Lacking Knowledge: Studying kitesurfing

[JulianeDenmark]

Hi there

I'm currently doing a study case during my Master Degree where our topic is kitesurfing and how to get on a niche-market like this - but non of us know much about kitesurfing, though I'd love to try it out. Maybe some of you guys can help us? So far we have these steps and 'problems' that a surfer might experience - but again, it is mostly based on our assumptions and comparing it to e.g. snowboarding, skiing and diving, which we have experience with.


Step: Wanting to buy a kite. Needs: Knowledge of brands
Step: Researching brands. Needs: Create overview of the brands, what to choose, the differences between them etc. Problem: _
Step: Buy equipment. Needs: Finding suitable equipment. Problem: _
Step: Storing the equipment. Needs: Space Problem: Taking up much space.
Step: Going to the beach. Needs: Transporting all the gear. Problem: Difficult to carry all the gear.
Step: Setting up, preparing. Needs: _ Problem: _
Step: Surfing. Needs: Wind. Problem: Weather
Step: Packing up. Needs: _ Problem: _
Step: Leaving beach. Needs: Transporting all the gear. Problem: Difficult to carry all the gear.
Step: Unpacking and drying kite. Needs: Space. Problem: Don't have space, kite is wet in bag.
Step: Looking forward to next surf. Needs: _ Problem: _


Thank you for your time! Any guiding comments or remarks will help up a lot.

[knotwindy]

Missed a big one Lessons
for the rider it is the first and most important step
for the companies if they can get a beginner on their gear at a school they can keep them buying their gear for a time.

[TomW]

Juliane,

What are you trying to do? Map out the user journey of a beginner kitesurfer?
The user journey of an experienced kitesurfer?

Also, what demographic? A young person with limited money and a lot of time will not have same journey as 40+ with money and no time.

You can PM me.

[badgb21]

Lot of problems there.
Didn't realize it was such a problematical sport.

Researching, exploring and learning are not necessarily problems, when you engage in a sport for fun.

Anyway wouldn't you learn or ask about most of that stuff at your lessons/talking to locals at your beach?

[pj sofine]

Makes it seem like life is a problem!

[longwhitecloud]

identify a problem, develop the solution... business

i got a good thing to study.. is kitesurfing sailing?

its causing huge polarisation within kitesurfing, the inventor of the sport says it is not sailing. it had nothing to do with sailing for the first 15 years of its existance, and the Sailing authority at the time rejected kitesurfing as being able to hold the world sailing speed record as they said it was not sailing. Money got involved and they changed their mind and took competition organising kitesurfers to court/ threatened court action as they claimed they now owned the term " world kitesurfing champion" ( they have a $40million budget for the year..). All this despite the fact kitesurfing champions had been crowned for 10 year prior, by kitesurfers. This understandably pissed off a lot of kitesurfers that didnt stand to gain financially from the sailing organisation.


good luck!

[pete32257]

God I miss college.