colas said..

ZeroVix said..
Of course the USA doesn't have a debt issue. With about 1.2 trillion in annual debt service and rising!!! Kind of the new way to do business.

It would be foolish to think that the same economic rules applies to states and an individual. For instance, the individual is mortal, and when he dies, his debt disappears.

That's why if people think that a country can be mortal (i.e. defaults), catastrophes happen. E.g. Argentina. And probably Trumpland.

SIr, when an individual dies, his debt doesn't disappear. The estate is responsible to satisfy the debts. And most individuals have a legacy. They have responsibilities and obligations. Unless you are worthless and don't care about your family. Something countries should follow. Not passing the bucket down the road.

I hope one day you will understand that being the reserve currency has created more problems for the USA in the long run. It can be compared to handing over a credit card to you and you make the minimum interest payment. Long term it creates issues.

US obligations are not hyper stable. They held the highest credit rating. They are the benchmark for default risk free. Not risk free. Default risk.

In reference to the new budget, with all due respect you don't understand how budgets are created and passed. The new funding is a Biden approved budget that they foolishly passed with additional 2 trillion of crap in it that was already approved.

I highly suggest that you stop reading news media articles. Everyone is an expert today. There are great books out there to enhance ones knowledge.

The bottom line is that, Yes, Tariffs will impact prices on Wings, Foils & boards. Even if some US companies are able to shift production to other countries, it will cost them thousands of dollars in tooling, & months of delays, lost revenue. Many will simply not be able to weather the storm.

VenturaShaper said..
I am interested to see how KT, Jimmy Lewis, and Starboard handle these new tariff situation. All of their production style boards are made overseas. Only the one offs are made in HI.

My guess is they will freeze all orders until Tariffs come down to a reasonable level. I would think they would consider 10%.... They would also have to trust they will not change again before clearing US customs... Anything coming from China will be put on hold indefinitely.

Companies such as Foildrive will have a 10% tariff when selling into the States. Where as knockoffs shipping from China will have a 145% tariff added.

Quite an advantage for Foildrive.

airsail said..
Companies such as Foildrive will have a 10% tariff when selling into the States. Where as knockoffs shipping from China will have a 145% tariff added.

This is why China organized production in other countries like Vietnam as a workaround for Trump tariffs in his first mandate.
And you can guess that a lot of stuff will become magically "made in Russia" with 0% tariffs.
China has been "Colonizing" the eastern parts of Russia for a long time now.

www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/11/asian-business-giants-thrive-in-russia-despite-sanctions-a88697

-If you care about your digestion, my advice is - don't talk about Trump or politics at the table. And, God forbid - never watch Dems or Republican news before dinner.
-Hmm. But there are no other news.
-In that case don't watch any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And what do you think? The patients who never watched or read news felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read CNN and Fox all lost weight. [.] And not only did they lose weight. Their knee reflexes were retarded, they lost appetite and exhibited general depression.

VenturaShaper said..
I am interested to see how KT, Jimmy Lewis, and Starboard handle these new tariff situation. All of their production style boards are made overseas. Only the one offs are made in HI.

The real question is, is the foil fever so strong that people still keep buying stuff when it gets so much more expensive? I think that will determine how much will still be sold.

On the serious side:
I like to read a lot about history, and what worries me much more than Wings prices is a pattern I see:
Silencing free press,
dismissing and threatening political opponents,
attacking the judiciary and ignoring laws,
strengthening key defence positions with loyalist people instead of experts,do or threaten to do militarily stupid things purely because you have the power to do so.
populism,and poining to an minority enemy in your own country to blame for everything,
then create another crisis for even more power and to break the last resistance and you've got the standard spin book of how to become a totalitarian regime....

JohnnyDepp said..
-If you care about your digestion, my advice is - don't talk about Trump or politics at the table.

I care about my democratic country (France), so it is vital to take lessons in how Trump has destroyed the USA.
Just like it was enlightening to see how the Brexit self-immolation happened.

It is not for idle chats in dinners. It is for protesting loudly at the first signs of politicians wanting to replicate Truss or Trump here.

And it works, it is obvious that without the "Trump experiment" spectacle Marine Le Pen attempts to evade sentencing may have worked. Just like she tries now to hide she was pushing for a "Frexit". Or praising Putin.

So, the USA may be dead for decades, but there are other countries to save from Idiocracy infestations.

A close friend is in the "not hurting for money" category, and has basically all wing sizes, many in the top-of-the-line model that costs four or five times as much as what I typically pay (for last years model on sale). But she'll still be thinking twice before paying 50% more, and probably delay updates. But what will affect likely affect her more is availability. I've seen this before in windsurfing, albeit for completely different reasons: board and sail categories that are not popular in the US are basically not available from many brands (speed and slalom gear).

The same thing is may well happen with wing gear. Until a new trade agreement with China is reached, importers and shop owners will be extremely hesitant to place any orders. Importing something now when 145% tariffs are added, and then see the value of your inventory drop to half when a trade agreement is reached? Even if tariffs stay high, who will buy a US$5K dlab wing?

How fast will a new trade agreement be reached with China? In the 2018-2019 trade war, it took more than a year to reach the first agreement. With more than 70 nations seeking to negotiate deals now, if you believe what the administration claims, it is hard to see how a deal with China would happen any faster. So US stocks for this season will be limited to anything that was shipped before April, at least for wing equipment made in China.

boardsurfr said..
....
The same thing is may well happen with wing gear. Until a new trade agreement with China is reached, importers and shop owners will be extremely hesitant to place any orders. Importing something now when 145% tariffs are added, and then see the value of your inventory drop to half when a trade agreement is reached? Even if tariffs stay high, who will buy a US$5K dlab wing?

I can tell you for sure. NOT ONE brand will bring anything in at 145% tariff.... Besides AFS, this means about 90% of Foils, 75% of all Wings, & maybe 50-60% of boards.

Note also that the current exemption of tariffs in the US for orders less than $800 ends May 2nd.

And that tariffs may skyrocket again, since nothing Trump did in his 2nd mandate worked, he is becoming more and more insane by the day with sheer frustration.

He has already raised some Chinese tariffs to 245%.

And even if assembled in EU, if the parts are from China, China tariffs apply. That's the COO - Country of Origin - rules.

flavorcloud.com/understanding-country-of-origin/

And... No more imports to US customers anyways.
As I said, the problem is not so much the tariffs but the sheer idiocy of the instability and unpredictability.

"DHL Express is suspending deliveries to the US worth more than $800 (?603) because of a "significant increase" in red tape at customs following the introduction of Donald Trump's new tariff regime. The delivery giant said it will temporarily stop shipments from companies in all countries to American consumers on Monday "until further notice".

www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jx9ep5l63o

And... this does not bode well for any hope of stability:

Thatspec said..
Read it here;
archive.is/X0bXE

Ah yes, I forgot:
To read most of these sites, just disable the javascript in your browser.
There are handy extensions for this, e.g:

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-javascript/

IMO This was all about China from the get go. This move reminds me of when POTUS Reagan announced the Star Wars program, that pressured and eventually bankrupted the USSR and caused the Berlin Wall to fall.

I wonder what everyone thought was going to happen WHEN China " repatriates" (invades) Taiwan? That it would be business as usual with China?

Of the many reasons to pressure China's Economy, possibly preventing a war has got to be near the top of the list. The world being this dependant on China is just stupid on so many levels.

I don't know if these Tariffs, enacted like this will help change Taiwan from being a goal of China, but doing this now, could be a far cry better than waiting until the bullets are flying and having another Ukraine 2.0 war on our hands.

Most experts agree that the Taiwan invasion would happen by 2027.