SeanAUS120 said...Ben 555 said...
I can see the reasons for only allowing homologated gear - even playing field etc - plus with a two year product cycle and limited board brands it makes for less obselescence and hopefully a bigger marketplace (thats the theory)
Actually, not sure if everyone knows this but having 2 yr registration periods for boards almost cut the FW board market in HALF. Brands were selling tons of boards before this and now most of the market is only buying a board every 2 years which means there are generally only 2nd hand boards on the market every 2 years ... This caused a lot of brands to cut their teamrider budgets ...
That being said it does take the pressure off the development cycle and I think it's led to better ideas being created in board design (this current 2 year cycle has some pretty radical board designs as we've seen!) and it's nicer for the dealers to not have boards date so quickly ...
At every AGM we've had since introducing it, 2 of the major board brands have wanted to change back to 1-year cycles ...............
Hey Sean, How can we push forward the board and sail registration at least a month so here in Australia we can have new gear before our season starts, whats the point of Europe having new gear in the off season. At the moment this timing benefits no one.
