You raise some very important points in your question. I’ll try to reply as best as I can, but bear with me because it’s 4am here!

Firstly, I believe that the symptoms you describe are mostly symptoms of a contracting market. If the market was growing, those same symptoms would gradually fade away. If you look at the growing SUP market, for example, they have even more products and even more brand saturation than windsurfing. However, because demand continues to grow, boards are sold at full prices; new brands continue to pop up, even new factories.

Brands, assuming fair and free trade, are as much a reflection of the market as they are a reflection of the individuals within the brand. Therefore, a large part of a brand is a reflection of the consumer’s wants and needs. iPads, TVs and cars are also renewed day in day out, in man’s quest for progress. Markets can expand and contract, prices can go up and down, but the reason for these tidal changes in market isn’t due to product updates and incremental improvements, in my opinion. I believe that the source of these changes is more macro in scale.

My lead theory for the contracting of the windsurfing market is due to the missing “Friends and Family connect effect”. The theory came to me after reading up on the book ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, then inverting the basis of the book somewhat.

Consider the way an infectious virus spreads: it goes from you to the people close to you. Windsurfing also spreads best in this way. If you survey enough windsurfers, say ten, you’ll see that the majority got into windsurfing through friends and family. Probably between six and eight of the ten people you surveyed. I got into windsurfing because my Dad taught me. He got into windsurfing because his friend taught him. What about yourself?

Back in the days, the equipment we windsurfers used on a weekly basis was easy enough to teach your friend and family. So it was easier to infect and spread the windsurfing virus.

As we switched to smaller boards, it became more difficult to share our passion for windsurfing. There’s no way anyone will learn windsurfing on my Kode 72. Or your favourite board, I’m sure. The same goes for the hundreds of thousands of windsurfers out every weekend. Our tiny gear will not bring in new windsurfers. So slowly but surely, the virus loses its ability to spread.

Today, with the return of longboards and lightwind windsurfing through this new sport I like to call ‘Wind-powered SUP’, or Windsupping for short, we are at the stage where the trend is reversing. I just completed a forecast presentation where I plan for 48% of our sales will be windsupping boards by 2015. Assuming that the other sales have remained somewhat stable, this means that the windsurfing market will have doubled.

For the sheer love of windsurfing and the desire to share a good time, I’m teaching my friends and family windsupping on the weekends. So are other windsuppers. If shops, magazines, internet sites, windsurfers were to embrace windsupping, we would re-connect the Friends and Family effect.

On the contrary, I think that being based on Maui is a disadvantage. Studying engineering in London, learning hydrodynamic theories, material science, maths mechanics, travelling the world, seeing light wind places and the emergence of new markets, seeing the vast scope of windsurfers from wave heads to newbie paddleboards who’ve fallen in love with windsupping, living with Formula racers who get 7 knots max in a year… This opens you up to a big world of windsurfing, much bigger than what you could possibly imagine by being based on Maui.

I wouldn’t say a Swiss Army knife, more of a soft-top convertible car. What I mean is that you can design a board to work 100% in the twin fin mode, and just add the single fin for those who want to ride extra fast in a straight line in high wind conditions – Hood River riders for example, and also a lot of UK South Coast sailors and some Canaries windsurfing centres. It’s an extra that many appreciate.

In the convertible car analogy, you’d normally always ride the car with the top down because hey, it’s a convertible. But there’s no problem to add a lightweight soft-top roof since many people may want to drive the same car when it rains. As long as the soft top is light enough and doesn’t ruin the open-top experience.

The number of fins does influence the shape, but to a smaller extent than one would first imagine. It’s more accurate to see it this way: any fin set up (quad, thruster, twin and single) works on any half-decent shape, but once you’ve picked your favourite fin set up, you can get an extra 10% juice by further refining the shape around the chosen fin set up.

