Author Topic: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...  (Read 11191 times)

Area 10

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2016, 11:04:01 PM »
The SIC/ZRE paddles example is a different one from the DW raceboard one I think. Clearly SIC and ZRE have a business arrangement for paddles because they sell them through SIC distributors. Starboard are not selling re-badged Bullets through their distributors.

I would assume that the SIC/ZRE business arrangement will include SIC not undercutting ZRE on price. So then if you want one of the SiC paddles (which are very nice) then you might as well buy from ZRE.  But then again, the SiC graphics do look a lot nicer than the weirdly retro ZRE ones...

SUPflorida

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #16 on: May 04, 2016, 04:02:50 AM »
Regarding Starboard paint job on a SIC board--are the SIC guys (Mark) cool with that? or is ZRE cool with SIC stickers on their paddles? 
From a marketing/sales standpoint, I don't understand why they would 'allow' this.

If you think about it there is no down side for SIC with the pro sponsored riders of other brands painting the custom SIC's to look like their individual sponsors product.
1) Probably keeps Mark real busy making custom unlimiteds for all these pros.
2) Anyone seriously in the market for a downwind board knows the truth about what's underneath the paint.
3) It tells the SUP world that the Giants of the industry bow to and "Tap out" to SIC when it comes to serious downwind unlimited boards in the most extreme conditions.
4) It says if your playing for "first over the line" in these extreme open ocean races it doesn't mater who you ride for, your going to want to stack the odds of success in your favor by planting your feet on a SIC unlimited.

Only thing I would like to know is does SIC do the custom competitors graphics for these sponsored riders? As in does Conor pick up his custom from Mark all tricked out in Starboard colors? SIC does do some amazing artwork ...

Not seeing any down side for Mark...more like the ultimate dream situation. Who else totally dominates a nitch in the SUP world like SIC?

Chilly

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #17 on: May 04, 2016, 05:31:56 AM »
I’m willing to bet that Mark gets a lot of gratification having one of the top SUP athletes choosing and riding one of his custom boards. At the end of the day they are all drinking a beer together while celebrating Connors win.
NSP 2016 12'6 Surf Race Pro

PonoBill

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #18 on: May 04, 2016, 06:07:26 AM »
It's a lot simpler than you folks are making it out to be, and it IS just like Formula One and Nascar--where car manufacturers contract with specialized manufacturers to build racing equipment. Ferrari is the only exception--and they bleed money. There isn't enough of a market for unlimited downwind boards to justify all the effort and development cost. It's a very specialized niche. In places like the Gorge the 14' boards rule (though there's a lot of SIC 14's) but in the big Maliko water and open ocean of channel crossings an unlimited rudder board has a big advantage. Even at the Olukai there were plenty of 14's by all the manufacturers, and they do very well. But the pointy end is going to be unlimited. Even if a manufacturer was crazy enough to want to compete in a niche they didn't occupy, they would probably still be beaten by SIC boards. The R&D at the Maui shop is constant. New boards flow out of the shop with new ideas, new shapes, highly customized to the specific rider. It's not the most rational business model, and it probably can't support more than one practitioner.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

gone_foiling

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #19 on: May 04, 2016, 06:17:15 AM »
I’m willing to bet that Mark gets a lot of gratification having one of the top SUP athletes choosing and riding one of his custom boards. At the end of the day they are all drinking a beer together while celebrating Connors win.
That's is correct.
Let's abstract from watever relationship sic and other riders have. If you look at the SB website they proclaim their boards to be the best (look at 2016 allstar video, claimimg to be the revolutionary board showing CB ripping the swell left and right). And yet this guy is riding sic to win the race. So a clueless customer who is in the market for a new board will dump 4k in the board that they believe wins all the races. I personally think that is blatant lie on sb behalf. BS in my book.
Addicted to foiling at the moment.
My shenanigans on insta @gone_foiling

burchas

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2016, 06:24:48 AM »
I’m willing to bet that Mark gets a lot of gratification having one of the top SUP athletes choosing and riding one of his custom boards. At the end of the day they are all drinking a beer together while celebrating Connors win.
That's is correct.
Let's abstract from watever relationship sic and other riders have. If you look at the SB website they proclaim their boards to be the best (look at 2016 allstar video, claimimg to be the revolutionary board showing CB ripping the swell left and right). And yet this guy is riding sic to win the race. So a clueless customer who is in the market for a new board will dump 4k in the board that they believe wins all the races. I personally think that is blatant lie on sb behalf. BS in my book.

Well, BS and SB (Starboard) go hand in hand. You can read a whole head about their bs flex marketing.
in progress...

burchas

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2016, 06:27:52 AM »
It's a lot simpler than you folks are making it out to be, and it IS just like Formula One and Nascar--where car manufacturers contract with specialized manufacturers to build racing equipment. Ferrari is the only exception--and they bleed money. There isn't enough of a market for unlimited downwind boards to justify all the effort and development cost. It's a very specialized niche. In places like the Gorge the 14' boards rule (though there's a lot of SIC 14's) but in the big Maliko water and open ocean of channel crossings an unlimited rudder board has a big advantage. Even at the Olukai there were plenty of 14's by all the manufacturers, and they do very well. But the pointy end is going to be unlimited. Even if a manufacturer was crazy enough to want to compete in a niche they didn't occupy, they would probably still be beaten by SIC boards. The R&D at the Maui shop is constant. New boards flow out of the shop with new ideas, new shapes, highly customized to the specific rider. It's not the most rational business model, and it probably can't support more than one practitioner.

