Another Starboard photoshop?

[footemaui]

Who cares... Make good boards, paddle hard, and have fun....

[southwesterly]

We care... 

[DavidJohn]

Thanks for your post Margareta.. 

DJ

[Easy Rider]

Who cares... Make good boards, paddle hard, and have fun....

yup - that about sums it up!

[Praxis]

Dear All,
We like to refer to Margaretas input in December.




 This is why we organized a single person shoot to showcase his capabilities and highlight the purpose of the board, on the products we had. It is of course on a Starboard product, just a slightly different model.
The other alternative was to not give this rider any exposure at all.

Margareta Engstrom

Are you quite sure about that.

[ehrawn]

Who cares...

I care. Let me reframe the situation. If it really didn’t matter how Starboards’ boards were depicted in their catalog, then they could just show a bunch of pictures of them lying on racks in a warehouse. This is why Trek sold so many bikes during the USPS TDF reign. Nobody had the delusion that they were going to turn into Lance Armstrong when they rode out of that shop, but they at least knew what they were buying: a tour-proven, performance bike. The rest was up to them. In fact, Trek changed the expectations of the industry. No more rebranding of custom built frames. Buy a Specialized/LOOK/Cervelo/BMC and there is no question that you are getting the same equipment that pro riders are winning races on.

With surfboards, we don’t get empirical data to compare when we are getting ready to make that purchase, like we would with a car. Instead, we have to rely on user feedback and the company’s own information to rate performance. Essentially, they’re telling the customer, our boards are good enough (shape, quality, etc.) to ride these beautiful waves and experienced riders are staking their reputations on that fact. And, no, a demo isn’t good enough: a couple hours in one kind of conditions doesn’t tell you everything you need to know before making a purchase.

Starboard may very well make great SUPs, but I can’t tell that from the catalog and I’m not willing to risk my money to find out.

Me: “Hey, Starboard, tell me something about your model XX.”
Starboard: “This shortboarder rides big waves!”
Me: “Ok, but what about the XX?”
Starboard: “JL’s board is awesome.”
Me: “Ok, I still want to know about your XX.”
Starboard: “Uh, people race SUPs!”
Me: “Right…”

[PT Woody]

Dear All,
We like to refer to Margaretas input in December.




 This is why we organized a single person shoot to showcase his capabilities and highlight the purpose of the board, on the products we had. It is of course on a Starboard product, just a slightly different model.
The other alternative was to not give this rider any exposure at all.

Margareta Engstrom

Are you quite sure about that.

She's talking about the other situation where a different Starboard product was photoshopped into the brochure, not this current controversy over the JL board. Being that we've seen the before and after shots of the issue Margareta is referring to, I think blind Freddy is quite sure about that. Well, maybe not Blind Freddy, because he hasn't seen both shots. But anyone with what approximates to 20/20 vision.

[southwesterly]

It is of course on a Starboard product, just a slightly different model.

That's the whole problem here... It is NOT a Starboard product.
Just ask Jimmy Lewis who shaped the board.

[chipmonk]

The company seems to have no respect for the fact that in action sports, we value pros for showing us what the equipment can do through photos and video and we must have honesty in performance images or else there's no point in shooting at all.

Well put, that's actually one of the things I mentioned in Starboard's opinion poll! Video, even better...

[Brendon]

As a buyer as someone prevously stated you rely heavily on forum feedback and the manufacturers info on the boards. I was looking at this board and thought it looked pretty sweet according to the specs. When I looked at that pic it was sort of the selling point as if that board can handle those conditions it could almost handle anything.
I think most of the manufacturers need to try and avoid this mess by getting their pictures, volumes, dimensions (and weights) right when publishing a new catalogue. For most of us these catalogs are our Stoke that we study before the boards have even arrived on our shores. When a board is not as it's represented in the catalogue it leads to disapointment and serious Anti Stoke.
The legal aspect of this story is between the relevant parties but from my side I am NEVER going to buy a board I have not Paddled especially after this saga.

Brendon

[PonoBill]

Ok, I'm confused, how does Margeta's old reply to the previous micro-scandal get presented as an excuse for this one? If anything her reply makes this one more egregious. Going on about how an honest portrayal is important and then photoshopping your board into a picture in place of a competitors???

I'm sorry, this one ticks me off.

[Tom]

Quote from Starboard:

Code: [Select]

We have actually put quite a lot of value on what is real or not, for example letting all our wave riders compete on stock standards production boards,
Not sure if I can believe this from them now. Anyway, back when I was involved in Windsurfing I saw how some of the big production names would take custom boards and paint them to look like their production boards for their team riders to enter contest. When ever they got caught, they'd always just claim them as 'prototypes'. What pissed me off was they would hire the shaper that was working for the small company I was trying to promote.