For Svein Rasmussen

Dear Svein,

first of all congratulations for your boards and for the Company you have created from scracht. i am a big fan not only of your products, but the company you have raised.

I have always followed your products, reports, interviews, everything about starboard. In many interviews you talk about your quest to make windsurf more popular, I think is a fact that windsurf industry needs more users. You have created specific boards to learn faster, to plane in 6 knots, to have fun without planning (serenity), and lately to have fun with no wind (SUP Starboard). You basically have one board for every level and windrange ...

Never thought about the price issue? Never thought of delivering the best products at the best prices in the market? Is a fact that people associate expensive with good ...

The distribution network used in the windsurf industry is way too long and is one of the factors of high final prices. Factory - Brand - Distributor - Shop - Consumer, everyone taking what? From 30% to 50% increase on their cost? VAT´s and duties applied and increasing again prices.

If windsurf wants more users the brands need to deliver the products at more reasonable prices.

Nowadays with logistics and internet direct delivery to consumers is posible, you can easily take one or two operators in the distribution chain.

You are a visionary, so I think you could be the first one to do it be it with Starboard or with a parallel brand ... I bet you

[nonopr]

Or you can buy second hand.

[agrelon]

Originally Posted by nonopr

Or you can buy second hand.

There's some wisdom.

Unregistered, did you ever think about the fact that, excluding pro slalom racers, most people will only buy a new board once every couple of years and that maybe in order to be able to sustain itself as an industry windsurfing companies must charge higher prices in order to cover the costs of production?

I too wish that a new board wasn't 1000+ USD but that's the way it is. Nonopr is right about second hand gear, you can get fantastic deals on boards/sails just one or 2 years old which perform very closely to the most recent ones.

[insandout]

In italy there are two brand (pont7 for sail and DROPS for boards) that have online store . The price is very competitive; point7 this year sell 1 race sail AC1 + mast 850,00 Euro.
I think the market has the power for change the direction of brand. Why starboard do very efficiciently boards but keep a very inefficient store?
I think the market today is mature for online trading and STARBOARD has opportunity to go ahead with this new trading for a good ratio PRICE/QUALITY. I remember that till last year the Starboard was very aggressive price ( 1 board slalom + 2 fins minor price Jp slalom without fin). This year the slalom boards is much expensive (1 isonic wC 1799,00 - 1 jp carbon 1600,00) .I am sure it's time in STARBOARD for 2^ revolution.
bye
Giacomo

[Gestalt]

I agree with the OP 100%. Why not have online distribution and maybe people will buy new boards more often. I don't really need a 14 year old working part time to give me advice on which board to buy, plenty of information here on the internet. All the windsurfing shop and everyone else in the chain are just making things more expensive for the consumer. I prefer to buy things online and would be very happy to see Starboards sold online.

[agrelon]

Originally Posted by Gestalt

I agree with the OP 100%. Why not have online distribution and maybe people will buy new boards more often. I don't really need a 14 year old working part time to give me advice on which board to buy, plenty of information here on the internet. All the windsurfing shop and everyone else in the chain are just making things more expensive for the consumer. I prefer to buy things online and would be very happy to see Starboards sold online.

Am I the "14 year old working part time" you're referring to? I too agree that one common, and complete, online distributor for Starboard products would be great. There's no question about that.

There should and will always need to be beachfront windsurfing concessions to rent gear, give lessons, demo boards, and sell accessories. These establishments are vital to the growth and visibility of the sport. They can also be vital to the visibility of brands that support a rental / demo center.

However, most industries are moving beyond the age of JIT (just in time) production to an era of nearly infinite customization. With CAD CAM construction technologies I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to order the specially configured board of my choice at a competitive price. As consumers get more and more used to being able to customize their big ticket item purchases (think dell computer, any car manufacturer, and high end road bikes like serrota) we will also expect to be able to configure our windsurfing gear as well. Hot sails already has a version of this with their superfreak graphics. I'm sure some of the smaller brands are doing similar things with boards already. Its pretty standard stuff.

In other words we are moving back to an era of "custom" boards. But rather than custom in the traditional sense where you purchase a really intimate experience with a shaper who intuits the shape of your board. Your "custom" board is really a sum of how you configure various color, fin, and shape combinations. In this sense what you are customizing is the style. But that is OK.

[viking]

Everybody complains about too expensive boards but when a brand sells cheaper, nobody wants to buy it. Tiga disapeared with very good shapes at fair price.

Gun Sails tried to sell boards online (Copello shapes, you cannot expect better): a disaster

Starboard has a too good understanding of the windsurf marketing to sell online for sure!

[IRL-250]

If all manufaturer's sold direct and online then windsurfing shops would become a thing of the past. What would happen if you broke something at the beach and the windsurfing shop that used to be around the corner was no longer there. You would have to wait for it to be delivered by post before you could go sailing again.

In these trying economic times we should be supporting our local windsurfing shops and buy from them rather than going online and buying there and hopefully they will still be there once the recession ends

[Gestalt]

Originally Posted by IRL-250

If all manufaturer's sold direct and online then windsurfing shops would become a thing of the past. What would happen if you broke something at the beach and the windsurfing shop that used to be around the corner was no longer there. You would have to wait for it to be delivered by post before you could go sailing again.

In these trying economic times we should be supporting our local windsurfing shops and buy from them rather than going online and buying there and hopefully they will still be there once the recession ends

In these trying economic times we should be going online and buying things cheaper, and companies should be trying to get their products to the consumer as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

What would happen if you broke something at the beach? Small items you can always keep spares and shipping doesn't take long anyway.