colas said..

Simonc34 said..
But it shows the contempt buyers are treated with!

I don't understand your rant.

It is normal to pay extra to get goods before others. It has value.

What you paid for was a year use of a great board, one year of fun, one year of progressing, helping the Kalama brand to prosper and have funds for the R&D of new boards... Not a bad deal in my opinion!

I'd say the cost breakdown is like this for downwind boards

$600-800 to manufacture
$200-300 shipping and distribution
$750-1000 profit for board designer
$150-200 import duties
$900-1200 profit for retailer/middleman

The middleman usually has the highest cost, and that is what you are seeing reflected in the price drop. You'd be lucky to get $2300 for that model board with tracks so far back, very limited use case for most foilers. I'd drop another 500-700 as shipping costs are very expensive for retail punters.

You can see all retailers are slashing prices to accomodate new stock, nothing new just the retail business model.

Board designers win when they cut out the middleman and clip the ticket twice with B2C.

But I guess $1200 for a years worth of fun is less than a coffee a day, but I still agree with you they are priced outrageously in Australia and prohibit many getting into the sport, whilst middlemen drive new tesla's and visit Hawaii often, they have to pay for that somehow

baldy123 said..
I've had the 7'10 for 12 months paid full retail. Best board I've ever owned. Have a V2 coming in a few weeks. In Oz we have so many great production and custom board choices for downwinding. As a reference UK retail prices on new Sunovas are in excess of ?2200 pound = $4200AUD . If I lived in Europe right now I'd be tempted to hop on a plane to Sydney have a great holiday and take a new kalama V1 board home for a bargain price.

$2200 sounds about right in the relevant currency for the country, as in US most boards retail at that price, so relative to the country, and in Australia it should be the same $2200 AUD for a new board. But in Australia, we buck the trend and pay the Australia tax on everything including down wind and foil equipment, nothing new here...

noepoxy said..

baldy123 said..
I've had the 7'10 for 12 months paid full retail. Best board I've ever owned. Have a V2 coming in a few weeks. In Oz we have so many great production and custom board choices for downwinding. As a reference UK retail prices on new Sunovas are in excess of ?2200 pound = $4200AUD . If I lived in Europe right now I'd be tempted to hop on a plane to Sydney have a great holiday and take a new kalama V1 board home for a bargain price.

$2200 sounds about right in the relevant currency for the country, as in US most boards retail at that price, so relative to the country, and in Australia it should be the same $2200 AUD for a new board. But in Australia, we buck the trend and pay the Australia tax on everything including down wind and foil equipment, nothing new here...

Maybe look at things like exchange rates, import duties and shipping to see where the price increase comes from.

Not much of a review guy but here goes, it'll be short
37yo 85kg

paid full price $3500 don't regret it at all.

Decent prone foiler, absolutely hopeless paddler

8'10x18.5 113L

paddled it up in 12-15 knots on my f-one 1400 seven seas which for me and my ability is crazy good. Conditions I wouldn't even look at on my previous board.

it paddles straight. No J stroke no need. Get your 6-8 good ones in and it's off.

stability wise it's very good for the width. I'm still falling off a lot but think it's more to do with the pilot than the board. I can stand on it no problem with no paddle in calm ish water if that's any indication.

Had a few tiny wave prone session on it and 2 others have had a go and the consensus is it does not feel like a 9 foot board on foil. biggest thing is the efficiency through the water. Any little bit of energy and it accelerates very quickly. Has given me the confidence to bolt on the Eagle 1090 next time we get some decent bumps. I'll report back when we do.

Spark said..
Not much of a review guy but here goes, it'll be short
37yo 85kg

paid full price $3500 don't regret it at all.

Decent prone foiler, absolutely hopeless paddler

8'10x18.5 113L

paddled it up in 12-15 knots on my f-one 1400 seven seas which for me and my ability is crazy good. Conditions I wouldn't even look at on my previous board.

it paddles straight. No J stroke no need. Get your 6-8 good ones in and it's off.

stability wise it's very good for the width. I'm still falling off a lot but think it's more to do with the pilot than the board. I can stand on it no problem with no paddle in calm ish water if that's any indication.

Had a few tiny wave prone session on it and 2 others have had a go and the consensus is it does not feel like a 9 foot board on foil. biggest thing is the efficiency through the water. Any little bit of energy and it accelerates very quickly. Has given me the confidence to bolt on the Eagle 1090 next time we get some decent bumps. I'll report back when we do.

I was one of those other two who tried it and can confirm everything spark said. Super stable and just cuts and glides with ease. Amazing board.

Spark didn't mention he paddled up on a crappy messy northerely fyi. Ocean bumps aren't meant to go that way over here lol.

Hello to all the community . Has anyone been able to test a cuda XP in difficult sea conditions? compared to the sizes of V1 for example.Thank you

Piros said..
Dylan what's the specs on the board you are holding , what a weapon.

Full weapon. 8'12 x 16" at 102L
had the first session yesterday goes unreal and super stable. www.instagram.com/reel/C8JTJgjyc7K/?igsh=cTRrcjd6dTVvMXRw

recon shipping at the moment might be double to what's reported above. at the very least.

My 8"10 is 6.1kg

it's a bit difficult here in Europe to bet on a CUDA XP because no one has it yet except a guy in France who has the 9.4 but he has only tried it in quiet conditions... Ultimately there are only feedbacks for the moment Frank foil boards from Hawaii with widths of 16...