Best for Safety: Are other manufacturers?????

[gumball]

As many of you know, bestkiteboarding.com lists every kite school we can find in order to promote safety & proper learning. At Best, we’re all kiters and want the sport to be safe, the people who participate in the sport to be safe and we want to insure access to all the great kite spots around the world. All of our products are built and designed with saftey first. We have no economic interest in any of the schools listed in our database, except our partnerships with Real Kiteboarding, Seven Sports & Kite Park Cabarete. In fact, the school listing doesn't benefit us at all other then promoting good will to all the kite schools who get new lessons because a beginner found their school in our database. We get requests to add new schools every day and since we launched 2 and a half weeks ago, only three schools have asked to be removed. We average over 100,000 page views per day, and our schools section is 4th in popularity only to the product pages, the videos section, and of course the Best Girls section.

Recently, it has come to our attention that most major brands are urging schools to request to be removed from our database. In our opinion, this is not only a blatant disregard for safety and the sport we are all so passionate about, but it is a childish attempt at sabotaging Best’s business with the obvious motive being economic reward for the other brands. Based on this, one might assume that other manufacturers put you paying 1,200+ for a kite well before safety.

As an example, this is a quote from a letter from Slingshot Headquarters that I found on the British discussion forum posted by Graeme Fuller, a Slingshot Dealer:

Dear Importers/Distributors

I wanted to inform you about the school list on the BEST kiteboarding website. Please review the list pertaining to your region and browse the participating schools.
You will find that they listed schools worldwide without permission to show that they have global support, when they don't!

If you don't want to support BEST kiteboarding and their strategies, please request to be removed from their list of participating schools.

Please click on the link below and check for yourself.

Thank You

http://www.bestkiteboarding.com/schools ... ng+Schools

One would think that any school would appreciate free advertising, and they probably do unless they have more to lose then they could gain from the exposure. Below is from an email I received:

PLEASE REMOVE OUR SCHOOL LISTINGS

Thanks for the free listings on your website, but we have received emails from various people in the kite industry who are unhappy with Best kiteboarding. Please remove our names from your website because we are under pressure to do so and could lose our current sponsors and associates.

Thank you very much.

Action Sports Maui

Through a phone call with the owner of Action Sports Maui, I found out that their sponsors and associates include Naish & Slingshot.

No doubt it’s been fun "stirring the pot" if you will. Being banned from the Texas event and flying the plane over was entertaining, everyone got a good laugh and our sales went through the roof. We got more free publicity from the fact that KiteWorld Magazine wouldn’t allow our ads due to “industry pressureâ€

[sid5150]

Boo Hoo - Welcome to business, where money makes the monkey dance.

Your company (just like every other company) values money more than safety (Mostly because creditors/suppliers/employees accept money as payment, not safety). While safety may be a strong second priority, it usually ends up being just a necessary goal to avoid litigation.

But this really isn't about safety, is it? Hang your dirty laundry elsewhere.


Sid 'Sympathy can be found Between 'sh!t' and 'syphilis' in the Dictionary' sends

[RickI]

Most of us simply want to be able to ride free and at will.

The kiteboarding industry wants to sell gear and people that see us ride want to ride too. For these reasons among others, our numbers will increase for a while.

Threats to access and sustainability of this great sport will likely continue to expand.

I believe a critical part of sustainability of kiteboarding is promotion of safe kiteboarding practices and adequate training. How many high profile accidents do you really think it will take to start to seriously impact access? A recent very large ban was reportedly made in part on the perceived hazards of our sport based on one fatality as opposed to the common reality. I believe that quality kiteboarding instruction will play a vital role in sustainable kiteboarding. This was the case in SCUBA diving, hang gliding, sky diving, powered flight and many other action sports before now.

I think providing a directory of training centers and instructors is a good start and thanks to Best for doing this. It would be great if most of the other manufacturers started programs of their own. I feel that a lot more effort as opposed to less is needed in this regard in the industry. In the case of hang gliding in the USA, too many in the industry assumed a hands off policy with regard to training. As a result of the explosion of accidents, lawsuits and other factors today I believe that there is only one surviving hang glider manufacturer in the USA. There is an excellent training/verification program in place now as well. Do we really need to repeat that experience to learn the importance of similar preventative measures?

More than a listing of training centers is needed to effectively promote sustainable kiteboarding practices across the industry but it is a good start. Rather than shrinking this new training resource why not come up with other EFFECTIVE measures to promote safety and sustainable kiteboarding practices? Ultimately, success in improving sustainability should go directly to the bottom line. Kiteboarding companies have competed in terms of improved kite and board performance and recently in control bar safety and depowering features. Why not kick off a new competition ... building sustainable kiteboarding practices? It sounds like good business to me. Absent such effective efforts I believe the sport is headed towards some challenging times. Effectively promoting safe, sustainable kiteboarding practices and adequate training thereby helping to look out for the consumer and the marketplace seems like a prudent course to take.

