Ocean Rodeo at 3rd Ave this Saturday

average_male · Post by **average_male** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:24 pm

are you serious Yuri, people at BoardSports really get bent out of shape when SS demos there? Man, free enterprise... politics is right...

Seems that people should be able to hold demos and let the people ride and decide; if folks are concerned that they will pick a kite over their own, then perhaps they should make a better kite, competition between manufactures is a good thing...

A general observation of percentages of kites at 3rd:
45% Cabrihna
28% Best
20% SS
7% other

roughtly +/- 5%
humm, perhaps Helm is the local mafia; I must say, the mafia knows their kites...

super_monkey · Post by **super_monkey** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:52 pm

One valuable thing I have learned is that no amount of money saved is worth having to deal with politics, feel overly loyal to someone and certainly not worth feeling you have to misrepresent a product to your friends when you know it's not the right thing for them.

That is an awesome point, Yuri.

average_male · Post by **average_male** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:21 pm

6. Dog owners, tape your dog's pee pee so they don't pee on the kites...

Loscocco · Post by **Loscocco** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:30 pm

More kiting.. less politics please

p-air · Post by **p-air** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:51 pm

windhorny wrote:It's purely a respect thing. Theres no law saying you cant. I agree it is a bit frusterating when you are technically just inflating a few of your own kites and letting people borrow them. But if you have ever seen boardsports during a demo that is not their brand or not generating moeny for them.....watch out! This is why you dont see SS demoing on the beach in front of the shack or North eager to come demo new kites here at Alameda. It's all F'ing politics and it sucks. Its no different than how surfers get so territorial over "their" wave. People get killed over this kind of stuff.

The best way to stay peaceful and get the name out there is to either find a way to carry the brand locally where you are demoing or let people borrow kites independently for the day so no one ever knows. Get some unbiased reviews on here, lets hear it. Maybe it's time to give one of the underdogs a chance. Hell, when one of our more well known local riders was flying for Windwing,RRD and Best, he was always boasting about how the underdog was the right thing to support. One valuable thing I have learned is that no amount of money saved is worth having to deal with politics, feel overly loyal to someone and certainly not worth feeling you have to misrepresent a product to your friends when you know it's not the right thing for them.

OK, this is getting kind of silly. Since when is 3rd Ave a place that requires anyone asking before they do a demo. Next thing someone will tell me is that Crissy and OB and Stinson and HMB and Waddell and Scotts require permission too. This is almost too absurd to be true. I definitely understand the lessons permit thing, but demos aren't lessons and it simply seems like anti-consumer behavior that now you and Steve are promoting. No one is trying to "dis" Helm here and it's not like they're deserving of some privilege beyond the lessons permit. This is worth looking into and calling a spade a spade if we find these so-called courtesy or permissions requirements to be bogus. I'd like to see how well a blogging campaign goes over for Helm and Steve if this proves to be a sham.

Both OR and LF should be allowed to do demo days at any beach so long as they're not selling or teaching people how to kite. Anything short of that is anti-competitive and s/b called out as such.

Boy, funny how this lil' thing has my libertarian juices flowing :) Power to the people :)

OliverG · Post by **OliverG** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:02 pm

I agree that is silly. My feeling is that such anti-competitive, or should I say, competitive, behaviour does not endear one much to the shops that would pursue this kind of restriction. Preventing someone from trying another product in hopes of promoting your brand? That is supposed to make someone buy your product, by restricting their choice. If they want it, they'll find it elsewhere.

p-air · Post by **p-air** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:21 pm

average_male wrote:are you serious Yuri, people at BoardSports really get bent out of shape when SS demos there? Man, free enterprise... politics is right...

Seems that people should be able to hold demos and let the people ride and decide; if folks are concerned that they will pick a kite over their own, then perhaps they should make a better kite, competition between manufactures is a good thing...

A general observation of percentages of kites at 3rd:
45% Cabrihna
28% Best
20% SS
7% other

roughtly +/- 5%
humm, perhaps Helm is the local mafia; I must say, the mafia knows their kites...

At Crissy, things are bit more evenly split as follows:

or 13%
best 13%
naish 10%
ss 10%
rrd 10%
flexi 10%
north 10%
caution 7%
cabrinha 7%
ozone 7%
liq force 3%

At Stinson, it's more like:

best 44%
flexi 23%
ss 11%
north 11%
GK 11%

OB has yet a different distribution which escapes me at the moment but I know F-One makes up part of the mix there.

It seems like where choice is more prevalent, so is the mix :) Local Marin dealer, Live2kite sells RRD, Best, Flexifoil, Naish, OR, Caution, Ozone, GK, and Eclipse. Big selection = happy customers :)

EvanOR · Post by **EvanOR** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:50 am

Thanks for the support guys. I pointed this out in the LF thread but I think it makes sense to reiterate here.

I rode 3rd last spring and based on what I saw there it did not appear to be a private venue. I understand the lesson/rental aspect etc but beyond that it sure seems like it's public. Obviously, we have no intention of doing lessons or charging money for anything at all so I don't see a problem.....

At this point neither myself nor Ocean Rodeo have been contacted by Helm, and I don't think we have seen a statement from them on this forum so as far as I am concerned it's a non issue and we plan to carry on as planned.

I think I can likely speak for all of when I say that now would probably be a good time to clarify things for us all if in fact Helm does have a position on this.

See you at Crissy tonight.:)

windhorny · Post by **windhorny** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:03 am

Just to add, I have no affiliation with Helm nor do I even know exactly who they are, I dont kite 3rd that much. i just think in general, if there is any doubt what you are doing might stir the political pot, then it never hurts to just ask, even if in the back of your mid you thinking this is total kiss ass tactics. It just gives the illusion to the more established local that they have the upperhand. But what do I know, I seem to piss off everyone in my path anyways.

eag · Post by **eag** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:22 am

Hey Evan,

Thanks for setting up a demo. Demo's are good, trying new gear is good, variety in brands is good, kiteboarding is fun.

Wow, that was complicated.

See you at Crissy.

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Ocean Rodeo at 3rd Ave this Saturday

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