March 3rd. I was looking to step it up from single handed whips. I've been catered to nothing but high quality whips and excellent service. I have a Indy styled Strain and it's like every other Strain in terms of quality. Tough but great looking. I've dealt with Strain a total of 3 times in items and repairs. I've also dealt with EC whips and got a good whip for the price and the service was great and quick. So naturally I wanted somebody who would either meet the standard of Strain or higher. I wasn't looking for a bullwhip though. I felt that after 4 years, I had my 2 bullwhips down very well and that I had not much of anywhere to go except by new different whips. I wanted matched pair, 5 ft. stockwhips, light weight so that I can really go crazy.
Where to go?
I like every aspect of the whip world, such as collecting. So I wanted some different whips from what I already had in terms of the maker. So I went to a well trusted whip friend to ask him who he'd recommend. He told me people from Murphy, Barr, Martin, and some others. I began comparing prices as well as options. I eliminated several makers due to the fact that within a 2 weeks minimum, I never recieved a reply (No, that doesn't mean just Murphy, Barr, and Martin were considered.)
I slowly eliminated many due to prices as well as wait times. So it came down to Simon Martin. He's won many awards, his stuff looked good and his wait time from March extended until June/July.
I recieved nearly instant replies from Simon whenever I sent him an email. Quick to find out, he's a gentleman with quite the personality and an honest salesman. My kind of whipmaker. So I threw an order in for dual paired stocks, 5 ft, competition style, dual tone (natural tan/black)
June/July rolls around and I hear nothing.....so I send a message to him. Turns out that for some reason he never got my order through his website. Then it turns out that I'd have to wait until October but Simon went back into his past emails and he found me talking to him! Martin was ahead of his orders so we he was kind enough to squeeze mine in and for the fact that the order form messed up.
I probably sent him 20 emails at least over the time of me sending my money order to him. You would think that over time the maker would get aggravated but not Simon. I had each email replied to quickly.
Finally my money order arrived and he was all over my whips. He made them accordingly and sent them out. July 2nd they are shipped, July 8 they arrive. They were packed in 2000000 ft. of bubble wrap (Ok, maybe that's too much, but it was a lot!) and not a single scratch or cut on the whips.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5412.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5413.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5416.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... 5416-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5411.jpg
(Didn't want to have to bring the resolution down a bunch to meet board rules so there you go)
Photos can never show the true beauty of these. Simons whips don't look great in photos. I took these outside and they crack wonderful. In fact, they crack like a dream. Now I know what some whipcrackers talks about when they claim that a whip does amazingly well. I was cutting targets with excellent precision but the main reason why I bought them (double handed routines) they work great!
I don't think I honestly could have had a better product or customer service (well......if they were free....
)I can see myself doing business with Simon again whether it be repairs, whips, or other misc. items.
