Im in the market for a kiteboard and cant help but notice that wakeboards seem to be considerably more affordable than a comparable kiteboard...

Maybe its just me, but many of the companies manufacturing wakeboards also make kiteboards, however for some reason (both new and used) kiteboards seem to be more pricey.

Thoughts?

At first I thought it might be the size of the markets and maybe that's it. I don't have a feel for the relative numbers of customers for each discipline. Fewer number of a model sold would raise the price of getting the board to the customer in all phases of production. There shouldn't be anything inherently more expensive to produce either type board with equal demand for each.

probably it's mostly offer and demand, but there are some boards out there that can be relatively cheap if you dont mind about graphics, and lot of features.

other than that, not knowing wakeboards, the main reason a kiteboard is more expensive, will be because of:

- quality of wood core: paulina, etc, or synthetic core
- quality of pads
- graphics
- concave or channels
- flex (more in the tips, less in the center)
- snowboard finish

- R&D, marketing is probably a big part

Because you get 10 times the fun out of a kiteboard :P

Because it takes gasoline to propel a wakeboard

Probably supply and demand ?

Well. Boats cost too much, gas and polluting is not good. So as wakeboarding is dying because of the negative impact wake boarding has on the environment, the pricing will become less to entice people to stay in the sport. Imagine how far you could travel around the world for $50k, as much as a good boats runs with all the bells and whistles.

Wakeboards aren't designed for kiting. Too much rocker, slower, and won't go upwind well.

I know dozens of converts, I teach lots of wakeboarder that have given up boats for kites.

Not to mention cable parks and the grinch winching and banshee bungee waking.

Quote:

Originally posted by USA_Eli_A Well. Boats cost too much, gas and polluting is not good. So as wakeboarding is dying because of the negative impact wake boarding has on the environment, the pricing will become less to entice people to stay in the sport. Imagine how far you could travel around the world for $50k, as much as a good boats runs with all the bells and whistles. Wakeboards aren't designed for kiting. Too much rocker, slower, and won't go upwind well. I know dozens of converts, I teach lots of wakeboarder that have given up boats for kites. Not to mention cable parks and the grinch winching and banshee bungee waking.

Eli, I didn't see a smiley face on your post so I must assume you were not being tongue-in-cheek. I participate in both sports so have a balanced perspective I think. Yes there might be a decline in water skiing but that is balanced with a growth in wakeboarding since the early 90's. Yes I'm sure it was flat last year but so were most activities that cost money (kiting for example). Yes, new boats are expensive but even more so than you state. But my annual expenditure on kiting has been WAY more than the average of my lifetime of expenses in boating (boats included) I keep my boats nice and keep them long with a total lifetime value loss of around 10,000 so far. If I count travel to kite events (burns gas) I've spent close to that in only 2 years of kiting. My boat can give my family an afternoon of fun and exercise for about $10-12. We can't eat at McDonalds for that. Since it uses such little fuel, I'm not sure all those boats running at wakeboard speeds (17-23 mph) are really causing the glaciers to melt. Not to mention the advances in technology such as fuel injection and electronic ignition that make my current boat about 40% more fuel efficient than the one it replaced along with 70 more horsepower.

And the real whopper of your post is the one about wakeboarding dying because of its impact on the environment! You can't be serious. Even if it was dying, the bulk of the population does not make many life decisions on that factor alone. Economics maybe but not because of the environment. I guess concern for the environment is why NASCAR can't seem to sell many of their tickets anymore.

The biggest difference in the cost is the demand for the products. Kiteboarding is still relatively tiny compared to water skiing and wake boarding, thus 100 times more (or even larger amounts) of wakeboards are sold every day/month than kite boards. Producing 100,000 wakeboards a month will make them much more affordable than producing 500 kiteboards. As kiting grows you can expect that the number of boards made will also increase which should begin to bring the cost of those boards down. Also, as the number of kiteboards sold each month increases, more companies will be more interested in producing kiteboards which will also make pricing more competitive and reduce the overall price.

It is mainly basic economics - supply and demand.

That being said....I still hear many statements from people who rave about home made plyboards, and those cost nearly nothing to build other than the cost of the foot straps.

