Great to see North back in the game, and interesting to see someone jumping on the Batcam concept now that the patents have expired after all these years!

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NRDesigner said..
Great to see North back in the game, and interesting to see someone jumping on the Batcam concept now that the patents have expired after all these years!

I prefer the allen key batten adjuster, broken a few batcams in the past

At the end of the video he says the availability of those sails will ultra limited to about 15 - 17 wave sails for the German market this year. Not holding my breath to see a lot of them showing up at Australian beaches.

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stehsegler said..
At the end of the video he says the availability of those sails will ultra limited to about 15 - 17 wave sails for the German market this year. Not holding my breath to see a lot of them showing up at Australian beaches.

I can confirm there are 86 sails allocated for Australia between the Wave Clear and the X-Over.

Not many I know, but supply for this first year is limited.

Surf FX
SHQ
Windsurfing Perth

Are the only shops that have preordered them, from what I know more than a few have pre-sold already.

There is an article and a few pictures about North's 3Di technology in the latest issue of Windsurf Magazine for anyone interested. You can buy it using Magzter.

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Kitekeeper said..
I can confirm there are 86 sails allocated for Australia between the Wave Clear and the X-Over.
Not many I know, but supply for this first year is limited.

I actually think that's a lot of sails. I would have thought the entire windsurf market in Australia is no more than maybe 1,000 sails a year.

Hmmm dunno thats only 12 quivers of wave sails..... I can think of 8 or 10 people I know who get a full quiver each year

But you've got me wondering how many brand new sails do come in each year

86 sails being 12 quivers? Most people I know have 3 wave sail sizes maybe 4. It also makes me wonder what happens with those used sails every year. They certainly don't seem to show up on Seabreeze / Gummtree or any of the local beaches here in WA. Do people just leave their sails sitting in the garage?

Hi Kitekeeper..

What exactly is your role in North Sails windsurfing?

Are you actually employed by the North Sails company in the core development team? What is your title? Or are you an importer for what business and in what region?

Sorry if missed earlier if you posted the answer.

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JakeNN said..
Hi Kitekeeper..

What exactly is your role in North Sails windsurfing?

Are you actually employed by the North Sails company in the core development team? What is your title? Or are you an importer for what business and in what region?

Sorry if missed earlier if you posted the answer.

Hi Jake,

I am the country manager for North Action Sports for Australia and NZ.

This includes:
North Kites
North Foils
North Windsurf
North SUP
Mystic Waterwear
Mystic Wake
Mystic Apparel

For Mystic I cover Australia only as there is a distributor already looking after NZ.

Cheers!

Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

I wonder why North and Mystic don't just use one of the already established Australian distributors for the other big brands? .. Would be easier for the retailers to deal with less distributors. .. anyways, good luck.

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stehsegler said..
86 sails being 12 quivers? Most people I know have 3 wave sail sizes maybe 4. It also makes me wonder what happens with those used sails every year. They certainly don't seem to show up on Seabreeze / Gummtree or any of the local beaches here in WA. Do people just leave their sails sitting in the garage?

If everyone had 5 sails in their quiver then 86 sails would work out to be 17.2 quivers.
86 sails for 12 quivers is 7.1 sails, no one I know that wave sails has 7 sails in their current quiver.

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JakeNN said..
Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Agree wholeheartedly! One thing is chatting, the other is to do publicity for a brand!

come on guys, get over it.

i'm happy the guys here telling us about the gear.
he's not pimping in multiple threads or bagging other brands or flooding the airwaves with propaganda.

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JakeNN said..
Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

I wonder why North and Mystic don't just use one of the already established Australian distributors for the other big brands? .. Would be easier for the retailers to deal with less distributors. .. anyways, good luck.

why not start your own brand and give it a crack.. lol.

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JakeNN said..
Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

You'll find that most Australian distributors don't hold a lot of stock these days but instead ask people to pre-order at the beginning of the season. The market here in Australia for niche sports like Windsurfing is simply too small. It's a different story in markets like Germany, Holland, France but even there a bad magazine review can make or break your inventory management.

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stehsegler said..
You'll find that most Australian distributors don't hold a lot of stock these days but instead ask people to pre-order

Exactly .. they don't hold a lot but still hold some stock.. can't be too hard to share.

