Members of Stand Up Zone and the SUP community - Jeremy Fry – Wave Rod – 808 Stand Up Paddle Boards
My name is Joe Blair and I have been a surfboard shaper for 40 years and 4 years as a SUP Shaper. I have learned my trade in the shaping room during thousands of hours of manual labor and thousands of different shapes. It has been a challenging career and while the hours have kept me away from my family, working hard to make an honest living, I proud of my reputation as a shaper. Despite the challenges in the surf industry, I shape surfboards for one reason ---- I feel the Aloha of making great boards that help people enjoy the sport more. Sure there are better business people and marketers than me but I have lived an honest life and not ripped off my shapes or taken the easy path.
Forgive me if I have not been an active participant in this forum like some other shapers. Well, let’s just say that I am old school but I do have a great website
www.jblairsurf.com and am typing better than I have in the past. I have enjoyed the forum a great deal but I am a bit slow with the computer. I have read and gained from what I have learned on Standup Zone but truly a bit intimated by how fast everything happens online.
There was a thread that came up on Stand Up Zone two months ago that ended up becoming an issue between Blair Stand Up Paddleboards and Jeremy Fry / Wave Rod / 808 Paddleboards. I was traveling at the time of the Honesty / Ethics thread and not at my computer or able to take part in the discussions. There were many important issues raised and from what I could tell, many members of this community were deeply passionate about “Honesty and Ethics in the SUP Industry”.
I had heard rumors about what had happened between Jeremy Fry and Sean Ordonez in the past and really did not want or think that the same thing could be happening over again to me.(See Below For Email From Sean Ordonez from SOS Shapes). At the time of the “Honesty and Ethics in the SUP Industry” thread, that I had only seen pictures of the Wave Rod/Blair Models on this forum and on Craigslist. I was convinced that these were my shapes/ rocker etc but wanted to see deal with it in private. I believe in men being men and shapers having Honesty and Ethics. If anyone from around the world called me out on one of my shapes, I would fly not just to another island but around the world to clear my name. Some may call that old school but I believe that men should resolve differences directly and not hide. There was a conference phone call set up where I spoke with Jeremy and he agreed to meet me in Oahu and show me the boards in question. This is when it was requested that the thread be taken down on Stand Up Zone.
After the “honesty and ethics in the Sup industry” post was taken down, Jeremy refused to return my phone calls as he had agreed to. My post here today is directly due to Jeremy’s lack of response and care for his reputation with me and well, I guess the rest of the SUP industry.
“Here’s the facts, nothing but the facts” – Dragnet
Jeremy, my hands are on the typewriter but you wrote this story:
• Within the shaping / SUP community there has been a question over the origins of the Jeremy Fry / Wave Rod shape that has an extreme similarity to Sean Ordonez Big Blue Model (take a look at Sean’s note below)
• I was aware of these rumors but had not looked closely and compared the boards
• I went to the Swamis Surf competition in the Fall and saw Jeremy Fry riding one of my boards/shapes with a Wave Rod sticker on it. I was impressed because he ripped on the board and won the event. I was flattered that he had chosen to ride my shape and trusted that if was interested in my boards, he would call me to arrange a shaping fee. (I have shaped boards for many years and been paid a per board fee when someone wants to license my designs – the fee is minimal but it is a sign of respect and thanks)
• My SUP boards are so unique and completely different from all the other SUP boards being produced at this time, I did not think that Jeremy or anyone else would outright copy my boards - let alone my entire line up
• After seeing Jeremy win at Swamis, I grew concerned that he would do a Sean Ordonez on my shapes
• I called Jeremy on the phone and spoke with him directly. I told him that I would like to discuss the boards that I had seen him riding and have a business meeting. Jeremy told me that he was out town and that he would call me up when he came back to San Diego for a meeting.
• JEREMY – 1st TIME – You Said That You Would Call Me – You Didn’t Do What You Said You Would Do
• Jeremy never called me. I saw him several times out at Cardiff after he agreed to meet with me.
• I still hoped that Jeremy had only decided to ride a Blair shaped board himself and was not going into the China mass production route he had done with Sean.
• I saw a forum post on Stand Up Zone
http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=2ad885c7f5a9f112e6a543a7c47ea043&topic=2599.0around Christmas time and put another call into Jeremy asking why he had not called me back. All I had seen at this time was WaveRod model board and I was concerned. No returned call from Jeremy.
• Early ’09 - A Team Rider in Hawaii emailed me a Craigslist advertisement from Wave Rod of my four top models – with the exact same shape – dimensions – rocker – deck pads and believe it or not even some of the same verbiage from my own website. – The Craigslist Ads now run in islands of
• Well take a look and tell me what you think…
11 X 32 Models
10 - 32 Models
WR 9'11 x 30 Models
• The thread “Honesty and Ethics” on StandUpZone moved to the issues of the WaveRod Boards and the Blair boards being copied into the forefront
• I had a conference call with Jeremy where we agreed to ask to have the thread on Stand Up Zone taken down based on the belief that Jeremy and I would met in Oahu so that I could take a look at these boards in person.
