Early season wakesurfing

[MTtigekid]

yyyeeeeaaahhh.. luckey.. haha i was out standing on the ice thats still out at our lake

[Surfdad]

Yeah there needs to be a way to demo boards easier - there is a surfboard company - Degree 33 and they have a 2 week (or something) no questions asked return policy. If you beat the board up, it's yours, but if you ride it and don't like it they take it back. Walmart allows you to return stuff because they know when you are THERE you'll buy other stuff, so they want you coming back...board companies don't really have that captive audience. There simply isn't anything that beats being able to test a board.

I think that wakesurf companies would have to be careful with that I can see some folks "demo'ing" during the labor day vacation without any intent to buy.

WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! FL has cooler temperatures?! What is this world coming too.

The frozen lake seems so foreign to me, we don't get ice on the lakes here as we are pretty much at sea level. Folks that head up to the mountains here find the frozen lakes a novelty - you'll see families pulled over on the side of the road standing on a frozen lake taking pictures

[ImaPigDog]

Yeah there needs to be a way to demo boards easier - there is a surfboard company - Degree 33 and they have a 2 week (or something) no questions asked return policy. If you beat the board up, it's yours, but if you ride it and don't like it they take it back. Walmart allows you to return stuff because they know when you are THERE you'll buy other stuff, so they want you coming back...board companies don't really have that captive audience. There simply isn't anything that beats being able to test a board.

I think that wakesurf companies would have to be careful with that I can see some folks "demo'ing" during the labor day vacation without any intent to buy.

I agree, it is difficult for all parties involved due to the sport being relatively small. I don't blame the manufacturer or dealers. There are not many dealers in our area and those that exist cannot afford to carry a tremendous amount of inventory, much less a lot of demo equipment.

There is risk on all parties involved, manufacturer => dealer => customer. The manufacturer and dealers can't afford the inventory to be "loaning/demoing" boards. Meanwhile, the customer doesn't want to drop that much money and find out the board doesn't work for them. While there is a bit of a market for used boards, by the time shipping is paid, there is usually a decent loss on the resale of a wrong purchase. Of course, the economy and my wife make these purchases even more difficult for me!

That is interesting to know about Degree 33. I know that Wake9 also does that with the Grom board and that may help get us into one in the near future.

[Surfdad]

I went to the Degree 33 site, it's a 30 day guarantee and it's only a store credit, but it's still pretty nice:

Ok, so the number one scariest thing about buying a surfboard for most people is making sure you get the right one.

I know we all want to think the next surfboard we get will instantly turn us into Kelly Slater or Laird Hamilton (some of the greatest surfers of all time) but the reality is, this just isn't the case... it's the board's fault I'm sure. :-)

So, even though I can't guarantee that buying a board from us will instantly make you a pro surfer... I can guarantee you'll LOVE the board you get from us OR... I'll buy it back from you.

Here's what I mean...

Buy any Degree33 surfboard off our website and ride it for 30 days. If after 30 days it's not the perfect board for you, all you need to do is scrape the wax off, package it up like it was when you got it, get it back to me, and I will give you full retail credit towards any other surfboard in our warehouse.

Oh by the way, don't let your drunk neighbor grab it and asphalt surf behind his truck before you return it... can't take it back if its mangled... you understand. :-)

I want you to be uber confident in your surfboard purchase from us. So, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. If you don't like it, I'll buy it back. This way you get to make sure that this surfboard is the one you've been looking all over the internet for. Fair Enough?

[Surfdad]

Those folks have a ton of boards (no wakesurf) and they are all Chinese imports but they sure have a good business model. Shortboards are in the $375 range for Epoxy - this is the same construction that we pay almost $800 for from wakesurf manufacturers (who are importing from China also!) and they offer that 30 day ride it and love it Guranatee - someone needs to apply that model to wakesurf boards!

[DieselPWR]

Awesome Surfdad. I'm jealous, can't wait for summer. I'll keep shredding the mountains for a few more weeks before I brave the lake in a dry suit.

Just got my new Danielo Pro Carbon in the mail yesterday so its making the wait that much more painfull.

[Big Kahuna]

The Walker Project does have a similar guarantee program.

[Surfdad]

Interesting.

I just got an email from those degree 33 folks - it's hype but creating the sense of urgency is interesting...text of the email below. The larger surf manufacturers tended to create clothing lines that made the money and just had surfboards to afford the lifestyle connection. The changes in marketing efforts are becoming evident, at least to me.

The viral marketing stuff that is going on is interesting/overkill too. I can't go on Facebook, or any social networking/wakesurfing site with out running into a Shred Stixx or Phase 5 promo in some form.

Degree 33 email text:

So evidently this week is spring break for most folks. I wasn't aware of
this and it has created issues.

People are away from their emails and computers and so they hadn't
seen the St. Pat's sale until this morning, and of course it ended
yesterday.

So in fairness to all those broke college students (who probably drank
too much green beer last night is why they didn't check their email), in
fairness to them, I am going to extend the sale for the remainder of
today.

Here's the catch though, we are in the office for just a short bit today. So,
if you have any questions that need to be answered, you better give us
a shout right now. You can still place you order online until Midnight
EST, but if you need personal help better speak up.

Here's the link to the sale details again in case you lost yesterday's
email. Go there now and save yourself some green.

No cheers today because I think that's what is causing all the issues.

-Luc

[Timmy!]

Just got my new Danielo Pro Carbon in the mail yesterday so its making the wait that much more painfull.

That's a fun board! Congrats!

[jdj06c]

We got out on Sunday.

We went to Pine Flat in Central CA about 35 mins east from Fresno, CA. The air temp was about 70, not sure on water temp. The lake level was decent at 58% of capacity. The water was cold but not freezing and felt great in a wetsuit. There is still snow on the mountains close by though! We had an awesome time!

Didn't really get any good pics and these were taken w/ an iPhone...

[DieselPWR]

Its so cold here, that even in my home I have to go put on a drysuit just to think about wakesurfing.

We just got 2' of snow and melted within a day.

[Surfdad]

We were at it again!

[Timmy!]

Its so cold here, that even in my home I have to go put on a drysuit just to think about wakesurfing.

We just got 2' of snow and melted within a day.

Good news though, I went out to our lake yesterday and the water felt to be at least he high 40's so I am thinking that after this week we should be ready to roll with wet/dry suits (neither of which I have).

[jdj06c]

Nice Pics Surfdad! What boards are those?

I'm still contemplating what board I want to buy. Looking to add a skim and surf style board. Sure which I could demo boards. The local shop just has the wakeboard company wakesurf boards to demo. I have the Triple X Slasher now...looking to upgrade. I think I want to stay w/ the thruster fin setup on the new surf style board as the middle fin appears to provide a lot of control vs. a twin fin.

We were at the Lake yesterday w/ beautiful weather at 78 degrees.

[Surfdad]

jdj06c, the weather has been nice hasn't it?! We're due rain over the next few days though.

The yellow board that Dennis is on is a TWP Bullet - I want to say it's 5'3". Dennis is their National Sales Manager, so he has the connections The Red/White/Blue board is one I just finished in the garage. The Blue with the Posca Pen artwork is the prototype for James' new board brand! He's going to be trying to sell some boards under the FlyBoy Wakesurf label.