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JakeNN said..
Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

I wonder why North and Mystic don't just use one of the already established Australian distributors for the other big brands? .. Would be easier for the retailers to deal with less distributors. .. anyways, good luck.

Hi Jake,

I understand not knowing the inside operations can make you wonder.

We already do paid advertising with Seabreeze, we have done it for the kite segment, and we will do it for the WS too as soon as the time is due (stock arriving in the country)

We do not sell direct to end customers, hence we do not want to share our full inventory online, also you might underestimate the amount of products we keep in stock :)
We hold stock in Australia, but retailers hold stock too, we have a B2B platform where retailers can see live stock of each products, and also see incoming stock and ~ETA for each product.

If you call a North retailer and they don't have the product in stock, they can quickly check on our platform if it's available, and if not they will be able to give you and ETA, of course due current times, this ETA might shift to later on, however, our B2B is updated every night .
This is that easy that retailers will be able to check stock and give you an answer while talking to you over the phone.

Additionally our "Store Finder" page will give you chance to check all the retailers stocking our products per segment, so you can easily enquiry with your nearest retailer.

northkb.com/pages/storefinder

On your last point, why would North and Mystic use one of the already established distributors that are already carrying other brand/s?
This mean the Brand will have only a part of the focus and resources of that distributor as he carries other brand/s.
It's way more efficient to have someone 100% focused on your Brand/s?

Thanks for your concerns btw.

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Kitekeeper said..

JakeNN said..
Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

I wonder why North and Mystic don't just use one of the already established Australian distributors for the other big brands? .. Would be easier for the retailers to deal with less distributors. .. anyways, good luck.

Hi Jake,



On your last point, why would North and Mystic use one of the already established distributors that are already carrying other brand/s?
This mean the Brand will have only a part of the focus and resources of that distributor as he carries other brand/s.
It's way more efficient to have someone 100% focused on your Brand/s?

Thanks for your concerns btw.

Not sure that's a good way to get the product out there, many dealers would be much more likely to buy a new product from an existing account which they have a good record with than go through the hassle of opening a new account and have to deal with an unknown ( to them) distributor. Plus it save you a lot of leg work.ive been on both sides of this as a distributor and a retail owner.

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Ben1973 said..

Kitekeeper said..

JakeNN said..
Interesting.. thanks.

Maybe you should create a new profile with a clearer username and get a paid account with Seabreeze to do some marketing to help you and the retailers.

Are you holding stock for the retailers? Would be good for you to have a website to see what's available directly with you rather than having to call a local retailer then wait for the retailer to call you then wait for call back from the retailer.

I wonder why North and Mystic don't just use one of the already established Australian distributors for the other big brands? .. Would be easier for the retailers to deal with less distributors. .. anyways, good luck.

Hi Jake,



On your last point, why would North and Mystic use one of the already established distributors that are already carrying other brand/s?
This mean the Brand will have only a part of the focus and resources of that distributor as he carries other brand/s.
It's way more efficient to have someone 100% focused on your Brand/s?

Thanks for your concerns btw.

Not sure that's a good way to get the product out there, many dealers would be much more likely to buy a new product from an existing account which they have a good record with than go through the hassle of opening a new account and have to deal with an unknown ( to them) distributor. Plus it save you a lot of leg work.ive been on both sides of this as a distributor and a retail owner.

But who does tell you I am unknown to them?

I have business relationship with most retailers since 2017 through Mystic and have known (most of ) the owners since 2013?

I have been following this post for a while and I think it is great that North is getting into the game again.
I saw a bloke on the weekend with a sail that had been trashed in the waves and I instantly thought poor fella and then next I thought I wonder if he had a North sail would he still be riding around and not racing home to find a backup sail.
I did think it was a bit mysterious with your kitesurfing type username and information that you were putting on the forum.
But all the best kitekeeper.
I look forward to seeing some reviews from Joe everyman.
If you have purchased a sail and are using it, it would be very helpful to hear your thoughts.

Cheers Henners!

Nice to see someone as excited as us!

I created this nickname a couple of years ago...probably due for an update

I was just trying to be helpful, offer some suggestions, and shared a few thoughts.

Good luck.

When I saw the weight and materials, I loved them!

It's about time there is a big step forward from monofilm and crossply film type materials which don't seem overly advanced or improved in 25 years.

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Kitekeeper said..
Cheers Henners!

Nice to see someone as excited as us!