• The boards were in Oahu and I could have seen them at any time if Jeremy would have allowed me to
• I called Jeremy many many times after the thread on stand up zone was taken down without response.
• Jeremy only responded when Michael Filippone called him at my request. He is MichaelF on the standupzone board and a friend– he told him that he was not interested in meeting with me because there was no reason to do so. He already had a partner in his wife and didn’t need another partner. When Michael said that you had agreed to meet with Joe and that beyond “a partner” discussion, the boards looked exactly like Joe’s and had the same, outline rocker etc. and that you had duplicated 4 of his board’s best boards. Jeremy did not deny he had used Joe’s shapes but that they were slightly different. Jeremy said that while the boards were close and they may be almost the same dimensions - they were hand shaped. As hand shaped boards, there was no way that any of these boards could be ”exactly” the same and that Joe had no claim against you. Michael then ask you about rumors about the Sean Ordonez boards and that many in the SUP industry believed that the 10’10 Waverod was a duplicate of the Sean 10’10. His response was that he had not copied Sean’s board and that if there were similarities it was not exact. Per Jeremy, it was no different than some of “the foote and chun” boards – Everybody copies everybody’s shape – that is just the way it is
• JEREMY – 2st TIME – You Said That You Would Call Me – You Didn’t Do What You Said You Would Do and this time you agreed to this in front of two other people
Summary – Joe Blair / Sup Community has raised questions about the origins of WaveRod / Jeremy Fry Shapes and it was agreed (by Jeremy) that he would meet and review his boards. These issues were to be dealt with in private and he has refused to meet with me - man to man. Jeremy believes that copying four boards from one shaper is OK as long as they are hand shaped and not “exactly” a match.
What I - Joe Blair Believe –
• When Jeremy’s shapes, honesty and ethics are questions – he does not bother to be accountable man to man and I know of no reputable shaper – Blane Chambers – Ron House - Mark Raaphorst – Dave Parameter – Steve Boehne that would not have called me back or met with me personally in order to clear up and questions I had
• Despite what I can legally do- I can allow the facts to be know by the SUP / Surf community and his reputation will have been his own creation for the positive or negative
• Based on what has happened to me and Sean (see below) it appears that Jeremy only cares about Jeremy when it comes down to shapes. He takes known shapes that work and has them hand shaped and mass produced in China - flooding the market. I have been in the surfboard industry for 40 years and let me tell you that I have worked with some low level people but not one of these guys has the balls to do what he has done to me.
• If Jeremy can take my shapes, have mass produced in China who is next C4 – PSH- Ron – Infinity - Starboard…. What is the barrier to entry for others to do this? Ability to pay for one container from China and find good shapes and make sure they are not “exactly” they same
• It is my belief that the only recourse for shapers that have this happened is to notify the Chinese surfboard companies and if they make boards that are know rip offs, to boycott these co’s. Why send boards over to companies that are killing the shape creators
Well has this ever happened before? Sean Ordonez & Jeremy / WaveRod
Before I let Sean Ordonez answer for himself below. I would like all of you to remember where SUP was three years ago. Sean was one of the leading shapers. Take a look at this websites and those pictures of Sean O ripping and having fun three years ago.
www.sosshapes.com Where would Sean be today if this had not happened to him? Sean was there ahead or with C4 – PSH – Ron House..
Let me tell all of you. When I saw Sean riding those waves in Hawaii - he inspired me to make better boards and what was possible in the SUP industry. For the last three years I have been wondering what happened to Sean…. I knew of the rumors but never really knew. Well you can read below in his own words and as Paul Harvey says – “now you know the rest of the story”
When you read the letter from Sean remember his slogan “Think it, Feel it, Shape it” - I hope if this post does anything – it will bring Sean back to us!!!
April 20. 2009
Dear Mr. Joe Blair,
I can't begin to tell you how frustrated and disrespected I feel on the matter I had with Mr. Jeremy Fry. I can relate and understand your frustration you are currently going through with Mr. Fry. We have both been working way to hard in our line of work to have someone such as himself with no credentials in our trade and to outright steal, lie and cheat his way into our surf industry with no respect or etiquette.
