The kites you never see.

[skinner]

Here in West Aus we tend to get alot of travellers in summer (dont know why the wind here is shit ; ) so you see a wide range of brands, however you mainly see:

Slingshot
Cabrinha
North
Naish
Core
Airush
RRD
Ozone
Best
F-One

You also see a handful of:

Griffin
JN
Flexifoil
LF
Eclipse
Blade
takoon

Its funny as it depends on which beach you kite at too, southern beaches have more SS and northern beaches more Airush as this is relates to local dealers and its only 45 mins drive. (we kiters dont like to drive too far)

[alexrider]

Japan ... just like it says under my avatar pic there to the left

Ah! You and Dan must be sedentary riders then.

When I travel, I don't bother change the "base" location of my profile (which btw doesn't show under my avatar for some reason).

Or could it be that the location shown below the avatar is automatically determined by the IP?

@ Dan: cant' find "where its going on" either on Google Earth.

@ BeachBum: I typed "here" and "where its going on" properly.
There's room for improvement for search engines; hopefully they will find Japan and New Zealand right away, when typed by blind riders.

[sq225917]

There are a lot of brands that only really sell in their own country. Some even only sell in their own locality. The kite market is fragmented for sure.

Everyone wants a piece of the market and are prepared to lose money buying market share, but you have to hit critical mass soon or you can't survive. I don't know how many brands manage, there must be 20 brands at least who don't sell more than 1000 kites, if that even.

[SBBeachbum]

Japan ... just like it says under my avatar pic there to the left

Ah! You and Dan must be sedentary riders then.

When I travel, I don't bother change the "base" location of my profile (which btw doesn't show under my avatar for some reason).

Or could it be that the location shown below the avatar is automatically determined by the IP?

@ Dan: cant' find "where its going on" either on Google Earth.

@ BeachBum: I typed "here" and "where its going on" properly.
There's room for improvement for search engines; hopefully they will find Japan and New Zealand right away, when typed by blind riders.

... the search engines don't really care if a blind guy or a french man type "Japan" in the search field.

[windmaker]

There are a lot of brands that only really sell in their own country. Some even only sell in their own locality. The kite market is fragmented for sure.

Everyone wants a piece of the market and are prepared to lose money buying market share, but you have to hit critical mass soon or you can't survive. I don't know how many brands manage, there must be 20 brands at least who don't sell more than 1000 kites, if that even.

Which raises the question. How many persons minimum does it take to run a kite producing company and will selling 1000 kites per year ( 80 kites per month) cover their expenses ?

[alexrider]

Japan ... just like it says under my avatar pic there to the left

...
@ BeachBum: I typed "here" and "where its going on" properly.
There's room for improvement for search engines; hopefully they will find Japan and New Zealand right away, when typed by blind riders.

... the search engines don't really care if a blind guy or a french man type "Japan" in the search field.

@BeachBum

The fact they don't care is precisely the reason I said there is room for improvement .
I wasn't suggesting to find Japan, when you type Japan; this works pretty ok.
An improved search engine should really care and should find Japan or New Zealand, when the guy who's clearly blind types "here" or "where it's going on", from all the clues given away by the context of the on going thread. Got it?
You know BeachBum, perhaps my joke wasn't of the highest standard, but it definitely kills it when you feel obliged to explain it in simple English.

PS: The initial message I was trying to convey is that the location shown under the avatar is not necessarily the location the rider is posting from.

[Kamikuza]

Japan ... just like it says under my avatar pic there to the left

Ah! You and Dan must be sedentary riders then.

When I travel, I don't bother change the "base" location of my profile (which btw doesn't show under my avatar for some reason).

Or could it be that the location shown below the avatar is automatically determined by the IP?

@ Dan: cant' find "where its going on" either on Google Earth.

@ BeachBum: I typed "here" and "where its going on" properly.
There's room for improvement for search engines; hopefully they will find Japan and New Zealand right away, when typed by blind riders.

Yours shows "Thailand" now but then we both probably took the time to fill out our details a bit more than most people do ...

[DocDeuce]

Chucktown, SC

mostly: Cabrinha, North, Naish, Best, Slingshot, Ocean Rodeo and 1 griffin
I saw my first Epic kite a couple of weeks ago... looked good.

Never seen: Airush, flexfoil,RRD, core, Blade, Gaastra

[windmaker]

Also never seen :

Zeeko
Genetrix
Royal
Crazy fly kites

[Mr Danger]

JN, Advance is quite well spread in austria, germany and italy, swizerland.
Gin in swizerland
Core very big in gerrmany, specially north of germany
RRD huge in italy

All very good kites...realy are.