p co was right

Far out! Some big names in that lot!

Whats Mick and Steph gonna do for boards?

Maybe a dumb question but what happens to dhd, burton, etc now?? Its really a shame that some of Australia's best shapers are looking like goners. You have to feel for the blokes working there aswell, 50 people out of a job they probably thought was stable.

what about the stupid idiots that bought boards and are screwed. integrity i think the word is. a shame they screw people and keep taking money. i dont care if they never make a cent again if thats how they want to do bus. dont bag me,cause you cant be in that much debt and not know what is happening,and they would,but still take coin. fmd the rotten pr1cks should be prosecuted and not allowed to start another bus without fulfiling their already payed for orders first

Darcy has just gone under as well

Here is another interview from Stu at Swellnet.

Incredible reading. Seems like those blokes had NFI and are now in a whole lot of trouble.

Maurice Cole started BASE Surfboards in June 2003 along with shapers, Simon Anderson, Darren Handley, Murray Bourton and Nev Hyman, who left not long after the venture was formed. In late 2004 Maurice himself left BASE in an acrimonious split from his former business partners. Due to legal obligations he's been unable to tell his side of the story but with the recent demise of BASE he's now free to talk. Maurice agreed to give this interview to Swellnet.

"The only reason I'm saying this," said Maurice when we began the interview, "is to clear the air because a lot of **** was said about me."

Swellnet: What was the primary objective of BASE?
Maurice Cole: I was watching how China was on the rise and I could see the writing on the wall. I had the vision that we'd create a completely vertical company. We'd develop our own technologies - blanks and machines and things like that. We'd bring in all the top shapers and we'd bring in a kick arse management team. We had five or six shapers, each with small management teams, and we'd combine them. We'd save money up the front in the office.

So the idea was to cut the costs right back, buy in bulk and have worldwide marketing. I figured it didn't matter whether Darren's brand was bigger than mine, mine was bigger than Murray's, or anything like that because we all owned it and had equal shares in each others brands. It was a bit like socialism really.

I also saw it as a chance to build a company where we'd be able to hand a legacy on from older shapers to younger shapers. To pass down the knowledge and to create sort of a family company. I guess in hindsight I might've been dreaming a bit big there.

How long did it stay true to that vision?
(Long pause) I don't know whether that vision was ever adopted by the management. What happened was we ended up with a giant administration in the offices and we had very untrained, unqualified directors, being us shapers. An us and them situation developed between management and shapers - they were giving us info from their perspective, you know pie charts and graphs, all this amazing info. But most of us couldn't understand it.

When did you get a feeling something was wrong?
After a year I could see that there was something wrong in the company. I was working my guts out at the time doing 100 hour weeks, while up in Queensland it was sort of like everyone was just cruising along figuring 'we've made it'. You know, there was money going here and there, there was grand plans, there was a lot of egos flying around.

After a year and a half I could see there were substantial losses. Something was really, really wrong. A whole bunch of stories came out which showed things were not well and I was having some pretty heavy run-ins with the administration people.

After 18 months we didn't even know how much a board cost us and at one of the meetings I said "What the **** is this? We've got a million dollars worth of people working for us and we don't know how much a ****ing board costs us?" So I did my own sums on the whiteboard, like, "Oh yeah, it costs us $527 and we sell 'em for $460. No wonder we're ****ing losing money." I said it that way. That was my way of talking then, and in hindsight I should've been a lot more user friendly and not so abrasive. People might have listened.

Supposedly we were all helping each other but I was watching this money being spent and all this other stuff going on and I started losing confidence in the management, which was John Cross and David Cross and also some of the administration people.

What action did you take?
What happened was we finally agreed to get an independent group of people in to write a strategic review of the company after 18 months. Simon paid $25,000 for it. This was September 2004.

One of the people was Mark Blanchard, another was Terry Jones, who runs Odyssey sunglasses now. I knew them so I think there was a perception that I was trying to take over the company, but these guys were serious heavy hitters. It was a level of expertise that you'd bring in to investigate QANTAS or something like that. Mark Blanchard put Alan Bond in jail and was hired to investigate Robert Maxwell who committed the biggest corporate fraud in England's history. Mark also got an accountant friend of his who took two weeks off. There was all these great people, the $25,000 would barely have covered their paperwork.

Their report was damning. It showed that the companies had been set up really badly, the management were really inefficient and the capital had been really badly used. They believed we were nearly insolvent then.

I read the report and just had to make a decision. I called up Darren and said "We've got to rid of John Cross and his administration." Darren said,"Yeah, no worries." I called Simon and he said, "This is shocking, this is bad." So I proceeded, thinking I had the support of those guys, in contacting Mark Blanchard and asking them what the next step was if we dismissed them.

Which was?
Paul Hart, who was an investor in the company, was going to be general manager. Terry would've got the company ready for investment and Mark Blanchard had a group of venture capitalists in Perth who would've put two million into the company at the end of February. Greville [Mitchell - English businessman, philanthropist, and founder of Mitchell Surfing Foundation and World Professional Surfers] was going to help us in case we were insolvent. We would've had this squeaky clean company.

I went up to a board meeting where I thought we were going to be getting rid of John and David Cross. I went into the meeting and moved a motion that we dismiss our current board. Everyone was saying, 'well, what will we do we do then?' But the thing was, I had this agreement with Darren and Simon and if we would've voted them down we would've had a new administration in. So I moved the motion thinking I had their support but none of them backed me. Darren looked down. Simon looked down. No-one supported me.