I would like to begin to explain the situation I had with Mr. Fry as follows:
A few years ago when standup paddle surfing was just beginning or for that matter being brought back to its revival from the old beach boy days...Thanks to the creative waterman mind of Laird Hamilton. I began to follow close footsteps to his progress on stand up paddle surfing. Being a professional waterman myself and a shaper, I felt a very close understanding and connection to the roots of surfing through standup paddlesurfing. When I pursued shaping my first standup paddle boards here on Maui...Designing, Shaping and building required all my 24 years of skill in our trade , that lead me to produce three of the first and most sought after boards in our standup industry. These were the 11'11" Big Red , 10'10" big Blue and the 9'11" Big Green... A few months of successful distribution of a few containers of these boards, I had Jeremy Fry approach me via email inquiring to become a dealer of my standup boards. He soon after placed an order for ten boards of the big reds and the big blues that he was planning on selling on the Island of Kauai , where he resided and had his kayak rental business...
Of course, I was thrilled with excitement of his sincere interest in my boards and placed in production his order with my partners factory in China who began to produce Mr. Jeremy Fry's order ...But to my dismay when it came time to collect the deposit to pay for his order of ten boards he was not to be heard of and did not return any of my emails or calls in regards to his order... This situation left me in a hard financial spot and I had to come up with the money from my own pocket to pay for his order. Lucky for me I found another buyer for the boards he had just ordered. But soon after this situation, I was notified by Kim Ball at Hi Tech Surf Shop here on Maui, one of my main supporters in the production and sale of my standup boards , brought to my attention that a client by the name of Jeremy Fry had recently purchased two of my production boards from his shop , the big Red and the big Blue. I even have the hard proof of his invoice credit card receipt from his purchase of my boards at HiTech shop. Kim Ball was up to date on my previous dealings with Mr Jeremy Fry, since it was in his best interest to be informed of whom would distribute our S.O.S. boards in the Hawaiian Islands.
Therefore, I grew suspicious of Mr. Fry's purchase of my boards. My suspicions became reality when I soon learned through my Japanese partner in China(Mr Sumitomo from Burleigh Heads/and Betley factory producers of my boards)informed me of what they thought was a container full of my boards being shipped to Kauai...My producers thought that I had gone behind there backs to build my boards at another factory in China and shipping them to Kauai. We all soon realized the truth of the matter and came to find out the Mr. Jeremy Fry had duplicated my 10'10" Big Blue and was bootlegging into Kauai for sale...
As you can see this was the beginning of the end for me.. As you know it is honorable and respectful in our surf industry if some other shaper/waterman with credentials in our industry creates some productive competition that stimulates each other to do better and benefit the industry... But in this situation with Mr. Fry, it was too close for comfort, as I knew he had fully duplicated my big blue down to the mm ( with less than 10% change done to the tucked under shape done in the last foot of the rail shape in the tail area...) In my professional shapers eyes and many others shapers and experienced surfers, this was an exact imitation of my board. I know this for a fact , for I purchased one of his 10'10" Wave Rod boards...He began to sell all these board in Kauai and soon after all other Islands in Hawaii and soon the mainland USA...
He even had the audacity to use the same color schemes of my S.O.S. boards and even more devastating to me, the whole description I explained to him in great detail over email and posted on my
www.sosshapes.com about the construction and design concept behind my double barrel concave bottom contour.
I even called him numerous times to confront him on the matter but he would not return or even answer my calls or emails... which left me even more frustrated about clearing up the situation. His lack of respect and etiquette should be accounted for and the truth please brought to the publics eye and ears of his dishonesty and lies... He is not worthy to be considered a surfer. He has none of that Aloha that he so falsely portrays through his Hawaiian roots business !...
In conclusion the saturation of his boards in the market, first of all confused a lot of customers thinking my boards where everywhere , when in reality a lot where bootlegged versions of my boards which need I mention affected my business considerably.
Partly due to this issue and other situations I have been very discouraged to continue to put my heart in soul into the standup business.
I am now back into simple shaping and building my S.O.S. surfboard brand in the surf board industry where I believe unlike the standup industry is more respectful and truthful to the craftsmen that give their creative ideas to try to help better the sport we all love, surfing...
Yours Sincerely
Sean Ordonez
Jeremy broke one of the guys that got all of this started. Sean just left the industry quietly…
You are welcome to your own opinion on this. I think it is pretty clear I have my own opinion on Jeremy.
Maybe you are OK with Sean’s and my story and consider this part of the natural evolution of SUP?
You should ask yourself is this what we want to do to the shapers in this industry?
I am going to ask the SUP Community if this OK? I am willing to listen to what you say.
All I have is my reputation and integrity and Jeremy has his. I have my story and we now have Sean’s story that are based on the facts of what has happened to us.
When I see the “Aloha” on the WaveRod website - well guess that I think
Come clean JeremyJeremy – if you have gotten to the end of this note – please remember that you wrote my words by your actions. You wrote Sean’s words. My crusty old shapers hands typed this and in the time I typed this, I could shape three SUPs, The sad part is that the hands you see in the picture would have been extended to shake yours even knowing what you had done to Sean and Me.
J. Blair
blair.hawaii@hotmail.com
760-809-9074