The only exception to this would be NSP (or should I say Surftech) DC unlimited 17'10" with a rudder
system which they were fast to capitalize on right After TG win of M2O.
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burchas

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #22 on: May 04, 2016, 06:33:03 AM »
The SIC/ZRE paddles example is a different one from the DW raceboard one I think. Clearly SIC and ZRE have a business arrangement for paddles because they sell them through SIC distributors. Starboard are not selling re-badged Bullets through their distributors.

I would assume that the SIC/ZRE business arrangement will include SIC not undercutting ZRE on price. So then if you want one of the SiC paddles (which are very nice) then you might as well buy from ZRE.  But then again, the SiC graphics do look a lot nicer than the weirdly retro ZRE ones...

SIC use to sell ZRE paddles (just like BlkBox and SpeedBoard), but since the Flow sports deal, they created their on line of Paddles that has nothing to do with ZRE, however, all their team riders including Mark still using the ZRE paddles
with the SIC stickers, Even for their 2016 catalog shoot.
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addapost

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #23 on: May 04, 2016, 05:58:23 PM »
Pretty sure this was big in the pro cycling peleton back in the day. You'd hear stories of all sorts of dudes on their sponsor's "bike" that was actually a custom frame made by some other manufacturer. Another rumor was at the end of the days of high-end steel frames, just before carbon frames exploded, lot's of top riders on their European steel bikes were actually on American made Litespeed titanium frames. Not sure how much is true but probably some of it.
Bunch of old shit

Weasels wake

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #24 on: May 04, 2016, 06:32:55 PM »
It's a lot simpler than you folks are making it out to be, and it IS just like Formula One and Nascar--where car manufacturers contract with specialized manufacturers to build racing equipment. Ferrari is the only exception--and they bleed money.
Exactly, being a racing fan myself (NASCAR, F1, etc.) that's the first thing that came to mind.  Not only does SIC benefit from making money for building the board, they probably got money from Starboard for flying that sticker as well, and not to mention the consistent reputation among the racing elite as to who makes the best boards.  There is nothing to loose for SIC and Starboard, it's good business.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2016, 06:35:02 PM by Weasels wake »
It takes a quiver to do that.

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #25 on: May 04, 2016, 10:54:17 PM »
Another way to look at it is that this practice is keeping this race alive as an international event.

The Hawaiian downwind races are unlike virtually any other in the world in terms of the conditions that the paddlers face. It's not generally going to be financially viable for the big brands to create a top-flight unlimited just for races in Hawaii, which is going to be a fairly small market anyway (especially because of SIC on the doorstep). So if the top riders were compelled to use boards built by their sponsors then they wouldn't do the races, and the Hawaiian DW races would become local races only.

I personally wouldn't want this to happen. So it seems to me that this re-badging is just one of those compromises that has to happen. I'm very sorry if anyone buys a board thinking that it is the same board that their idol used in this race, or the M2O or whatever. But it's a case of "buyer beware". We don't often see top racers using boards that we can actually buy, in any race worldwide, just as the tennis racquet that Roger Federer uses won't be the same as the one in the shop that you buy, even if it does have the same sponsor's logo on it.

PonoBill

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #26 on: May 05, 2016, 12:56:08 AM »
This whole conversation feels very familiar, even with my "groundhog day" memory. I think we have it about once a year. 
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

covesurfer

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #27 on: May 05, 2016, 01:29:18 AM »
Pono! How was your trip? Can't believe you're not on the island. Fine maliko today. Missed you out there. I passed a floating piece of wood the size of a car about a mile off shore. How's that?

SIC

Starboard.

Downwind.

Paint. Re-brand.

etc

surfcowboy

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #28 on: May 05, 2016, 02:22:38 AM »
Pono, let me make it easy for next year. Anyone who wants to can grab this text and quickly replace the blanks.

Hey, I can't believe that ______ was using a ______ with a ______ logo on it at _______ last week.

Use this for car racing, SUP, Pretty much anything.

Also, it's pretty easy and fun and relatively cheap to shoot video. Editing? Not so much. The world's hard drives are full of amazing footage that will never be seen because it's easy to get people to go to a fun exciting event to shoot for basically free but if you want them to sit at home, go through the hours they shot and then edit together a piece, alone with no fun event happening around them, you have to pretty much pay them. Unless you're a special breed, it's more fun to fly a drone than to edit video. ;)

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Re: Connor Baxter - SIC team rider...
« Reply #29 on: May 05, 2016, 03:56:37 AM »
It is interesting to note that as downwinding catches on across the world, this has not resulted in an increase in unlimited boards. Do you have thoughts on why this might be (other than that the rest of the world are uninformed troglodytes who have yet to see the light?).

 


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