New Olympic events.

The RSX is a pretty expensive piece of kit compared to a conventional windsurf package so not sure your argument holds in this class.

Great post iGRF

The RSX is exactly the example of what happens in a monopoly supply situation, which is why they (the Neil Pryde group) have been busying themselves trying to create a one design kite racing set up, you can see how successful it's been these past couple of years with all the kite racing regattas that have been going on - Not.

Even the Bic Techno ( I believe NP supply the rig but I could be wrong, I'm out of touch with Windsurfing supply these days,) is no longer competitively priced, why do they need to be, they have a captive audience, parents have no choice but to foot the bill for little johnny or jilly on their path to fame. I imagine it must be the same in Optimists or do they have multiple suppliers?

Yet they are both the one area where there are volume sales that could be tooled and priced up for, but they don't. The Techno could be used to market the sport of windsurfing beyond racing to entry level, but they don't, why? It's too bloody expensive and technical for beginners, yet the original concept for a wide short board with a centreboard and reasonable size rig was precisely to that end.
That was the plan we had and took to the Mistral Olympic class, with a board called the Mistral Prodigy had they adopted it we wouldn't be where we are today, the Prodigy was scheduled for volume production and an RRP not more than £1000 all up. The class being as self interested and commercially stupid as most classes are, declined, two years later the class was dead and the Olympic board produced by a corporation that really didn't share the same long term view of using the showcase Olympic board to broaden the base of the sport and they all got forced to use it anyway so I can't profess to have any sympathy for them, but it did kill a great sport and a good opportunity was lost.

Edited by iGRF - 26 Oct 18 at 9:41am

Originally posted by GarethT I guess it all depends what you compare it to. £300 might seem a lot for a secondhand free ride board, but my son won 3 national titles on a techno that cost less than that. There can’t be many racing classes (board or dinghy) that can say that. He replaced it with a one week old ex-charter board that cost £650 and was immaculate. Plus if looked after well the boards and rigs are pretty bullet proof. Towards the end of his time on RS:X it did feel like Neil Pryde we’re starting to take the piss, but then I just reminded myself how much Optimist racing cost (not a smod) and put it in perspective.

That's good news Gareth, I did say I wasn't completely in touch with the Techno World, I know the RSX is outrageous, but the techno is Bic and they used to have a low price high volume culture, they just screwed up their distribution over here last I looked so if you can buy an ex charter board for £650 I'd say that was fair and the RRP probably lower than a grand, so how much does an Optimist cost then if they are more than that, maybe we've found the root cause of why the sport is drying up from the base of the triangle.

P&B will sell you one for £3,800