Flick the Switch

Sex. Romance. Lust. You need to be in the mood and fully turned-on. Just as you do for windsurfing. (Which might be better eh?)

A sweet shot of a perfect wave. (Windsurfing Porn.) Perhaps memories of great sessions, or an inspirational video from the Pros can all get the juices flowing. (Like the massive swell and Kona winds about to hit the Hawaiian Islands. Expect to see great shots in the coming days as well as news from the Tow-In comp on Maui.)

During hard times like we’re experiencing right now it’s important to remember that in many ways our sport is recession-proof, because we can always hit the surf and forget about the 'rat race'. (Remember: even if you win the Rat race, you're still a Rat).

I just wanted to remind you of those vital and powerful feelings before I paste-in the main piece of this post , because nothing really changes what we feel on the water or when we see the trees sway in the wind that shoots spray across the face of a wave.

That's especially important now after the grim news regarding the demise of certain brands such as HiFly recently, where the heat’s been turned-up by others in the industry -  causing many to stand up and make big claims about the state of the sport.

Emotions can run high, but, as this is your place where all views are welcome, then it’s important that I publish this message from Mark Thoms of Thommen T1 Sailboards, written exclusively for The Beach Telegraph readers.

It’s a bit of a rant (and blatant commercial plug) that’s for sure! But I like Revolution and to see the smaller brands get their share alright.

See what you think about he has to say. Is he right? Do we want to see all the manufacturers fight it out in public or should they keep this kind of thing behind closed doors?

“Hello people @ Beach Telegraph. Just a few lines from Holland, home of Peter Thommen shaped production boards under the T1 label.
 
No gossip but fact #1 is that 009 will see 'industrial' companies strangled by plummeting sales, ridiculous high overhead, dried up cash-flow as a result of proprietors/investors bailing out - the market will see these conglomerates down-sizing (hope it's not too late...) like crazy, cutting team/staff/production/models as where us small (=beautiful!) brands were forced to operate in lean/mean mode from the get-go.

As a result, we are looking extremely good for 009 - so many congratulations to fellow small brands who've made an existence despite the 'Bush-like' terror of the big companies that messed up the marketplace with an over-production of their over-exposed, over-designed and foremost over-the-top ranges developed by over-the-top team riders!

A BIG thumbs up for all those 'beach-side' companies for hanging in there, mostly swimming against the stream, but all with a relentless drive and passion for the sport that magnets us to the beach.
 
No gossip but fact #2 is that all T1/Thommen Version 3.0 boards were completely sold out in 08 and that a limited number of the Version 3.1 sticks just hit the warehouse.

T1's 3.1 Version features an upgraded construction, i.e., putting in more of the black magic than our main stream competition (who lessen to meet market prices...), continuing on proven Peter Thommen shapes with the sleek minimalistic design by Mark Thoms offering the maximum on extras like a tailor made board bag, the most comfy straps you will ever come across and a top performing CNC made Kai Hopf design fin! (Visit www.thommen1.com for more info or just call us on +31 514 524040, we'll gladly answer all your questions!)
 
No gossip but fact #3 is that in 009 T1/Thommen again won't overproduce, chasing non-existing volumes; we only construct the boards we can sell.

T1/Thommen won't throw useless hypes at the market; we only design boards that we know to work.

T1/Thommen won't throw sand in our customer’s eyes by putting wild screaming graphic designs on our boards to change them all over for the next year, calling them All New.

T1/Thommen will stand firm to the promise we made the Real Windsurfers who bought/buy our Real Boards!

We still live by our founding slogan  - 'One Man. One Board.' - as no other brand puts as much 'range-of-use' in it's boards!

Rather than forcing customers to buy a second or even third board for almost the same venue, we make sure our boards work in a variety of conditions/waters.

So 'right-on' to those who withstood the hollow marketing phrases of the major industrial companies and thought outside the box - at T1/Thommen we cherish these 'dissidents' and thru Beach Telegraph we'd like to SALUTE this growing group of devoted windsurfers who prefer unique over mainstream, putting Lasting Value above Boot Düsseldorf slashed prices!
 