[ZenWind]

Thanks for sharing this information Alex. It really gets under my skin that this type of thing goes on, and is allowed to go on. The more these companies apply pressure to try and undermine your right to sell products directly, the more I hope these schemes are revealed for what they are. Safety is a huge issue in kiteboarding, and it is greed, fear, and stupidity that would attempt to pressure schools to have you remove their listing from your web site. Without safety this sport will die, and then where will all these companies be? When I hear things like this it only makes me want to support Best Kiteboarding even more. Over the years in many different types of businesses I have seen the practice of price fixing take hold. This is suppose to be illegal but it goes on every day. Dealers end up being pressured and threatened by distributors or manufacturers that if they sell their products at a discounted price that their dealership will be revoked. This is of course illegal but who wants to go through the hassle of litigation to get them off your back, and so this practice grows stronger. It ends up taking a direct sales approach like what Best is doing in order to make a change happen. I hope people do support Best Kiteboarding so that we can send a message to the industry that it needs to change. There is absolutely no reason anyone should have to pay $600 - $700USD for a new kiteboard. There is no more labor or materials involved in making a kiteboard than it takes to make a wakeboard, so why does a new wakeboard only cost $200 - $400USD retail?! Sure these companies are pissed off, because it means they will make less money. Manufacturer to Distributor to Dealer to Customer is a long chain of money that no one wants to part with. So how do we as consumers deal with this if the prices are fixed? Well Best Kiteboarding just exercised their right in a free society to compete against that hierarchy. Now the loyal forces of that system want to undermine their success; not through direct competition as the game was designed to be played, but through coercion and pressure. I hope you continue to reveal this type of information Alex so we can really see what these companies are made of. Best Kiteboarding has given the consumer a choice; a real choice, and I hope consumers respond to your offer.

For those that think I am affiliated with Best Kiteboarding; well you are wrong. You can search back in the archives and see my posts here. I fly a different brand of kite altogether, and am quite happy with their performance. I will say this; I was very impressed with the guys at Best Kiteboarding when I decided to check out the boards on their web site the other day. While looking at the boards I noticed a link at the bottom of the page that said something like "Chat with a live representative". I had some questions about their boards so I clicked on the link. Bam! In about five seconds I was chatting with Alex from Best about the boards. Since I had some questions that Alex thought Shannon could answer better than he could he asked for my phone number. Bam! Before I even closed the chat session with Alex my phone rang with Shannon on the other end ready to talk about the boards. Impressive customer attention to say the least!

In closing I'd just like to challenge other kiteboarding companies to focus more on safety, service, products, and customer care. Even if Best Kiteboarding is the lowest price in town you don't have to attempt to put them down in order to raise your company up. Move with the change instead of fearing it. Find ways to compete that are straight forward and not underhanded. Best Kiteboarding has every right to sell products direct to the public, and you are not going to stop this type of direct marketing, so move with the changing winds. If you try and fight it, just like Mother Nature it will kick your ass!

[Kitedude]

business is business.

Alex you sound like a real winger. when ever something doesn't go your way you get on here complaining. i said it before and i'll say it again.

this is no place for business's to air their dirty laundry.

if you actually stop and think about it from a your competitors point of view you'll see that in most cases they are providing equipment to the schools at discounted prices and the shops often retail their equipment. so why should they not want to be the only brand being associated with their business.

a full school listing i sfound on http://www.ikorg.com

my personnal view is yes list the schools, however if a school asks to be removed, respect their wishes and do it.

dont go off crying to anybody who will listen.



you appear to be saftey consicous, i have yet to see "best impact vests" or even "best helmets" or even a leash on your spining bar for when you are riding unhooked.

i'm not a best basher, i would react the same if some other business were to winge the way you are.
i relise that you are trying to put yourself as the underdog to build up aloyal following.

however, you are far from the underdog.
you seem to have larger cash reserves, you do not have a windsurf industry to support.
do you think nasih, cabrinha. gaastra cna turn around and start selling direct. no
they have a distributor network thye need to keep happy, becaus eif they give them the fingers, these will retailate and drop their windsurf products

over 100,000 page views a day

lets see say an average of 5 pages per visitor. thats 20,000 different people. how many kiters are there world wide???

[Ozone Kites AUS]

[goforit]

Go away Gumball, no one cares about you problems. You only continue to reveal your true character.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnf ... 26_043.htm

Why would anyone believe anything you say. Its all hype!

[Dax]

this is no place for business's to air their dirty laundry.

Why not? I'd rather know what's going on then be left in the dark. Do you really want to see less participation from kite companies on the forum? Other companies watch the forums too, I would imagine some are even posters but under secret names. I think it'd be great if the members of other companies made posts here, and let people respond and talk to them. It happens sometimes, but not nearly to the extent that it does with Best. Some people see this as spam, but I'd bet they wouldn't complain if the figurehead of the company they cared for most showed up and started posting.

you seem to have larger cash reserves, you do not have a windsurf industry to support.
do you think nasih, cabrinha. gaastra cna turn around and start selling direct. no
they have a distributor network thye need to keep happy, becaus eif they give them the fingers, these will retailate and drop their windsurf products

That's an interesting revelation for sure! When I think about it, things make more sense about this business every day. One thing is for certain - if your logic is true, then there are several companies that are really stuck in a bad spot. Note that not all kiteboarding companies are owned by windsurf companies... the next year will be very interesting.

[Svenson]

Dax the cheerleader makes another statement. Gumball, you need to hire this guy.

I agree with goforit!! Go away Gumball or talk about kiteboarding, not the fact that no wants to play with you.

Lets hear more about your wallstreet activities. Your new approach to kiteboarding seems to have some interesting similarities. Interesting stuff out there. I suggest you leave the forum with your propaganda, post it on your website (with your 100000 page views-NOT) and focus on getting gear for all those backorders you allegedly have. Your in the face approach stinks.

[The Jess-Man]

It's funny that you don't think that Best should be providing free advertising for Kite Schools. Svenson, goforit, Kitedude and sid it sounds like your trying to say "Die Rookies, Die."

Sling Shot was the first company I ever found out about. If they had had schools posted on there website and showed how important safety was I probably would have never wrote this.

phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2296408

I was wrong. Dead wrong. I ended up going and I had a blast. You should commend Best for promoting safety. No one needs anymore dumassess like me.

Safety First.
The Jess-man