HL/LF/O'brien to buy CWB/Connelly????

harvest168 · Outlaw Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 142 City: PDX

Anyone heard the owner(s) of LF, HL, O'Brien are trying to buy CWB too?!?!? If this is true, what ever happened to competition???

Jon · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 1176

hmm, since hyperlite and liquid force are not owned by the same people, i don't think I have heard ot this.

harvest168 · Outlaw Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 142 City: PDX

Actually, the owners of HO/HL are the one's who bought LF/O'brien out of bankruptcy the fall/winter of '02. If you're a boat dealer, how could you not have heard this?

K-dub · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 14760

Kent sports owns them don't they?

NAW · Posted: Dec 09, 2003 12:23 pm Post subject:

Yep, Kent owns alot of stuff.

Monopolize, it's the American way Rolling Eyes

Support RIDER OWNED companies!

Jon · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 1176

Sorry, I was not aware that the Company that bought liquid force owned Hyperlite also. I knew they were bought out but I didn't know who actually owned Hyperlite. I've heard nothing about them buying CWB and I carry both CWB and Liquid Force.

boarditup · Addict Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 731 City: Allendale, MI

Kent will not confirm this, but they own Liquid Force, Hyperlite, O'Brien, HO and are in the proces of buying Connelly. The deal should be done by the end of the year. Kent is now the 800 lbs gorilla of the industry. Let us hope they do not do what Wellington did to EP. There will be extreme pressure to economize on R&D, marketing, distribution, and administration. That can be done very well, I hope.

wkbrdr · Posted: Dec 10, 2003 5:21 pm Post subject:

Are you from grandville michigan?

itch · Posted: Dec 10, 2003 7:31 pm Post subject:

RIDER OWNED

Gator Boards

boarditup · Addict Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 731 City: Allendale, MI

Wkbrdr: We are neighbors. Contact me at rider@boarditup.com.

kcjonez · Wake Slanger Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 69 City: Seattle

This is just a rumor, but if it is true then we the last factory other than Joyride making boards that is not Archer owned. Stop supporting company's that squash competiton! It is just sad that every big brand may be under one company now. Where is the industry going?

DEFEND WAKEBOARD BRANDS THAT ARE RIDER OWNED AND OPERATED! SUPPORT THE SMALL GUY! DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE OF THE KENT CORP!

Ride DU/BS/GT and save wakeboarding! WE WANT YOU!

Maybe I should start selling insurance......

Seth Martin · Moderator Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 891 City: Orlando

i admittedly have not kept up with who owns what lately, so I have to ask:

what rider owns and operates du/bs??

projectely4 · Posted: Dec 12, 2003 3:11 pm Post subject:

yeah support rider owned. double up and Gator Boards make some of the best boards in the industry. it is just that so many people get hooked on riding a board because parks bonifay does. also support Liquid force because they are awesome.

kcjonez · Wake Slanger Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 69 City: Seattle

Good question. It is Tom Sexton. I suppose he would not be equated as a rider. He used to run Wet Tech and then merged with DU/Hardline. They were close location wise and sold to the same customers so it made sense. BS built boards for DU and they started to go down so Tom fronted the factory dough and BS came under Triton. Tom Sexton is no corp. He is a just a guy who has been in the watersport industry for years that wants to make Triton work. Technically Tom is not a true "rider" but I'd say that he isn't what you call anything close to corparate. Triton Sports is small. Very small compared to the big guys. Everyone here rides. From the CFO to the warranty guys to the rope tying guys to sales. We all ride. Sure we are not in the mags. But we all are riders. I guess you may have heard of Bubba Henderson who runs our warranty dept. Greg Nelson still is doing a lot of stuff for us, but he doesn't own Triton. I will take back that Triton is "rider owned". However, if anyone wants a tour of Triton I would gladly do so... I'm sure that they would argee that we are the furthest thing from the Kent Korp. My point is that we believe in wakeboarding and not in big business. We aren't in it for the money. Trust me. We are doing this because we love what we do.

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

Casey lies...he doesn't ride.

JK Casey! Laughing

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

If you want to see one of the head honchos for DoubleUP ride, check him out in my first vid. The guy rips!
http://photos.wakeboarder.com/showphoto.php?photo=504&password=&sort=7&thecat=500

Seth Martin · Moderator Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 891 City: Orlando

kcjones Thanks for the explanation. I do remember Triton owning them now that i hear the name.

