The Nineplus Blog

Received an email this morning from the Finisterre Crew and was really inspired by this small clip. They say a picture paints a thousand words, well this should speak immeasurably. Enjoy

Heres an image of young Jake Bevan from Cronulla in Australia. A really beautiful photo taken by his Dad. Enjoy.

Probably the most difficult thing as a company we have had to deal with in 15 years has been the problem that our wetsuits have caused us. We never meant to even make the things - see, back in 2000 we started the program just to give the employees some black wetsuits which didn’t feel like huge adverts and also used high quality Japanese rubber which we had heard kept you warmer in cold water. After 5 years we were selling around 1000 per year and we started thinking, yeah lets keep the program going. By 2007 we were working with what one might refer to as the ‘avant guard’ of the wetsuit market working with a triathlon based manufacturer that had been in business since 1964 and was an absolute expert in smooth-skin production using Japanese glue & neoprene and keeping everyone they suited both warm and toasty. Yes we had some small issues with zipper heads pulling off but we moved from PK zip heads to YKK and never saw another issue. What we didn’t realise is working with smooth-skin and having only a single side to blind-stitch is a masters game.

In 2008 we were contacted by a very well known producer from Taiwan and they helped re-design the range, they were good – but not the same nice homely lightweight, quick drying, warm and supple neoprene that we had been enjoying from Yamamoto. 1 season in and we were ready to move back and by chance we were met with another supplier who claimed to work closely with Yamamoto and would deliver great suits again. This was the beginning of the learning curve tht has taken 3 years to work on. I write this personally and to travel the coastlines picking up arm fulls of wetsuits that were ripping open almost made me quit, it was at some stages a 20% return rate. One weekend, a few years back we were at a trade show and after breaking the stand down we travelled to LAX, slept for 3 hours and took the next available flight to Shanghai followed by a deep trek into China to find the source of the issues. For the next year we had to manage returns, help with issues, find out and understand all the various glues that are used, reactive components in wetsuits and understand how temperamental working with smooth-skin really is. Even our competitors had started to stop using it – but us, me – we stubbornly refused to quit.

This has led us to working with the best people in the wetsuit market again for 2011. This has made us memorise the whole Yamamoto catalogues, this has led us to test every stage of the suit manufacturing process, this has led us to test the glues and their origination and this has led us to spend whole nights thinking about how we can get back to making the warmest, understated, comfortable and stylish suits on the market while avoiding heartache at times we have felt. How can we actually do this? By failing. How? Beacuse failure creates either 3 things, bitterness, defeat or experience. Failure that costs means you start measuring twice & cutting once, receiving emails from around the world from upset people helps your customer service skills better than any outside mentor, understanding the qualities of the neoprene, stitching and glue is priceless and how exactly does one learn those skills held by decades of understanding of older generations – through failure? It is always agreed that those who bear the scars are the only ones who can accuratly describe the battle. As the UK’s World War 2 – Prime Minister ’Winston Churchill’ famously once said, ‘Success is never final, Failure is never fatal, it is courage to continue that counts. Behind the scenes we continued and we have worked very hard to learn from a steep learning curve and early indications is that our new wetsuits are ‘the bomb’ – how?

Failure, embrace it.

Ingredients !!!

So after what has now been 15 years this year since we started we thought it might be nice to share the vision of where we are going and take a little time to explain the direction Nineplus is heading in. Since 2008 when the company changed its direction following the release from its shareholding responsibilities and also headed towards the heavy CA. influence within the brand it has been increasing its following and this year will see the divide as Nineplus heads of towards a more original, vintage style and HASU takes over the more simplistic, subtle and modern approach. Why? Because on one side we have an existing nostalgic and retro image and on the other we have been holding some of the best materials & technology in our hands for a while now and are desperate to get to the forefront of design and development and take surfing products to the next level. Think a VW a 66 Split Screen & a ’11 VW Sport line Transporter – or an Aston Martin DB9 & a Jaguar E-Type. Sometimes both ends are appealing and so using the same ‘lotus flower’ logo we will unite both Nineplus & HASU as these projects continue to develop.

Scan across the surfing and sporting goods horizon and its not hard to see it gets a little blurry when watching the major players. Bulk numbers are done through major discounters, (yes honestly) while the smaller shops set the trend. Its all sell, sell, sell – and one can be forgiven to be left thinking ‘where has all the soul gone, and what happened to the style? Well it started rewarding brand shareholders who sit back and earn money for nothing other than having it to lend and then got lost trying to keep it up.

Many people take a guess and will say we are a Californian company, which is cool, but we are actually from the UK. We have a base now in CA and also Australia but most of the ideas are born at our offices deep in the Countryside of Cornwall which is in the southern west tip of the United Kingdom. Travel and an open mind mean that Nineplus & soon to be HASU pulls from travel, books, music, poetry, film and other ideas to create a its own interpretation of how surfing is seen and also felt. This then translates into products which are used and in turn make the brand take a tangible form. Over the past few years its been interesting how these areas of self expression within music and the alternative surfing scene have moved in similar currents. Maybe its the heart speaking but if you take surfing’s anti corporate following and sit it next to the same within the music industry things start looking very similar. People dress in a way that is unique which is then copied and filtered down to something that becomes a trend later on. Large companies spend huge amounts of money trying to find these trends and designers earn lots to discover them? Why – because they flow fromthe heart of creativity and money cannot make it, while the average joe wants to replicate it.

Interesting stuff – but how does this relate to Nineplus? Well firstly we only do things that we feel fit our style. Second we work from the heart. That has actually made the journey quite difficult as there has been a learning curve of trial and error which in our case has been both expensive and at times frustrating. But for what we lost we have also kept the ‘heart’ and at the end of it all and finances dismissed its the point that makes us know we wouldn’t chose to do anything else. Using this we have been looking at where the brand goes and thought after all these words we might include the pictures of the mood board that adorns the back wall of the office. Before you look through the images, the descriptive is: ‘looking back before looking forward’, using ‘British culture to a global audience’ and ‘creating nostalgic appeal through modern media’. Follow the heart……………hope you can feel it.

On Friday 4th February 2011, our friend Mark Neville went missing. On Tuesday the 22nd February 2011 our fears were confirmed regarding Marks wellbeing and the confirmation of his passing was made known.

Mark, a world renowned surfboard shaper and the man behind producing the whole Nineplus surfboard offering for the last 10 years has been a person we have spent hours too numerous to count with.

Mark brought much happiness to many people including those whom have and still do ride the hand crafted surfboards his skilful hands created. ‘Nev’ as he was also known was a true gentleman and the hours we spent together creating the various surfboard models were filled with kindness, intrigue, philosophy, interest, creativity, inspiration, understanding and mutual respect. Marks hands built surfboards using words and ideas and made them into reality and he is the main reason so many people write to us and claim how much better they have become at surfing – it is due to his input and ability; the ability of Mark Neville.

Always resistant to the shaping machine and with talent to be able to truly resist the precision a machine can offer, Mark was exact and he was his own machine. Often the only car left at the Seabase factory each evening and always free to talk and show interest to whoever wanted to have a word. His encouragement was infectious and each time I drove up for meetings I would also see him first and wax lyrical about whatever was on our hearts.

It is with deep sorrow I have learnt of your early departure Mark, Bless you and your family and I pray the works of your hands become even more treasured in the hands of those fortunate to own one.

Love Richard.

Mark choosing his blank - photo David Harris