Data? From the article, the number of surfers is growing at 1.7% annually, yet this company now sells 5 times more boards than anyone else. The majority of those sales were taken from other companies.
If this isn't a disruption story than I don't know what is.
once you're beyond the beginner stage, outside of small wave or 'fun' sessions, a wavestorm is the last thing you're going to want to surf. a 'hard' surfboard (fiberglass w/ epoxy or poly resin) is pretty much mandatory. the lowest cost 'hard' surfboards are 'pop-outs', made in overseas factories (think ~$300 for a shortboard). these are generally frowned upon by surfers. what surfers really want, and usually buy multiples of, are hand shaped 'hard' boards from local shapers or a couple bigger name brands that still mass produce surfboards, but at a higher price and quality point than the overseas pop-outs ($400-$1000+ depending on size, shaper, color, etc). wave storm is killing it, and definitely disrupted the soft top beginner market. selling through costco with their return policy was probably a very large part of their success too. though, there definitely still is a very large market for performance surfboards in the ~$500 and up range.
It's not that they're made overseas -- it's that the basic method of manufacture he mentioned, "pop-out", in the industry implies using a plastic shell and then pumping foam into it, and a few other similar methods of manufacture.
For shortboards, it's pretty terrible. The boards are very heavy for a surfboard, with poor rigidity and flex, and in fact they don't even attempt to target the "real shortboard" market, where extreme light weight, stiffness and a very delicately balanced flex work together to form something that lets you nimbly glide along a decent-sized wave on a board slightly shorter than you are.
Basically, the best form of manufacture for surfboards is a core of either high-quality rigid foam (not the heavy, flexible foam used in wavestorm/some pop-outs) or air, covered in substances like fiberglass and/or carbon-fiber fabric and minimal amounts of epoxies (sometimes using the same vacuum techniques as other carbon-fiber manufacturing to minimize weight). I said 'foam or air' because for a while people have been predicting that we'd move to hollow carbon-fiber boards, and there are/have been some of those boards, but they have their drawbacks and are often expensive.
Can performance surfboards be disrupted? It's already happened, to a certain extent. Channel Islands and other surfboard brands use automated milling of the foam blanks, and other automated processes as well.
Too, any overseas contenders have to worry about shipping. Surfboards are huge -- you could fit 20 boxed iphones in the footprint of a single boxed shortboard. At the price points mentioned ($300-$500), overseas shipping would probably eat into your margin. Shipping is even an issue for domestic producers; often shipping a board halfway across the country can cost $50-$100. Which is a nice bit of extra margin for a local shaper and his customers.
When will good surfboards get cheap? Probably when great carbon-fiber bikes get cheap, ie, when carbon-fiber manufacture is so well mastered by man that designs in any shape can be pumped out like Lego.
What about mid-level(those you graduate after wavestorm) - being manufactured in mexico via automated processes , using wavestorm like brand for cheap marketing , and being sold in costco ?
The one thing that I am not sure anyone has brought up, is this is a relatively small market. You are talking about big box stores, along the coasts of tourist rich surfing areas.
Surfers making a conscientious effort to improve their performance -- bigger waves, steeper drops -- are going to break or otherwise 'use up' at least one board per good season. Given that, a lot of people would rather buy a used CI board that has had a small repair, or some minor dimpling, for $200-350, and then surf as hard as they can, and if it breaks it breaks.
... okay, that's just what I do. But Craigslist has made the used market a force to be reckoned with!
This particularly matters in surfing, where a crowded wave is frustrating and dangerous. It's annoying when some dumb dickhead who doesn't know what he's doing (and doesn't care to learn) ruins a wave and endangers your life.
Buying a board hand-shaped by a local shaper indicates a knowledge of the community and a commitment to its values. Shapers are generally making boards because they are obsessed with surfing their local breaks and have spent years or decades honing their craft. They live for surfing and their surf community. They do not, as a rule, get rich.
One easy way to spot poseurs is by the board they ride.
Beyond the cultural reasons, hand-shaped boards by long-time shapers tend to be:
- better made
- more interesting
- more beautiful
- particularly suited to the breaks that shaper surfs (and where their customers surf)
- most importantly, support the people most committed to the sport and its values
They're making boards for the love of surfing, not for a profit motive.
But mostly it's so people know you're not a poseur.
If you're a kook with a $100 soft top the others will work together to keep you at the back of the lineup. Whether it's a matter of safety or subculture is besides the point, dedicated surfers don't want you around.