So I said, based on the report I'm resigning as a director right now. I'm going to become an amiable competitor to you guys so let's negotiate a way out of this. I left and went to a hotel room where Terry Jones, Mark Blanchard, Greville Mitchell and Paul Hart were and told them the news. I was absolutely ****ing devastated.

From there I had to get on a plane and go to Ross' [Clarke-Jones] Dad's funeral. I came home Sunday night and the papers had been issued that they said that I had stormed out and been aggressive. I promise you, Stu, I'd admit it if I did it. I admit any mistakes I make. But because they said I stormed out I forfeited my shares and I forfeited my name in the business. I got locked out for six months. Part of the agreement with BASE was that I wasn't allowed to talk about any of this deal. But as BASE doesn't exist anymore I can talk about it.

And here we are. What happened next?
Greville Mitchell said go and get the best lawyers in the land. So I did, I got Mallesons Stephens Jaques and the price of me getting my name back was about $120,000 over six months. They sat me down and they said, "We've never seen a company in worse condition and we've never ever seen a director treated as badly as you have. We're gonna give you $30,000 off."

I'd had to borrow money. I was ****ed. Basically for six months I couldn't shape, I couldn't do anything, I just had to sit there and deal with lawyers. And that's when I got cancer actually, I was very stressed out as you can imagine. Just shattered in a certain way.

What were the financial repercussions?
I basically lost everything I owned by putting it into BASE. When I went into BASE I had a really strong asset base and when I got out I had nothing. Less than nothing, I had a couple of hundred grands in debts. I'm still trying to get on top of them now

What's your relationship with the guys at BASE now?
I've never spoken to them again. I tried to call Simon when they brought this bull**** thing out about me. I said, "Simon you know that didn't happen at the meeting," and he just said, "Maurice, I'm sorry, I can't help you," and just sort of hung up.

I was really angry with them because they were supposed to be mates. I was really shocked with Simon. I understand it now, you look from the outside and he looked after himself and his family. ****, maybe I should've done the same? I'm just not that way though.

What's your understanding of BASE's situation now?
I've had that many calls from people saying 'make sure they don't get away with it, tell your story'. I've contacted the administrators and I've seen all the paperwork. They're under serious criminal investigation. I just read in Australian Surf Business that they think the debt is $3 million. It's so much more, $6 million, $7 million even, and there's only half a million dollars worth of assets.

What do you think will happen to the directors?
I think they'll be stripped of their assets. Worrells [the administrators] said they'd been trading insolvent since June 30th, 2005. **** mate, that's serious ****. So all debts they've incurred since then have to be paid by directors. They're being investigated for insolvency; insolvency trading by directors; preferential payments to creditors – which were family members; uncommerical transactions; unfair loans; and offences committed by all directors. They are in that much trouble and I don't think they understand.

What's your thoughts when you reflect upon it now?
It's really disappointing. The way I see it we all went in there to make money for the investors. We had the purest of intentions but the management wasn't strong enough and the companies had been set up terribly. We had one of the weakest board of directors you could possibly imagine.

When we originally sent the investment papers to Greville Mitchell's accountant in England he apparently said, "None of this makes sense, Greville." And Greville said, "Look, I'm backing them mate, I'm putting $200,000 in."

When Greville told me that I said, "Why the **** didn't you tell me that back then? I didn't know it was set up ****ty." We didn't know anything like that. It really saddens me because that company had the best glassers, the best sanders, we had Simon Buttonshaw looking over the art. We had an incredible group of people but it never gelled.

Where do you stand now on Chinese imports?
To me, we missed the whole point. We were worried about cheap and nasty boards from China. Our whole idea was that if we had superior design, and we had the best team riders we could get a good price for our boards.

We went through all this so us guys could take a step back from the gruelling physical stuff and use our brands and our personas and attach an infrastructure to them that would mass produce our designs. That was basically it.

If I had a choice I'd use Asia to mass produce my boards because then they'd come in a lot cheaper and you'd actually earn money off that which would pay for the R&D. I read the interview with Mark Kelly.

What's your thoughts on GSI?
I think he's done a brilliant job. Some of the stuff I don't like. Some of his stuff is a total wank, but then so's the market (laughs). They just filled a vacuum and they offer really good services. You start looking at them going 'why are they a success?' In the interview Mark Kelly says he's got 15 people worldwide, well BASE had ****ing 22 people just in the front office!

The BASE thing failed because of really poor management. Here's a thought: Imagine if Mark Kelly ran BASE from the start? How do you think BASE would've been run? I ****ing wish he'd come to all of us and said, "Look I think you've got it wrong guys. How about if I take over as CEO and I'll organise you guys, pay you ****loads of royalties, and we'll put a heap back into R&D." I would've listened.

Not sure if any of the big name shapers have any care or worry about what board is best for you. When I was young, before the start of time, I was sold a board from Nev.. As a young fella I thought he would set me up with the goods to help me surf, but it ended up he just sold a board that he wanted to sell. From that time on I have gone and spoken to smaller shapers to find the board that is good for me. Daryl Wilkes, Bert Burga, Grubb and Al Bean. I didn't get a board from all of them but got their point of view and my own thoughts to get the right stick. I found all the other blokes are all in it for the $$$$$. Most of the big fellas deserve what ever they get. I know they have to make a living, but don't have to burn people to get there.

Here is a picture of the Base Management Team on their way to work