by Brent » Tue May 23, 2006 6:42 am
Um, re some comments above; when you buy an Al Merrick...you are not paying for the name, you are paying for the shape. You are buying a licenced replica/product that will work pretty much for certain, and provided you buy a board that is suitably volumed, shaped & sized for you & your local conditions it will work as well as if not better than a locally made board.
All Merricks are machine cut (including Kelly's) and hand finished, it is the only way to achieve total consistancy with shaping. This is well documented elseware.
A "local" shaped board is not always a good board, shapers have bad days, hangovers, flesh-up blanks & manage to pull a sellable boardout of the mess. some of them are simply bad-shapers.
Buy local by all means, but check out his work before layin out cash.