I wish! Unfortunately, there are no amazing windy spots with great waves around here. Fortunately, I get to travel to the best places and we have a cable ski wakeboard park here at the lake where I can get a quick planing fix. If I want to go for a quick windsurfing getaway, Mui Ne Vietnam is an excellent place.

Our riders and the opinions we receive are strongly gravitating towards twin. We’ve played around with thrusters but as you will see, we prefer to stick to twins, twin convertibles and quads. We’re still playing around with thrusters but until we find something super sweet, there’s no real need to make a thruster just for the sake of it. The key test guys for me are Scott McKercher, Dany Bruch and Philip Koster.

I wish! Unfortunately, there are no amazing windy spots with great waves around here. Fortunately, I get to travel to the best places and we have a cable ski wakeboard park here at the lake where I can get a quick planing fix. If I want to go for a quick windsurfing getaway, Mui Ne Vietnam is an excellent place.

Looking at the current trend, I’d dare to say that multi fins will stay, but I’ve probably just jinxed that now.

The virtual monopoly is a relatively minor factor. To be fair to Cobra, they’ve managed their position well and always have windsurfing’s interest in their heart. The main reason for the price increases over the last few years have been petrol prices and the weakening Euro and Sterling compared to the Thai baht. The exchange rate EUR-THB used to run around 47-49 and now it’s down to 40. That’s 20% in exchange rate alone. If the Eurozone and the UK could bounce back, a price decrease could very well happen.

As for technology options, the strange thing is that the top technology options still sell the most – more than their lower-priced siblings. We used to have more price point segments (e.g. Technora) but the sales have dropped so much, and with the pressure to reduce our board range (see comments further down below), we even had to take them out from our offering to simplify our range. We still have a lot of price point offerings of course: the Carve Tufskins for example or the SUPers or the Kode Technoras.

At the end of the day, we’re trying to achieve the best balance we can, on a yearly basis, between a solid range of excellent products, covering a wide range of tastes and budgets, while still keeping the whole collection simple enough yet still as innovative as possible.

There is a view held by many consumers that if windsurfing continues to go the way it always has, with the brands working continually on improving tried and tested board ranges… to make them that ‘little bit better’ every year (just desirable enough to want a new one) but at the same time inevitably getting more and more expensive, the reality is that fewer and fewer people will be able to afford to keep windsurfing?

Ultimately it looks like windsurfing brands are shooting themselves in the foot, as already, many people just cannot afford brand new boards. Also with the continual ‘turnover’ of new shapes, last years ‘latest hot shape board’ becomes out of date quicker, immediately lose value.

The results is boards become available for less money as ‘clearance’ products – so people then buy them… and now are just waiting for slightly dated equipment to become available, or buy from a shop who got the new stock in, and finds they have to sell it at no profit in order to get it out of the shop, because no-one can buy at full retail.

Where does it end?
Surely this effects all the brands.. as slowly the shops go out of business.. and slowly the brands have less places to keep the windsurfing stoke alive…

Should the brands (and I mean ALL brands ) spend their time concentrating on finding ways to make boards and sails with bigger range, that dont go out of date (by being replaced with a newer model) and most importantly at a better price?

It would be interetsing to hear your thoughts as the brand manager of the biggest brand on where you think things are going?

Thanks !

As I see the new Evo’s are convertible. You can use them in single and in twinzer mode. It reminds me a bit of the swiss army knife. Good for everything but not really good.
Are the number of the fins influences the shape of the board (outline, and the bottom)? If yes, how can you design the shape for single and multi fin setups too?

For the sheer fun and exhilaration, it would have to be the upcoming Koster Kode 72. It brings me back that special joy of windsurfing that makes you a windsurfer for life. It’s the same joy that you have the first time you get planing in the straps and harness. I still smile when I think about the last session on that board.

From a designer’s satisfaction angle, it would be the very first Serenity prototype, a couple of years ago. You kind of feel like Colombus or Thomas Edison – you get this incredible buzz of inventing something truly new and you get to say, “It works! it works!”