Looking at The Beach Telegraph concept I trust you appreciate our audacity to be different from the competition by going against the grain.

We truly hope you see the need to support small (read non-paying) companies like ours as the mainstreamers have finally proven to be the George Ws of windsurfing - only taking never giving!
 
All my best for 009,
 
Mark Thoms”

Please leave any comments below. (No sign-in required.) Thanks.

Comments

[Mark/T1]

hi Brian,

Thanks for running my 'blatant commercial plug' - good to see TBT gives a podium to the non-paying.

Readers shouldn't take my fact#1 as 'industry fighting it out in public', it's just an observation from a small windsurf company that the odds are changing now it becomes clear that some big windsurfing companies aren't ‘millennium proof’.

Hifly's exit had nothing to do with the brand not being viable, it had everything to do with its mother company taken over by an industrial giant with no interest in windsurfing whatsoever – and this is the worrying part:

Many big ‘windco’s’ have no real interest in growing the sport other than growing profits for their shareholders. Sure they employ a people, pay taxes, but the moment markets turn grim and returns on investment dry up, they bail out.

Near future will prove that Hifly's exit is a very big loss for windsurfing, millions of novices made the first meters on these indestructible PP boards + uncountable windsurfing schools depend on these robust plastic boards as all other constructions proved to last little longer than one season, making them a bad investment.

Lets it be clear that T1/Thommen wishes nothing but good fortune to other windco’s – it’s still more harmful for the sport to see them leave the marketplace than the gain of having a bigger slice for ourselves, remember we’re not mainstream!

cheers,

Mark/T1

[Beej]

Thanks Mark - you're more than welcome. Perhaps your business model is an example we should all follow in life regarding staying streamlined, efficient, lean and healthy to cope with whatever the world throws at us? (Somehow I seem to have been happy with just 2 sails and three boards the past two seasons...don't ask!) Good luck in your quest to to 'make the pie bigger' rather than just your slice of it!

[Reg]

Looks like we have forgotton why Windsurfing became so big in the first place to me. First brand to think right outside of the box and make a board that doesn't plane will win the battle to make the cake bigger. Short boards marked the beggining of the end for windsurfing, it has just taken 20 years for the decline to reach the position we are in now. A T1 picnic hamper would help us all remeber the beach is not just just for windy days, whilst we windsurfers who are still keen and into it and love the sport so much, we do only choose to go on windy and generally grey days which aren't good for introducing Friends, family & colegues to this great sport.

[Beej]

Hey Reg...so what do you think about the current ranges of longboards from say Kona or Starboard then?

I guess longboarding helped surfing's recovery in the late 90s, but some would say it was the great images the shortboard Kings such as Kelly Slater and Co. produced?

Still, I agree with your point about grey rainy windy days not being ideal for introducing newcomers. Something surfing's generally not had to deal with.

[andreas]

Mark,
thanks for that polemic piece (and beachtelegraph mahalo for putting it online). I really enjoyed reading it and it matches my own personal view on this beautiful sport - I need one good board, a nice sail and I´m done. I remember coming to the beach after a beautiful windy sesh in Kailua with the „wrong“ board (bit too large, bit too freestyle for a wavy, windy day) and some guy on the beach saying: „you can´t ride a board like that in these conditions.“ That was the marketing crap he believed in, cause I obviosly could and had a blast.
So: I (old fart, sailing since 78) could be happy with one nice Thommen board and leave all the marketing fuzz behind. But: I STILL don´t agree with you. Who is making the market and the sport move? Who is giving it new ideas and designs to talk about? Who is paying the pros to generate media coverage and interest for the sport? Who makes the kids check youtube for freestyle moves? And who makes people buy new gear every other season? Obviously not your company. People who are in the end wise and experienced enough to buy a T1 and stick with it happily ever after might all have a history of following trends and trying out this and that, thanks to the industry who is giving it to them. Many Windsurfers are more interested in running after trends than actually being on the water - thats ok fo me. If all Windsurfers were wise and all companies like yours, the market and the sport would drop into a deep coma. Dont blame the industry for keeping things moving with lots of effort. And keep going your way.
Andreas (germany)

[Mark/T1]

hi Andreas,

Many thanks for your reaction And no worries mate; only few are on our track and we're well adapted to live with that fact - even my own son of 13 prefers the looks of the new Goya over a T1 (we also import Goya in Holland, so Juniors' choice is rather limited ha ha) - and so should it be, free choice of kit for everyone (except my son)!