Surfers have no inclination to promote surfing unless they have some kind of sponsorship. Promotion is a corporate venture that has nothing to do with surfing and everything to do with making money. Mo money, mo problems.
The serious risks in surfing are relatively low provided you're at a sandy bottom beach break with waves under 5ft. No one is taking these soft-top boards to the Pipeline and endangering lives, they're mostly just showing up at mellow low-risk breaks.
Yeah it's annoying when someone bumps into you, and yeah you might get a bruise in the worst case scenario, but no one is dying or drowning in 3ft waves because of too many surfers.
haha, you pretty much hit the nail on the head here. surfing is really bizarre. when you start out, the guys who are better and probably have more expensive boards are the dick heads in your mind. when you get better, you slowly become one of the dickheads, and of course, you're not a dickhead, so the other guys who you once were become the dickheads in your mind.
i personally try to keep it at a balance... i'll help new ppl out, won't freak out on anyone in the water, tell a new surfer to go if they're in better position, etc. that said, i will burn you (snake you or back paddle) if you've missed a couple takes offs and we're going for the same wave as long as it's not a critical take off or anything like that.. i know, i know, shitty thing to do. though, i don't discriminate based on board type in these situations. i don't care if you're on a foam board, pop-out, or custom shape. i'm just kind of a greedy asshole like most dickhead surfers from the perspective of beginner surfers.
so i guess to answer your question, it is about making sure nobody dies, but is less about cheapening the subculture and more about serious surfers getting serious with their equipment. people do go gear head with surfboards, and that can be used by some people to show perceived hierarchy in the surf ecosystem, but like the other guy said, most people surf handmade boards because they are of higher quality and you work with the shaper to come up with a shape that works for you - your style of surfing, how you want to board to surf, the waves you will surf the board in, your weight, your height, design or artwork, etc. there's really nothing better than picking up a custom stick from a guy who you know made it by hand for you, and often, you can get a custom board from a shaper for roughly the same if not less than the heavily marketed big name brand but still not total pop-out companies (the ~$500 high performance boards i mentioned earlier).
Surfing regularly is a terrible hobby. Time-consuming, expensive, cold (depending on location). Wetsuits are annoying. Waves are crowded. People are jerks. People are dangerous. The ocean is dangerous. Injuries are fairly common.
In a two-hour session that starts just before first light (waking up at 4:30am in summer) I maybe get 5-10 decent waves to myself that last a minute, maybe two.
The fact that people still do it tells you just how amazing it feels to ride a wave.
I guess my point is there really is not a problem to be solved by making a cheaper board (other then the economic/business reasons obv). The simple fact of the matter is very few regular surfers will own these boards, and mostly kooks will buy them. However, that is not to say either set of skill levels of surfers, and which boards they own, are mutually exclusive.
I'm not saying they're bad - they are great for beginners, but the market for custom boards isn't really going to get hurt all that much by these.
Are you talking about sponge boards in general, or Wavestorm boards specifically? Not like anyone's going to win the Eddie on a Wavestorm, but they're WAY better than previous sponge boards.
> the market for custom boards isn't really going to get hurt all that much by these
Agree 100%
I agree. And let me say, I know nothing about surfing, and am basing my discussion on this one article.
I think it's inevitable that the lower barrier to entry will allow the sport to grow, and be good for the "high-end" in the long-run. That's good. But in the meantime, this sort of breakthrough puts pressure on the existing system. I have to assume that shops used to sell more $300 boards than $1000 boards. Now they might be selling zero $300 boards, which have been replaced by the Costco special. So, small shops close. Low-volume producers go out of business. That's exactly what technological disruption is.
I say this because my local mom and pop surfshop on the beach doesn't even offer in-stock brand-new surfboards. You can however custom order from a local shaper through them. They focus heavily on surf apparel and used surfboards.
Here is a real data point, the best-selling waveform 8' board is considered a "long" board. Easy to catch waves and ride them into shore but hard to turn and do tricks on.
Most surfing literature and culture focuses on riding "short" boards (5'-7'). This is the type of surfing done on the professional circuit and shown in lots of magazines videos etc.
I'm not a surfer but I've been a whitewater kayaker for decades. Many people who buy a new whitewater kayak + gear do not go on to become life-long paddlers. And we're talking about $1,500 worth of gear, easy.
Without knowing the underlying numbers, sure. It's possible.
But the bigger point is that these small surf shops that sell both mid-priced soft-top and expensive hard-top boards are no longer selling the soft-tops, because an equivalent board can be had for $99, exclusively from Costco. That has to put pressure on the industry, and the supply of higher end boards.