So, do these guys pretty much own wakeboarding?? <BR>Just wondering what type of umbrella all of these companies operate under.. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>" Kent Water Sports, the parent company of several major water sports brands including HO Sports, Hyperlite, Accurate, WakeKite, Liquid Force, CWB, Connelly, Pro Line, O'Brien, Absolute Outdoor and more, ShadowBox is a new brand and product line set to re-define how riders view and talk about their rides." <BR> <BR>Anyone?

Yes. <BR> <BR>Maybe not the best thing in the world for the advancement of the sport, eh?

Do they have a web site cause i cant find. If they are the parnet company it would be like k2 sports who own line skis, ride/morrow/5150 boards, atlas snowshoes, rawlings and many others. While all brands have there own web site employees and idenity they are all owned by the parent/holding company on which I would guess they get their pay checks from. I am not a know it all but from my understanding thats what it is. I work for a small marketing company and when we come out with a product different from what our main ones are we make a differnt company name for it with the holding/parent company being our regular company name.

sweet grab in the profile pic Blake, and thanks for the "eh", it's nice to see some familiar language on this board. Obviously, you live near the border... Yah, I was a little surprised to find out that the 4 biggest brands in wakeboarding are owned by one company. What is that all abooot?

My understanding is that the companies are all ran as separate companies that must stand on there own. The money does not enter mingle.

Yea Snippy, it's sorta like that but for the most part K2 doesn't have brands that are in direct competition. It is the same people working on product that will be released under any one of the brand names. This is how Hyperlite and Byerly work. <BR> <BR>Kent is weird because it usually doesn't call itself a parent company, instead it just says that it (Archer) is the majority shareholder of each company: HO Sports (HO, Hyper, Byerly, Accurate, shadowbox, Wakekite), Connely (CWB, Connely, Proline), Obrien (LF, Obrien, Straightline). <BR> <BR>Each company has it's own budget that comes from the same place and their own bottom line. There is no sharing of IP, marketing or really anything other resource. <BR> <BR>The conflict of interest comes in when R&amp;D is underfunded for all companies so that none of them get a competitive advantage.

Thanks Derek. The daffy lives!! And yea, we definitely get some Canadian influences here.