I created this nickname a couple of years ago...probably due for an update

I'm sure there are plenty more but just some of the things that we are promised from manufactures does not seem to pan out. I have just had to retire a board b/c it was not manufactured correctly, I bought into the hype that it was bullet proof or some crap. The company also promised that some of their gear was backwards compatible only to find it was a half true statement. A die grinder and a bit of time made it true.
I do think that this sort of tech is a "game changer", as long as power is still delivered. But waves have a lot of force and I'm not sure what strength would be needed to keep a sail together in a breaking wave.
I think in the slalom arena is where this sail tech will shine. But I've only seen the pics. And saying all that I am just a newbie compared to lots of the sailors on this forum.
If you wouldn't mind persevering and keeping us all up to date with all the North stuff, that would be great.
Thank you very much.

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choco said..

NRDesigner said..
Great to see North back in the game, and interesting to see someone jumping on the Batcam concept now that the patents have expired after all these years!

I prefer the allen key batten adjuster, broken a few batcams in the past

To be fair, there have been at least 4 generations of Batcam, and it did take us a while to get it right back in the day!Having said that, what makes the Batcam really useful (beyond the reduction in parasitic drag and the fact that it is 'tool-less') is the ease with which the test team can swap out battens for empirical testing. That drove a lot of innovation in the batten space at NP, which continued long after I left the brand in 2000. So I would expect this will help North get their designs dialed in as well.

Thanks for your input Nils, welcome to our forum. I had a fantastic 2000 5.4m with your initials on it, was a lovely sail. You would have been at pryde when they all started cutting off the tops of the sails? Simmers cyberrace and gaastra total flow and then the pryde Z1?

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NRDesigner said..

choco said..

NRDesigner said..
Great to see North back in the game, and interesting to see someone jumping on the Batcam concept now that the patents have expired after all these years!

I prefer the allen key batten adjuster, broken a few batcams in the past

To be fair, there have been at least 4 generations of Batcam, and it did take us a while to get it right back in the day!Having said that, what makes the Batcam really useful (beyond the reduction in parasitic drag and the fact that it is 'tool-less') is the ease with which the test team can swap out battens for empirical testing. That drove a lot of innovation in the batten space at NP, which continued long after I left the brand in 2000. So I would expect this will help North get their designs dialed in as well.

Reduction in parasitic drag compared to what? And how measured? And of what relative significance?

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Sparky said..
Thanks for your input Nils, welcome to our forum. I had a fantastic 2000 5.4m with your initials on it, was a lovely sail. You would have been at pryde when they all started cutting off the tops of the sails? Simmers cyberrace and gaastra total flow and then the pryde Z1?

Jeez the Z1 was hard to rig... had so much luff tension.. but what a great sail for the time tho

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40FrothyKnots said..

Sparky said..
Thanks for your input Nils, welcome to our forum. I had a fantastic 2000 5.4m with your initials on it, was a lovely sail. You would have been at pryde when they all started cutting off the tops of the sails? Simmers cyberrace and gaastra total flow and then the pryde Z1?

Jeez the Z1 was hard to rig... had so much luff tension.. but what a great sail for the time tho

Ha - yeah, those things were beasts! Not my work tho - my first race sail design for NP was the World Cup Racing series in (I think) 1991/92 but then I got so busy developing the Street series (V6 and V8) and working to reimagine the wavesail paradigm (NR, Zone, Core and Soul) that I didn't design an 'official' NP race sail again until the RX-1. I was intimately involved in the development of the shear tip, however, and made some pretty decent pool sails (including the ones 100kg Bjorn D used to score his first indoor win in Berlin) with that tech plus of course that trickled down to the V8 as well - very fun times!

Re the parasitic drag question raised in the post above yours, lets just say that at 35+ knots every little bit counts, and the reference would have been other batten tensioner solutions at the time. It would be fun to take another look at that with the aero tools we have available now in America's cup world - maybe with all the other chaos those little swirls off the trailing edge really didn't matter, but it was a great story at the bar!

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NRDesigner said..
Re the parasitic drag question raised in the post above yours, lets just say that at 35+ knots every little bit counts...

Yes, I'm reminded of the concave deck thread. Some folks riding along at 20-25 kts can't appreciate aspects of their kit that might make a 0.5% difference at 35. It might just be noise at 20 but the difference between advancing to the next round or going home at 35.