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

Seth, maybe he meant that they could have another job out there, but chose to work w/ Triton, not for the money, but for the love of the sport?

Seth Martin · Moderator Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 891 City: Orlando

Joe - Maybe kcjones can speak up for himself!

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

Sorry. Nuke my post plz.

boarditup · Addict Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 731 City: Allendale, MI

Just confirmed that Connelly/CWB is gone, er, sold to Kent.

I am a dealer for Double Up and Blindside. They are great to work with. Never had a warranty issue. They even assist with fixing dinged boards. Their boards perform well, are well built, and are developed based upon real riders feedback. I took on Triton because they had great products with a workable sales force. I have no regrets with Blindside/Double Up as my only high-end products.

Lyle · Posted: Dec 12, 2003 5:32 pm Post subject:

Dang I am going to have to update the paint job of my wakeboard in my profile.

derrick lenz · Posted: Dec 12, 2003 6:45 pm Post subject:

boarditup- are you serious? not to dog double up, i ride some DU bindings and love them but i'll probably never buy another product from them until i see quality pressing. two of my friends rode double up boards this summer and combined i think they went through 5 boards. all due to delamination. a couple times they would delaminate in about a week and be held together with epoxy intil it wasn't possible anymore. neither one of these guys hit to many sliders. also one of these guys and i rode the luke wulfs this summer. we both had the overlays rip and the laces literally eat through the plastic eyelets. despite my bad luck with double up i have to admit the the customer service exceeds all other companies i've delt with.

bizzuck · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 593

wow, this is nuts.... lets hope that at least one company makes it!

Tyler T · Posted: Dec 12, 2003 8:05 pm Post subject:

aw461 · Newbie Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 23 City: dallas

WHO CARES????? LF & HL MAKE GOOD BOARDS & HAVE GOOD WARRANTY!!! Why does the CO. have to be independent to be good??

Could someone fill me in??????

bizzuck · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 593

because it is c0re to have a board that is made by someone other than hyperlite, liquid force, or obrien. Rolling Eyes

RUSSIAN · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 2:45 am Post subject:

actually, it's core to be anti, anti hyperlite. so go buy a parks

electricsnow · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 3:20 am Post subject:

With an industry this small, I don't see how anyone would want to be "chill" about one parent company owning the major players in wakeboarding. It's an incestuous monopoly.

But if you look on the bright side, wakeboarding is looking more like snowboarding; we finally have a "k2" in the industry. Hey, does kent make baseball gloves yet? I'm pretty sure they have their foot in the door in the frisbee market....

kcjonez · Wake Slanger Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 69 City: Seattle

Joe - You are off the D Team.

Seth - We have a new opening on the D Team.

Chavez - I was there on Sunday. I'll be there every Sunday.

Tyler - I'll be in Portland for the boat show Jan 3rd helping Active. I'm from Eugene.
Boarditup - Thanks for the support!

Derrick - Are they the guys who work there? If so yeah, I know about those boards. I was at TSR a couple weeks ago. We got them swapped out. I never saw them but I heard they where slid thou. We usually don't have issues like that, but sliders and boards usually end up delaming at some point, and technically they shouldn't be warrantied. For TSR employees, I can special order a couple DU's built with a cloth bottom which really beefs up the board making it super bad-ass vs. sliders. If your bindings had trouble I'll send you a couple extra overlays. That is kinda weird cause the DU bindings have held up really well this year. I'm working really hard with Geromi to get DU back in there, help me support the brand at TSR! Maybe I can help you!

degraafics · Guest

Does anyone know what the background of Gator Boards is? I mean Gator probably didn't front the cash to start up GB, so did his money come from his dad? I had heard that his dad was quite "loaded", and I'd figure he'd have to be to start a company with distribution like they did. So does anyone know the story behind GB?

Habersham · Outlaw Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 209

Gators Dad made himself a lot of money if real estate I think. I have heard Gators dad helps him out with the company financially.

B_Funk · Outlaw Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Posts: 187 City: So-Cal

Gator's dad is sick loaded. He fronted and still fronts all the money for Gator.
Gator could sell one board a year and still be fine.

CWB did not sell. I know a couple people there and word is no sale, but maybe some new investors.

jzwake · Addict Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 801

CWB has NOT been bought by Kent, YET.

I bet it happens by May.
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