Each year I look forward to the brands releasing their online vids and catalogues for their gear for the coming year. I would assume that a lot of the teams' riders are currently locked down in their countries of origin and unable to travel to Maui, for example, where a lot of the filming would normally take place around about now. I wonder what impact this will have and how the brands will cope with this. 
A 'first world' problem I guess, in light of the situation, but will be interesting to see the outcome.
I don't see too many shops placing orders after this bat flu for 2021 stock, unless they have people pre ordering.
The Australian dollar against the us, and euro is extremely low, making the situation even worse. I can only assume the margins are very tight for all involved, even prior to this bat flu.
Sponsored riders without a year of competition plus the companies selling drastically less gear, isn't good for anyone, especially our sport with limited gear and potential high prices for kit in Australia if it is available.
I so hope things improve, the windsurfing shops/sup's shops and customer
builders in Oz and New Zealand will all need our support so their there for us and the future of awesome support !
Im still surfing and sailing when the conditions are on here at home. Ive worked though my back catalogue of vids, I'm so missing the lead up to the PWA and windsurfing training diaries, fingers crossed to a speedy recovery for windsurfing and be social again, travelling, etc !!. I truely hope this doesn't kill the retail model for windsurfing/sups moving forward.
Australia aside I the big market for windsurfing is Europe and I doubt Europe will be back remotely normal before August. I would venture to say the 2020 release gear is sitting unsold / unused in warehouses across Europe. Further more I doubt we will see any PWA or any other windsurf events for that matter for the rest of the year.
From a business point of view I would say the best way to go is simply don't release new gear for 2021 and relaunch the 2020 collection. I doubt many of the brands wouldn't be doing too much development. However I can see some brands releasing some updated sails through out 2021.
Realistically I don't think we will see significant international travel until at March 2021. WA will keep it's borders shut till at least September possibly extending things till the end of the year. Australia won't re-open international borders till January 2021.
Just put my order in for some new boards from NZ. I've been thinking about new boards for awhile, I'm still employed and there is never the right time to spend a lot of cash. But if my order helps keep someone who I enjoy and respect in business a bit longer , then ??. It's going to be a tough year for all in the industry.
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
Support your local custom board maker who doesn't have to pay a team 
But you may end up having to employ a team to keep up with demand 
Select to expand quoteOrange Whip said..
Each year I look forward to the brands releasing their online vids and catalogues for their gear for the coming year. I would assume that a lot of the teams' riders are currently locked down in their countries of origin and unable to travel to Maui, for example, where a lot of the filming would normally take place around about now. I wonder what impact this will have and how the brands will cope with this. A 'first world' problem I guess, in light of the situation, but will be interesting to see the outcome.
I can envision this. The team rider , now can't leave Spain. But I think your thinking is that the brands won't have their videos , films . Interesting , not something that I've given any thought to. We are all in this , together.
I feel confidant that the resources of those companies can throw together a gala event, Iceland is pretty safe right now, I feel they will cope.
Maybe you can find something to brighten your day, you sound so disappointed, YouTube have a variety of videos.
A problem, hardly .
Select to expand quoteforceten said..Orange Whip said..
Each year I look forward to the brands releasing their online vids and catalogues for their gear for the coming year. I would assume that a lot of the teams' riders are currently locked down in their countries of origin and unable to travel to Maui, for example, where a lot of the filming would normally take place around about now. I wonder what impact this will have and how the brands will cope with this. A 'first world' problem I guess, in light of the situation, but will be interesting to see the outcome.
I can envision this. The team rider , now can't leave Spain. But I think your thinking is that the brands won't have their videos , films . Interesting , not something that I've given any thought to. We are all in this , together.
I feel confidant that the resources of those companies can throw together a gala event, Iceland is pretty safe right now, I feel they will cope.
Maybe you can find something to brighten your day, you sound so disappointed, YouTube have a variety of videos.
A problem, hardly .
Yeah of course it's no big deal, just a thought I had. Perhaps Robbie could do all the Naish videos and Jason and Swifty could do all the JP/NP videos since they reside in Maui. That would be good to see, say Jason riding a Super Lightwind with a big V8 
Select to expand quotekato said..
Just put my order in for some new boards from NZ. I've been thinking about new boards for awhile, I'm still employed and there is never the right time to spend a lot of cash. But if my order helps keep someone who I enjoy and respect in business a bit longer , then ??. It's going to be a tough year for all in the industry.
That's one of the reasons i bought my WT64..
Interestingly exercise equipment has been selling really well during covid. I have a friend who sells Canoes / sups and his sales were up last month compared to last year. Let's hope some of this benefits the WS industry.
This is the time to buy!! Deals, deals, deals everywhere! I would only imagine better deals will be here in a month from now just in time for summer! They are restless to sell this merchandise and we can make that a reality for them to stay afloat and survive. Support our shops!!
Select to expand quoteOrange Whip said..
Each year I look forward to the brands releasing their online vids and catalogues for their gear for the coming year...
Maybe if we have to stay in lockdown for some time, the best we could hope for is a Team FKD shoot from Bribie....Ok, it mightn't be sun, bikinis and double overheads as a backdrop, but there should be plenty of variety in mobility scooters to pique our interest...