It's just that at T1 we have no intentions of catering to the mainstream - LET THAT BE CLEAR ha ha - all we're after is the group of windsurfer demanding well designed sticks, shaped to withstand the tooth of time – each a timeless piece they’ll enjoy every time sailing and looking at it, even in 10 years from now, a board one can take to any beach and people will stop to have look at, saying 'wow, excellent choice’!

Well I'm sorry but I very much blame the industry for offering new products every year, not that I’m against progress, real progress is good (see my closing line) – but the industry mainly sells ‘fashion’ (and has no problem slapping new stickers on old boards) and have been throwing fads at consumers since the invention of the footstrap, just to keep them buying more and more boards....

Above anything I’m blaming the industry for overproducing! Polluting the market and killing their own dealers who are constantly forced to depreciate expensive stock, frustrating 'innovators' and 'early adapters' with slashed prices of their new equipment, confusing ‘Joe-Blow’ customers who doesn’t know anymore When to buy as prices devaluate daily as the Italian Lire once did.

Consumers may benefit from free market mechanisms – it’s all about supply and demand - but one should realize that factories need margin, brands need margin, distributors need margin, dealers need margin – just as much as the companies they work for need margin to pay for their salaries!

The only way to overcome this permanent freefall in pricing is when mainstream brands put the handbrake on their unrealistic annual sales projections. Produce short. Sell ‘No’ at some times. ‘Sorry we’re sold out, guess you will have to wait for next year or buy something else’…

Should you worry that my way of thinking stops progress, well I suggest the PWA Board to allow World Cup racing on custom made boards again – let’s do the trial/error there, not over the backs of a consumer.

I'm among the first to admit that mainstream brands also do a lot of good to the sport, god bless the inexhaustible budgets of the J- and NP's of this world, without them 'selling dreams' the young probably won't look at the sport - but ideally they all find a better balance between supply/demand, making it a place for all and not for the happy few - I'm hopeful the world's economic situation will now accelerate this process.

Beste Grüsse an Germany (Münich?)

Mark/T1

[Mark/T1]

hi Reg,

I agree with you that windsurfing has been going down since the good old days of the windsurfer/wayler/windglider/etc – actually ever since the invention of the footstrap and the moment boards grew shorter (damn those Charculla Twins ha ha) – but remember that Windsurfing is the mother of all Funsports and unfortunately it's offspring became a fierce competition….

No need for the T1 PicNiX, there’s companies like Patrice B's KONA are very well catering to a emerging Longboard market and that all the rest of us are running behind this new development like headless chicken, T1 including (although our 11'2" Wind'SUP is a real windsurfer that surfs and paddles surprisingly well ;-).

Also Svein's Starboard Go's are spot on the mass market, so are JP’s, Fanatics etc etc, all great beginner boards, all great value (its just a crying shame we have to see Hifly’s PP widestyle boards go…).

Really, to me it's not so much offering people the right kit, there's already way too much out there, no it's more the sports needs a general ‘upswing’ – the young must experience it to be a cool thing, the old should try it again and find it’s like riding a bike but then effortless and way more exiting!

Guess most of us boardheads are already doing their best to spread the religion, taking friends and family to the beach and putting them on newest kit.

Let’s wait and see what the future brings, this sport won’t disappear, there’s always idiots around to launch new brands/products or we just start making them again in our garages, ha!

Best!

Mark

[Andraeas]

You´re a subtle marketer, Mark, I already feel I need a T1. I also liked the time- and flawless Angulo shapes, but what is Josh doing with the brand now?? And you are right about the bad aspects of market flooding, wich pretty much started 20 years ago when I was in munich and worked for that particular magazine. Now its Hamburg and I´m not in the business anymore.
Cheers, Andreas