Starboard 2017 Overall Constructors Champion
Fri 5th Jan, 2018 @ 9:30 am
The Incredible Stats Behind Team Starboard’s Mammoth VMG Blades ‘Battle of the Brands’ Victory
Starboard has been leading the SUPracer’s Brand Ranking since its introduction four years ago and sports the most world titles as well. Led by perennial world number one Connor Baxter, and with exceptional support from vice-captain Fiona Wylde and deputies Michael Booth and Olivia Piana, Team Starboard absolutely blitzed our VMG Battle of the Brand’s leaderboard this season. The Starboard team finished 250 points ahead of runner-up NSP and almost doubled third-placed Team Naish.
“To be involved at the highest level in two sports is an amazing experience and reflected by our crew’s interest in accelerating the development of our sports on all levels.”
– Svein Rasmussen, Chief Innovator.
Starboard’s continued dominance of the manufacturers’ championship is largely the result of three things:
Firstly, Starboard has damn fast race boards. While it’s a stretch to say the winningest team automatically has the best race boards, it’s no secret that Starboard dedicates more to innovation than any other board brand. We’ve seen some great boards from a lot of brands this year, especially the boutique brands that have really punched above their weight, but at the very least Starboard continues to hold their own in terms of performance.
Secondly, Starboard covets the podium. They want a team rider on every single step at every single race, and to achieve this they invest far more in their riders than anyone else. Team Starboard’s travel budget would dwarf that of the next-richest squad.
Thirdly, and most importantly as far as world ranking points are concerned, is the fact that Starboard simply has a massive team full of incredibly talented and hungry athletes.
Starboard owns 37.5% of the world’s best paddlers while most brands are lucky to hold just 5%.
Looking ahead to 2018, it’s hard to see anyone stopping the Tiki team winning a fifth-straight Battle of the Brands title. Battle of the Brands has only been running for four years; no other team has ever won it. And just to prove it’s not a one-trick pony, season 2017 also saw Starboard win its 11th PWA (windsurfing) manufacturers’ title in the past 12 years.
With the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) introducing the Constructors Title in 2006 the game was on.
Driven by working with the world’s best windsurfers to create the most cutting-edge boards, Starboard has taken home 11 PWA Constructor’s titles including the 2017 title.
“A massive thank you also goes out to our team riders, designers and shapers without which none of this would have been possible.”
– Tiesda You, Brand Manager
Click here to view the “Battle of the Brands” statistics
