A bit frustrated with high prices of windsurfing board I did ask Chinese manufacturer how much it cost to build and sell one board.
It is $300 -350.
Maybe one day we ( SB community) could design our own universal slalom board, send a plans and ask to build 50 pieces for us?
Basically manufacturer could do copy of the best performing board, but due to copyright that is no the way to go.
I agree that material and internal structure could be a crap but at $400 price tag I will be happy to try XFIRE even if last one season only...
If that works I could offer free shipping from China to Brisby as I have always some space left in my containers...
it wouldn't surprise me if <$500 was the manufacturing cost of a current production board. after you take off the shop, distributor, and brand markups (which they need for profit margins), you don't have much change from the $2k price of a current board for the actual cost of the board.
so yeah, it's a pretty cool idea. but it would rely on a lot of people giving up their time for free to organise it.
These are from the Made in China web site. Apparently the materials are EPS foam material & "wrapped glass steel", except for the inflatable one. The price range for these are $400-$500 each.
If it is EPS and glass, it is basically the same as the cheapie surfboards like NSP.
Be lucky to last a season as it is missing the many many extras you have in a proper modern sandwich construction
Do you really think if you take the nose from one board you like then add the tail of another, add the rocker from a third, then the deck from a forth then hand it over to a Chinese factory where they neither have a clue or give a **** you will end up with an awesome board?????
Shapers are shapers for a reason ( the good ones anyway) they love what they do and are passionate about doin it. Plus chuck in 20 odd years of perseverance and then you have someone who can make a good board.
you jump on here with some pretty random ideas, but this really takes the cake.
So with you wealth of experience you are going to design a board that actually works? Oh and you mentioned that you would then on sell the board... hahahahahahaaaaaa ahahhaahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa
It's hard enough to sell a well designed, name brand boards. Make no bones about it, your one off chinese rip off junk board will be destined to your shed for many years to come. And my bet that will be soon after you realise that when you pay $2000+ for a board you are paying for so much more than the pure manufacturing cost.
If you want to pay $500 for a board then buy second hand, There are plenty of them out there. As far as productions boards go you can get brand new ones at the end of the season for $1000-1500, just save your coin. You don't need a board every year, So a $1000-1500 investment over 3 years in not that much to ask. Production boards probably have the largest margin for mark down due to being mass produced but after what I've seen inside them after cutting 2 in half under warranty claim doesn't fill me will the good feeling that they are built with love and care. Custom board builders, This is my thing at the moment and for around 2k are well worth the money. You get to talk to someone through out the build, you get what you want and get some expert guidance if your talking out of your a$$. That fact that we have such good shapers and builders here in Australia is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. All the good fun Sh!t in life cost money, it's just a question of how much you want to spend....You on a $500 board or me on a $2000 board, At the end of the day we are both going to walk off the water with a big smile on our faces.
Maybe something the windsurfing retailers can look into is something like ezypay or the like, an interest free system that most bike shops use in Australia. It may encourage more people to buy more boards and help save our declining sport???
My 2 cents...
What I miss are cheap production boards like Bombora from the 80s and 90s. I remember buying a new Bombora 270 in about 1996 for around $600. Of course $600 back then translates to about $1500 in todays money so there probably isn't much difference. However the Mistrals and F2s of the day were about $1500 or more.
The other great thing about Bomboras were how tough they were. I'd love to buy a tough plastic board in a modern shape at a reasonable price. I wouldn't be interested in buying a cheap board that will fall apart after a year. That is not value for money.
So let me get this right microskin. You want Seabreeze forum people to design/rip off a popular successful board design and get it manufactured at a vastly reduced price to current board brands?
Once this board brand is up and running and hopefully putting the other "expensive" brands out of business, you will then take over as the forum sponsor and fund all the advertisements here that keep the site admins in work and sniffing coke off hookers arses in the carribean on superyachts as they are accustomed to!
It would be hard to come up with a “community board”. If enough enthusiastic armatures could get together and build a mould and then put a board in “production” it would have to run for several years without continuously coming up with next years model. It would also need to be decided if the board is going to be for beginners, slalom, wave or other discipline. Once that has been decided do you make one or several sizes. Then once the expensive mould(s) have been made, do the boards get made local by employees or volunteers or are they shipped to China. Then there are warranty claims, distributions etc. Also as with most groups who aren't in it for the money there will always be the bitching about how much I have put into it & you haven't. Having said all that, it would be an interesting project to get involved in.