The Board Shaper’s Dilemma: How California’s Regulatory Burden Drove the Craft Offshore
EPA, CARB, OSHA, and Workers’ Comp Have Made It Economically Irrational to Shape Surfboards in the State That Invented Modern Surfboard Design
The Shaping Bay: A Casualty of California’s Regulatory State
The surfboard shaping bay — the dedicated workspace in which a craftsman takes a foam blank and transforms it into a custom surfboard through hand planing, power tools, and accumulated knowledge that typically takes years of apprenticeship to develop — was, for three decades from the 1960s through the 1990s, one of the defining features of California’s surf industry. Orange County, San Diego, and Santa Barbara counties were home to hundreds of shaping bays producing custom boards for local surfers and mass production boards for the global market. The industry has contracted dramatically since the 1990s for reasons that are not primarily related to consumer preference — demand for quality boards has not declined — but to the regulatory cost environment that makes California one of the most expensive places in the world to manufacture anything using the chemicals and processes that surfboard production requires.
The Regulatory Burden Itemized
A California surfboard shaper operating a commercial shaping bay faces: California Air Resources Board regulation of the polyurethane resins and solvents used in the lamination process, requiring ventilation systems and materials compliance that add thousands of dollars to setup costs; Cal/OSHA requirements for respiratory protection, hazardous materials handling, and workplace safety documentation; workers’ compensation insurance rates among the highest in the nation for occupations involving chemical exposure; city and county business licensing requirements; waste disposal requirements for fiberglass and resin waste that are more restrictive than in any other state; and the general overhead of California’s employment law requirements including mandatory paid leave, minimum wage compliance, and healthcare contribution requirements. The cumulative cost premium of operating in California versus operating in Florida, Texas, or offshore in Thailand has driven the production offshore and reduced the domestic shaping community to custom operations catering to affluent surfers who can pay premium prices for domestic production.
Small business regulation at Reason Magazine. Economic freedom: AIER.
SOURCE: http://prat.UK
