how is the kiteboarding market expected to grow in the future?

Depends on whether or not, the shop retailers join together to form a super retailer gang, to enable them to crush everyone that dares to get in their way.[}:)]

probably to be as lame, fake and souless as the surfing market has become.. or rather has been for the last twenty plus years... if it hasn't been built into the brick and mortar already...

... you will be able to tell that this is happenong when you see "since ****" starting to be marketed by the companies... ala' all the surfing corporations mantra of "since '69".. which must have been a busy year in surfing for selling out, they all seem to have started in '69....

holy cow! i am only 17 what will i be saying to all they kids down at the beach? "back in my day......" ohhh sweet mother of god.

Hi peeps,

Kiteboarding is still growing in popularity and I think that the next year or two will continue on a similar curve, however, I think that the growth will continue, but slow down into a more sustainable curve.

As for brands, I believe we have been observing a decline in some of the "mindless Tribal alliances" that Loch is talking about, with a few of the big name brands faltering and losing major market share over the last couple of years.

The canny buyers are becoming aware of smaller name brands that are hungrier and more passionate about building performance kites. The big names are going to have to get keen again as they will not be able to rest on their names for much longer.

It is getting to the point where the market is flooded with brands, far more than is sustainable by the relatively small market, and there will be a natural attrition of all but the best products. I believe in the next few years, we will see a change in the positioning of the top 10 kite manufacturers. Some will fall and some will rise.

The end result is that only the strongest will survive. Best quality, best performance and hungriest for market share. This can only be a win for the punters who ride.

These are good times as kites are becoming really fun but you need to remove the blinkers on possibility. Some of the lesser known brands are producing crap, some are producing gold. Same with the well known brands. Whats good and whats crap, only you can tell?

Everyone have a great season and find yourself a nice kite to fly.

Good winds,

Kiteboarding is a tough sport, many try it and figure the expense, dedication and effort required to advance a little overwhelming. At my regular spots I have seen many come and go but a small fraction actually stick and become regulars. I think this is healthy for the sport though because if it was an 'easy access' sport like surfing, tennis or lawn bowls then the waters would be swamped all day everyday.

I predict a steady increase but no explosion of sorts.

hard to say because you have to think of all the markets orverseas that behave much differently to over here, so it may e.g be slowing here but booming in france. I started in 2006 and I have noticed a very big increase in the number of riders since i started.

sci said...

I think it is difficult to quantify the number of kiters out there on a given day as here in WA the crowd is so spread across our great coast. Perhaps the kite shops, organizations, kite schools could comment as they are seeing sales, memberships and lessons booked.

I think like any sport/product the more exposure it gets the more people will filter into the community. TV, Comps, Sponsorship etc. all feed in.

Not looking forward to a future of rocking up at the beach to be greeted with this:

c kites are old school and old news so you won't have to worry

c kites are old school and old news so you won't have to worry

maybe u should pop over to the ruben on 09 fuel thread

i doubt very much that u can consider that old school haha

if you have flown a true old school c kite like the old sling shots you cant compare them to the new bow kites. its a totaly diferent experince.
there nothin like bing over powerd on an old c kite absoloutly pumpen.
i just dont get what all the craze over the bow kites is.

if there is more than the local 5 guys at our local spot i get ****ty espesially if there beginers that dont no what they are doing[}:)]

stoked2surf said...

c kites are old school and old news so you won't have to worry

maybe u should pop over to the ruben on 09 fuel thread

i doubt very much that u can consider that old school haha

oops sorry to offend mr 11 posts
It was intended as a joke