Quote:

Originally posted by USA_Eli_A Quote: Originally posted by BeamerBob Quote: Originally posted by USA_Eli_A Well. Boats cost too much, gas and polluting is not good. So as wakeboarding is dying because of the negative impact wake boarding has on the environment, the pricing will become less to entice people to stay in the sport. Imagine how far you could travel around the world for $50k, as much as a good boats runs with all the bells and whistles. Wakeboards aren't designed for kiting. Too much rocker, slower, and won't go upwind well. I know dozens of converts, I teach lots of wakeboarder that have given up boats for kites. Not to mention cable parks and the grinch winching and banshee bungee waking. Eli, I didn't see a smiley face on your post so I must assume you were not being tongue-in-cheek. I participate in both sports so have a balanced perspective I think. Yes there might be a decline in water skiing but that is balanced with a growth in wakeboarding since the early 90's. Yes I'm sure it was flat last year but so were most activities that cost money (kiting for example). Yes, new boats are expensive but even more so than you state. But my annual expenditure on kiting has been WAY more than the average of my lifetime of expenses in boating (boats included) I keep my boats nice and keep them long with a total lifetime value loss of around 10,000 so far. If I count travel to kite events (burns gas) I've spent close to that in only 2 years of kiting. My boat can give my family an afternoon of fun and exercise for about $10-12. We can't eat at McDonalds for that. Since it uses such little fuel, I'm not sure all those boats running at wakeboard speeds (17-23 mph) are really causing the glaciers to melt. Not to mention the advances in technology such as fuel injection and electronic ignition that make my current boat about 40% more fuel efficient than the one it replaced along with 70 more horsepower. And the real whopper of your post is the one about wakeboarding dying because of its impact on the environment! You can't be serious. Even if it was dying, the bulk of the population does not make many life decisions on that factor alone. Economics maybe but not because of the environment. I guess concern for the environment is why NASCAR can't seem to sell many of their tickets anymore. here ya go. Nah, dont get me wrong. I'm a convert also, I see the family fun, and it's a little easier than having kids body dragging with kites. But up in our neck of the woods it's nasty. A good day at the lake and it only smells like fuel, a busy day, it feels like we are swimming in it. And recently a good friend sold his boat, for like 40k and bought some kites. He said one day he might want another boat, but that most of his friends in the seattle area are offing them due to gas, insurance, repair bills, and life changes. For the sake of environmental awareness ' I pass on the gas ' whenever I can. I know I'm only one speaking from a large group trying to make a difference. The ultimate cop-out, "boats in lakes don't make the icecaps melt" you keep telling yourself that. HAHA! While I eat less buy less and recycle more. NOt to mention I've worn out 3 skateboards and my bike saving gas! 1 Person can do anything to save. Wakeboarding isn't dying, but if it did. Manufacturing would be reduced to recycling. I'd love to have a new personal water craft for rescue, tow in and lessons, but a 12k, the 2-speed turbo charged Honda ski I want, is going to wait. Wakeboarding is the next Windsurfing. Well so is kiting, but don't tell anyone, it a secret. BB I've been surfing and paddling more, although I'm driving a ton compared to last year, must be all this time off. WOW, IT'S GOING TO BE 80 DEGREES TODAY, A NEW RECORD FOR US TODAY!

Eli, nothing wrong with any of your efforts to make a difference where you can. I do things where I can as well. My BS meter was just going off like crazy with your last post.

My lake is pristine. I can see rocks on the bottom in 20 feet of water. No gas smell before, during or after an afternoon in the boat. 2 stroke outboards are many times more offensive than my well tuned, fuel injected, elec. ignition inboard. Never any smoke or fuel fumes. I don't really buy that it is a copout to say that in the big scheme of things, boats aren't very high on the list of polluters. At least mine isn't. I imagine I don't burn enough fuel in a year to get someone from the Northwest to NABX and back, so no, I'm not making a significant amount of pollution with my boat.

Kudos for your efforts to minimize your negative effects on the world, just don't be so quick to assume the viewpoints you see frequently in your area are representative of the rest of the country. Heck, you live between Seattle and Portland, hardy a conservative hotspot. Enjoy all 80 of those degrees today!

Hey Eli, I got a couple wave runners for sale if your intersted.

OOO OO..what are these wave runners you speak of, and do they run on algae?
My B.S. batteries are dead. good call BB

oh, and thanks for the lesson on forum posting.

I understand it's your world and I'm just living in it. I wish we had lakes like your. Most of the like that don't allow gas powered boats.

I'm looking forward to the day of the algae fueled engine.

Being in the hot spot it is terrible to fear global warming, it's unavoidable here, everyone is scarred.

Not stepping on thy toes. I do like reading your posts, makes me a little less fearful of negative environmental impact.

I guess I should of studied something else in college, instead of Environmental Science Geology and French I should of stuck with pottery basketball and finance. I'd be a bit more oblivious than I already am.

This weather is unusual.

Since I'm having a harder and harder time resisting the temptation to attack personally, I'll bid you adieu on this topic. Is that French?

It sounds like the main issue is supply and demand. Also, I would think that there are a lot of really low end, mass produced wakeboards out there these days. Can't mass produce kiteboards if there aren't masses out there to buy them. I bet that the high end, freestyle wakeboards that are lighter and made for jumping and tricks are more inline with kiteboard prices (but this is pure speculation).

I bet that the longer kiting sticks around the cheaper the boards will get. I think there are a few kiteboards out there from Best and a couple others that retail at right around $400.