Naish Bernd seperate.

This is a complex issue but not one to take sides over - this spat is more an indication of the state of the windsurf industry right now.
I have nothing to lose if I spill the beans here.

A lot of the companies/brands continue to be run by enthusiasts, who's concern is more for the sport, than it is for being in a profitable business. They will be struggling right now.
Other brands were bought up by bigger companies years ago, and their accountants will look at a balance sheet before they think how great a board is - or at whether the rider is on a custom shape or not. That's why a lot of good sponsored sailors get dumped, even when they do a good job. We will see more of this very soon.

The riders are in a similar position, where making money from their skills is at an all time low. At some point each 'windsurfing pro' - or wannabe - must wonder why they chose windsurfing and not soccer or basketball. You also have to wonder now what will happen as the world goes into the forthcoming recession. Some great sailors who were on the PWA tour last year have already lost sponsors for this season - and now there is no tour anyway.

So it's a mistake to see this as an argument between sacked sponsored sailor and his ex employer. For sure, Bernd shouldn't have blabbed off what he thought, in an off-the-cuff answer to a question asked in an interview. And nor should we all take Robby Naish's side, just because we know he's a great guy and we all like him. When he was Bernd's age he too had amazing talent but financially he had it easy. He was given big cheques for that big smile, and for a while he was THE poster boy for all windsurfing. We can't now have sponsored sailor dissing their former brands, but nor can we have those who made big money from the sport dissing the next generation who now have nothing - no future.

And let's not kid ourselves here: Most sponsored sailors now are lucky if they get given free gear, and then they are expected to fill social media with their exploits and to come up with photos for magazines. I know of one sponsored sailor who was asked to attend the annual photo shoot and then found he was expected to sleep in the garage. Very few sailors on the tour get enough money from their sponsors even to cover the flying costs to events..
Every event has an entry fee as well as prize money and in waves you have to be in the top ten to hope to earn more than you pay out.
Just to keep going, you probably need to win events, have a board and sail sponsor, plus an outside sponsor or rich parents. The only ones making money nowadays will be those with numerous big brand stickers on their sails. (You might note that most sailors no longer have stickers on their sails).

Some sponsored sailors help their cause by competing in SUP and in Kiting as well as in Windsurfing . They then get exploited as all round watermen, with photoshoots lasting three times as long, but with the pay cheque being just as small.

For years we've all been fed this fantasy that the sailors and brands are all 'living the dream' when the truth is that someone else is usually paying for it, and that both keep going by following their passion rather than monetary sense.


The custom-versus-production board discussion is another red herring here.
To sail well at one specific spot like Ho'okipa you might indeed need one shape that suits your weight, your sailing style, and for that unique wave. So Maui sailors often sail custom boards which sometimes then get logo'd up to look like production gear. But elsewhere in the world we often sail in **** wave conditions and our weapon of choice will often be a production board we know well.

Wave sailors on the PWA wave tour do not have to be on production gear under the rules, but most are. Sometimes they will be on the same shapes as us but their versions might be a bit lighter or else built with higher end materials to be stronger - for example, to take the 90kgs sailor landing a double loop.
Most brands will tell you if their PWA sailors are on production boards or not. In some disciplines, they have to be.

I guess he wasn't pulling his weight with Naish so he got the boot, like every sport if your not promoting your sponsors and giving them good return for there cash why keep paying you.

As far as custom boards i thought PWA sailors had to use production stuff. Most of the pro sailors i know use Productions boards unless it is a proto for the company the are sponsored by, or if they were a custom from another shaper it was only because the brand didn't make a board small enough etc.

Basically if you accept the cash or benefits from a sponsor it's your job to slut yourself off to promote them, after all the more gear they sell is beneficial to you.

The Bernd aspect of this is a bit sad for all parties, he is young, might have made a rash decision, but hopefully can live with it as it seems he is keeping his morals/ethics intact. Naish seems to do a good job of identifying local Hawaiian talent (Kai Lenny) and nurturing them to the top level, but for whatever reason once they get there it seems to be a bit of a dead end. And eventually they will be forced to part ways, hopefully in an amicable fashion. i.e. Kai Lenny.

The proto/custom boards side of this issue is pretty straightforward in my opinion, there are proto's and there are customs:
1. Protos to assist in development of the brands equipment for next year. Protos are great, and a lot of brands even promote them as part of their marketting to show the R&D they are doing. I'm sure a lot of the west coast guys see heaps of Starboard/Severne Proto gear, and the euro pros always have the NP/JP/fanatic/duotone proto stuff.
2. Customs because the brand they ride for just doesn't invest to build the gear they need to perform. This seems to be where Bernd got stuck. And customs where for edge cases, where there just isn't a business case to build a particular board because there is only a handful of guys, on a handful of days that would require equipment like that. From the Naish perspective you could argue they don't have a business case to build a proper waveboard for Hookipa conditions... a bit odd considering where they are based.

I'd speculate that if Bernd was riding protos to help develop Naish boards for next season, this wouldn't have been an issue at all. The issue from what I see sorta stems from the fact that Naish have 1 wave board at the moment, that's primarily designed as a single fin... seems a bit old school but not, and sorta looks like more of a freewave board then a proper wave board. Naish seems to have given up on the proper waveboard market, their board range overall is pretty abysmal, and I'd struggle to see why anyone would look at them first if they were looking to purchase windsurfing equipment. And this probably runs pretty true overall as you just don't see much Naish gear out there these days. Does just seem like Bernd's style and Naish as a brand just doesn't make sense anymore.

Naish just isn't a top tier windsurfing equipment manufacturer these days. And they also don't seem to have that boutique custom high performance feel and following that brands like Patrik/Goya/Quattro have. Doesn't seem like they do a massive amount of development or have many top level sailors on their team (in windsurfing), top level as in competing at top levels of PWA/IWT comps. Doesn't seem like they really do enough to get behind really high level sailors or convince them to stay... e.g. Kai Lenny, Bernd etc.

Not sure where they sit overall, are they still a popular kite/SUP brand? Is Naish dead/dying? Robby says he is the only shareholder, maybe he needs to inject some fresh blood in there to fire things up again. I think it might just take a bit more than being a living legend/great guy/working hard.