to maximise the pure incredible experience that surfing is. My advice is to take advantage of us while you can, because many of us are waking up to the fact that apart from the satisfaction of knowing that someone's’ loving the surfboard we just made them, there’s bugger all in it for us and we’d be better off doing something else.

Surfboards are incredibly cheap and amazing value. Even if they were twice the current prices they would still be amazing value and I don’t see how anyone could possibly say otherwise."

Jim Banks - surfer, shaper, traveller, musician