I am excited for 2021/22 season for stand ups in general.
2021 like 2020 will hash out changes in the industry. Those of us with our heads down pushing the sport forward, no matter what, will keep working long days and late hours doing what we love, no matter what happens. Passion is what will move this sport forward, not availability of parts, pricing, nor profits. Collectively we can make any part we like and or want. We all need parts, and affordable pricing, that comes with supply and demand.
As mentioned above there were a ton of new faces at Daytona, the sports alive, its how we chose to help all those around us to succeed as a whole that will change the industry. Definitely no shortage or "stoke" at the event. Working on making the event better for 2022 as I type this, contact us if you would like to assist, sponsors, helpers, gophers. One person makes a difference.
For hulls all the manufacturers are working on or releasing new products, they are all better than the past, for flat and surf!!! Currently were working with most, and quite excited about the future here.
Motors across the board are definitely better than 7 years ago, more power for sure. All advancement takes trial and error. It takes time to advance and cost R&D time and money. Were a little more bias here as we work with DASA, TPE, XScream and ET so I'll reserve my comments on the others. There are others? LOL
Carbs are making minimal advances specific to FW Freestyle as the technology is antiquated, supply & demand constraints. IE most are doing this part time now. Again, we work with Full Spec, SE, DASA, Novi, etc. there are others again, but we limit our use to ones we have tried a bunch of times so we have a known baseline to tune from.
Pumps, well...
Torrent is making advances every year, were trying. For clarification, form the above info, 160 Ninjas are in stock, today... Demand is hard to gauge with any offering. 160 are hot today, 150s tomorrow. Skat, Solas, others are still making pumps, competition is good. Materials of construction, weights, dynamic properties. Future advancement will come when we work alongside hull manufacturers more closely. IE partnerships to advance hull tracking and tunnel performance. With any performance package there are limits to design to allow part to fit. For example a 200mm pump wont fit in any hulls we use today, neither does anyone make a prop for that.
Materials are advancing at a growing rate. Were using exotics that 10 years ago were too costly to consider trying.
Builders for skis have advanced as well, and that is where I see the biggest help for the industry. If your buddy thats looking to get into the sport can afford a new ski, the build quality/tuning has advance two fold the last 5 years. Builders/riders are making the change. If your not riding, you shouldn't be building as the parts are not out of the box items. Every part we get in the shop has to be massaged. Every part. No, we don't do builds. Its why I wont. Is your builder passionate, does he offer training, test rides, buy exactly what you just rode and liked. 70% of the calls we get people already are sold on what they want before they ask us the first question. They want a 1200 with Total loss for their stock SJ for salt water surf use. Joking, but you get my point. Most of our time is dismissing thoughts and ideas they got from their friends and social media.
Remember though this is a niche hobby/sport, if you want plug and play go buy a new ski at a dealer. Just be prepared for stock type performance. We are all here because we want more. More performance, more cost effective, more information, more education on that next trick. A lot of us, my self included, have been down the road of trying the latest parts. Meanwhile having blown motors, and heartaches along the way. Let the "cool kids" try out the newest parts, and wait for the tried and true for plug and play performance. Trust me that new widget you saw for sale on instagram will not make your life better. lol Riding will make your life better, period. Ride what you have, more often and harder than the last time. Upgrade, cautiously and when you can afford to.
Were excited for 21 and 22, consumer spending is going to rise, pent up demand, but so will inflation. Seeing the numbers coming in already for 21. Price increases will be coming across the board. Lock downs globally have affected supply chain, and it will take years to be absorbed. You're seeing it with OEM's like Yamaha, we all struggling to meet demand. We can do it, but there is a cost associated. Stock market isnt going up because prices are dropping and no ones buying.
The 4 strokes may take over some day, I truly hope so, but not for 21 or 22. 4 stoke is my formal training, Proformance Competition Engines was one of my first companies. For those paying attention my screen name Proformance1.
TPE is coming back into production along with DASA to give others a run for performance! Excited to see what the TPE packages will offer performance wise in the coming years. Right now the 964 stock stroke along with 900 CO, 1021, 1105, 1200 CO and soon larger offerings, along with a few more tricks up our sleeve to keep you glued to the screen.
Performance is what I'm concerned with for us from pumps, carbs, and ignitions, to motors, stock stroke through 20mm. There is testing going on for ignitions so that we don't need MSD. Its older antiquated technology, just too bad we werent further ahead now. Heck i'm still waiting for the electrical stand up with 300hp and 200 lbs that we consulted on years ago. Pumps ready. LOL