Is Tiesda You single handedly dictating the path of windsurfing?

This is my observation. Whatever he comes up with seems to dictate the trend and the others seem to follow without any hint of innovative resistance. What do you think?

I don't think so, as the pro team dictates what really happens with shapes. Well, after marketing people get their claws in also lol

I think the shaper turned head designer has little say in shapes, as it is refined by feedback.

Yes Starboard started (or made popular due to volume of sales) the wide board trend. But I don't see You has dictated the general path we are taking any more than Werner Gnigler, Keith Teboul, etc.

I do agree about following the trends though, the NEED to make quads then the NEED to make 3 batten wave sails to keep up with the other brands' inventions makes a mockery of innovation.

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Mark _australia said..
I don't think so, as the pro team dictates what really happens with shapes. Well, after marketing people get their claws in also lol

I think the shaper turned head designer has little say in shapes, as it is refined by feedback.

Yes Starboard started (or made popular due to volume of sales) the wide board trend. But I don't see You has dictated the general path we are taking any more than Werner Gnigler, Keith Teboul, etc.

I do agree about following the trends though, the NEED to make quads then the NEED to make 3 batten wave sails to keep up with the other brands' inventions makes a mockery of innovation.

Was Tiesda You a shaper turned head designer? IMO Svein was pretty impressed by his CV which included an Honours Degree in Fluid Dynamics and IMO identified him as someone that could maybe help Svein revolutionise a sport that had lost favour. Don't get me wrong, I've got a garage full of their boards and I'm grateful for the wide thing that they came up with in the late 90's because it helped me to no end to get back into the sport after
a 20 year absence. You can't criticise Svein for having a brilliant business brain but I wonder now whether it's gone beyond being good for the sport?

^^ I am just wondering what you have an issue with?

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Mark _australia said..
^^ I am just wondering what you have an issue with?

I guess I am questioning whether it has got to a stage where the supposed innovation doesn't produce gear that is "better" from any perspective than it was 15 years ago. I guess I'm looking at it from a typical weekend free riders point of view. I've read a few comments in these forums lately about the wide thing having gone too far.

I'd say guys like Keith taboul and stoney would be more influential personally.

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dan berry said..
I'd say guys like Keith taboul and stoney would be more influential personally.

Stoney as in Jaeger, Svein dream team member?

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Orange Whip said..

Mark _australia said..
^^ I am just wondering what you have an issue with?

I guess I am questioning whether it has got to a stage where the supposed innovation doesn't produce gear that is "better" from any perspective than it was 15 years ago. I guess I'm looking at it from a typical weekend free riders point of view. I've read a few comments in these forums lately about the wide thing having gone too far.

Yeah wide went too far as did short and it has come back a bit. I say construction peaked about 10yrs ago and since then has become fragile seeking weight loss to a ridiculous degree.

On the other hand you could not possibly say boards are no better now than they were in 2001. The revolution in boards happened about 2002 - 2006 ish (very roughly) and since the big changes then it has been more incremental. But to say nothing happened in last 15yrs is pretty sweeping.... I disagree.

I also disagree that everyone followed Tiesda You and/or Starboard. They didn't develop quads, cutouts, some of the interesting wave board developments in last few years

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Mark _australia said..

Orange Whip said..

Mark _australia said..
^^ I am just wondering what you have an issue with?

I guess I am questioning whether it has got to a stage where the supposed innovation doesn't produce gear that is "better" from any perspective than it was 15 years ago. I guess I'm looking at it from a typical weekend free riders point of view. I've read a few comments in these forums lately about the wide thing having gone too far.

Yeah wide went too far as did short and it has come back a bit. I say construction peaked about 10yrs ago and since then has become fragile seeking weight loss to a ridiculous degree.

On the other hand you could not possibly say boards are no better now than they were in 2001. The revolution in boards happened about 2002 - 2006 ish (very roughly) and since the big changes then it has been more incremental. But to say nothing happened in last 15yrs is pretty sweeping.... I disagree.

I also disagree that everyone followed Tiesda You and/or Starboard. They didn't develop quads, cutouts, some of the interesting wave board developments in last few years

So Teboule, Gnigler, stoney and crew's brands are producing inflatables as a matter of course?

didn't Naish come up with the inflatable thing.

and i think Dan means Stoney as in Mark Stone, the guy who shapes jaegers boards.

Regardless of innovation, marketing, ideas...right now the Price will kill the sport!! Is Carbon and Materiel Prices Jumped that much?

Interesting comment about the wide thing. I remember back in 1996/97 at the Aruba Hi Winds an Italian Pro (not a big name or someone I knew) was trying to sell off a weird custom wide board for course racing. (for the time).

It seemed so weird and strange at the time. Probably was 65 - 75cm?

^^ That would be about right as I saw an interview with Bjorn on the 1998/9 PWA video where he talks about Formula being developed over the last couple of years
Imimagine about 96 - 97 there would have been a couple of people playing with even wider. Not long after that I had a Kinetic that was really fast, 135L and 68cm and it was normal. That seemed to become normal quite fast

I guess Tiesda forced the Italian bloke and Jimmy Lewis to do it.

The new Starboards look like they have been snapped in half and repaired, if that catches on I'll be stoked as board repairs just got so much easier hahahaha