DEVELOPMENT
We invest a lot of time in development. Time can be seen as money. Every day we are on the water testing re-cuts, masts, booms and prototypes. I windsurf personally every day, and there is not one session I do for fun or for training. I’m always on the water with something new to try. You can end up spending a lot of money to pay testers to fly somewhere to test out gear, the cost of a designer can be expensive, travels, excess luggage etc. In Point-7 we have the benefit that I take care of this part of the job personally. So I’m on the water testing myself all the gear, and as I’m still racing myself at top level, I speak the same language of the riders, but knowing also exactly where to put my hands to change the products. If they send me an interesting idea, I’m on the water myself the next day testing with my guys. Whether it’s the reflex of the boom, the curve of the mast or the change on any part of the sail. There is no mediator. If the rider tells me something, I know exactly what he wants as I feel it myself, but with the advantage of knowing exactly where to change to improve, and by how much. We are situated on Lake Garda, where it is windy every day. In a day you can end up testing up to 4 sail sizes. In a week, you do the work that would take a month in other places. We have wind from 6am to 10am and from 1pm to 5pm. You can plan the day, be on the water lots of hours and still have a lot of hours free to do other company tasks. As I travel myself to events for racing, it’s then easy for me to bring the products that I know will be liked by the riders and can be checked for final confirmations. We have a smart setup, and it’s lucky we don’t convert my time into money. More brands are starting to come to our home waters now, to take advantage of the logistics in the summer time.