
A $99.99 Surfboard Upends the Industry - danboarder
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-29/wavestorm-s-99-99-surfboard-upends-the-industry
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leejo
How long until this happens in the snows sports industry? Mid level snowboards
/ skis sell in the $500 range, with high end going for $1000+. Most probably
have < $50 worth of raw materials and < $100 worth of labour costs.

As Signal have shown, you can make a snowboard out of just about anything once
you have the machinery (which is where the high initial investment happens i
suppose):
[http://signalsnowboards.com/shows/ett/season-1](http://signalsnowboards.com/shows/ett/season-1)

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collyw
I am pretty sure you can go to any ski resort and pick up a second hand board
for the close to $100 bucks.

~~~
leejo
Indeed, and you can pick up gear that is unused but from a couple of seasons
ago for significantly less than the new season's stuff.

I guess the board rental part of the market currently takes the place of a low
cost gear for beginners alternative, and if you're only spending a few days a
year on the slopes you might not even be bothered about buying your own gear.

~~~
rokhayakebe
New season skiboard sounds like new season wrench/plier to me.

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ryanackley
Surfer here, this isn't really "disrupting" the surfboard industry. It's
actually helping it because it lowers the barrier of entry and in turn
introduces the sport to more people. There is still a very big market for
performance surfboards in the ~$500 range.

~~~
supercanuck
Question, if you are new to surfing, where to do you go in Southern California
without the threat of bullying by locals?

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kin
Bullying by locals doesn't really happen and if you've experienced it, it's
most likely a safety issue or you're violating some surfing etiquette. Head
over to Reddit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/surfing/wiki/index](https://www.reddit.com/r/surfing/wiki/index)
for their detailed beginner's guide.

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awl130
the open secret about surfing is that most people only try surfing once--
usually on vacation. this is because to be a "surfer", (a) you have to live
within a 20 mile proximity of a very select area of coastline; and (b) it
takes many different sessions, spread out over a long period of time, in order
for you to become proficient. this is largely due to the fact that you need to
paddle out to the wave.

compare this to snowboarding. your first time on a mountain, you will
absolutely "snowboard". there's a lift that carries you directly to the top of
the mountain.

surfing is like going skiing or snowboarding without a lift. you'd have to
hike up a mountain every time you wanted to ski. think of how many people
would end up being proficient.

that is why this $99 surfboard has really taken off. there may be 2.7 million
surfers as the article states (which i find highly doubtful--this is way too
high a number), but there are many more times that inland people that try
surfing on their holiday and then never go again.

~~~
the_watcher
> this is way too high a number

I assume you've never lived in Southern California? You'd be astounded at the
number of casual surfers (by that, I mean someone who surfs at least once a
month) who own surfboards. And that's just one high concentration surf area.

~~~
awl130
i live in socal but on second thought 2.7mm is pretty realistic i guess. hard
to get a baseline. there are around 30mm golfers in the us; but for surfing,
1/3 of the usa lives on the coastline (123mm people); maybe 1/3 of that is
surfable (basically ca, fl, hi, and then maybe or, wa, nc, va); so anyway 1/9
of golfers? makes sense

~~~
the_watcher
Basically every state with a coastline has some amount of surfers. All the
Pacific and Gulf states have well-known breaks, as do the southern Atlantic
coasts. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have fewer "quality" surf spots, but
they're all surfable. Even Alaska has a well known break, though AK's
population limits its contribution to total surfers.

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mkaziz
Man, I came here expecting an article about Motorola Surfboard modems. I
really need to get out more.

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reddytowns
I learned how to surf on one of these. It's a nice beginner board, easy to
catch waves, and soft enough that it didn't hurt when it bonked me in the head
while I was still learning.

~~~
rcurry
"soft enough that it didn't hurt when it bonked me in the head while I was
still learning"

That's a really good point, I always forget about the safety aspect. There's
nothing like getting slammed in the back of the head by a 9'6" fiberglass
school bus.

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tswartz
This video came out in 2013 of a pro surfer riding the Wavestorm in the big
waves of Jaws. It helped fuel Wavestorm's sales, if it rides pretty well at
Jaws, it will be just fine in a 2 or 3 foot beginner swell.

[https://youtu.be/0s2cCHg5EEs?t=1m51s](https://youtu.be/0s2cCHg5EEs?t=1m51s)

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talsraviv
This is one of my favorite boards to go out on, whether I'm in Hawaii or
Florida - it's really good quality.

I never gave it much thought, so it's very cool to learn the business story
behind it.

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apryldelancey
These boards are especially great for mushy days. Another great board is the
5'8" Sushi fish if you like shorter boards. I have one for the smaller, weaker
days and it's a blast.

[http://reviews.costco.com/2070/100114919/keeper-sports-
produ...](http://reviews.costco.com/2070/100114919/keeper-sports-products-
california-board-company-sushi-58-fish-surfboard-reviews/reviews.htm)

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bruceb
Apparently by $99 in store: [http://costcocouple.com/wavestorm-8-soft-top-
surf-board/](http://costcocouple.com/wavestorm-8-soft-top-surf-board/)

$179 shipped. Shipping is almost same price as the board.
[http://www.costco.com/surfboards.html](http://www.costco.com/surfboards.html)

~~~
runholm
You are shipping a huge impractically shaped object (too long for many regular
shelves).

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c3534l
This is the first news story I've seen with an explicit tl;dr line at the
bottom.

~~~
joosters
Plus the obnoxious Bloomberg habit of writing a sentence, then writing it
immediately again in A HUGE FONT SIZE for no obvious reason.

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kin
Wave Storms have been around for years so this story really doesn't cover
anything new.

It's also not really disruption because Wave Storms are considered entry level
boards that if anything drives demands for more expensive boards once someone
actually makes it a hobby.

When I read the article I was hoping for a stylish mass produced fiberglass
board. Now that would truly disrupt the market.

~~~
rhodysurf
Well i mean were close. With all the current Mass produced boards made by like
JS (for example). They are glassed in china and should not cost even close to
what they charge for them.

The only problem is profit margins from the companies that actually are able
mass produce boards.

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gonzo
"Surfing sucks. Don't try it."

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johansch
There are so many different kinds of markets like this. Just to pick another
example:

(In Europe) You can today pay 800 Euro for a chinese-made electric bike that
sorta works, or 2000 Euro for something built in Germany that really works
(with a drive engine made by Bosch taking most of that profit margin).

I'm pretty sure the difference in price isn't down to the cost of the raw
materials, but rather the know-how. This know-how will become common knowledge
soon...

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anotherhacker
This isn't disruption. It's just "make something that's cheaper and/or
better".

It's a 75+ year old idea called called Creative Destruction.

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vinautomatic
Title misleading, expecting a super cable modem

